In the actual practice of working in synthetic biology, there are so many pragmatic details that don't get captured well in scientific papers. Right now, they are basically passed around by word of mouth, through oral tradition amongst students in a lab or hallway conversations at conferences. But there is a better way.
Pretty much everybody who programs makes use of StackOverflow, which provides well-curated answers for programming questions. The greater network of StackExchange sites spun off of it provides a great one-stop-shop for lots of other communities as well, from math, physics, and chemistry to travel, cooking, and personal finance. The iGEM Engineering Committee, as part of its educational mission, is trying to do the same for synthetic biology.
Synthetic biology field is rapidly growing, highly cross-disciplinary (which means none of us can be experts at everything), and we think it could use a good, universal database of questions and answers. It will be good for students learning the field, and also good for professionals who need to know things outside of their personal expertise.
Right now, we're in the "definition" phase at StackExchange, and need about 100 more people to add example questions and vote for example questions they like. Just follow this link or click on the imagebelow, make an account, and you can start asking and voting too!
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