New Ideas CityHello Museum

Genspace Citizens Science and the City

Cover Image:

Photo: Sylvia Saborio

Part of the Street Program

The Genspace citizen science biotech lab and scientist Christine Marizzi from the DNA Learning Center will offer a hands-on bacteria-printing workshop at IDEAS CITY 2015. This project invites Festival visitors to learn about microbiome and use it to create a collective map of New York City, following a bacterial workshop at Genspace. The microbiome is the ecological community of all microorganisms that share our body space. The human body contains over ten times more microbial cells than human cells, although the entire microbiome weighs only about three pounds. Microbes reside everywhere—on land, in water, and in the air—yet they are too small to be seen with the human eye. New York City is a melting pot of cultures, both human and microbial, and every citizen has a personalized microbiome. Collectively we shape New York City’s microbiome by our lifestyle choices.

Thanks to PathoMap, DNA Learning Center, and OMTA.