BIOTECHNOLOGY has a bad image in Germany. Opinion polls in Europe show that Germans are the most anxious about genetic engineering. In an effort to demystify its work and convince the public that it has nothing to hide, one German biotechnology company is now offering hands-on experience.
鈥淲e invite members of the public to conduct their own genetic engineering experiments so they can see there鈥檚 no danger to them,鈥� says Michael Comer of Boehringer Mannheim, which is based near Munich.
Comer who gave details of the scheme at a meeting in London last month, says that Boehringer set up a visitor centre in 1990 in an attempt to win over the locals.
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About 50 people a week visit the centre. In one day, they learn to isolate DNA from solution, chop it up with enzymes, capture the fragments in circular chromosomes called plasmids and separate them in an electric field using a technique called electrophoresis. 鈥淪ome groups have the opportunity to come back the next day and clone DNA in bacteria,鈥� says Katja Prowald, director of public relations at Boehringer.
Also at the meeting was Richard Shepherd of the consumer research unit at the Institute of Food Research in Reading. He described surveys which found that people are not afraid of potentially harmful substances such as alcohol and fatty food because they feel 鈥渋n control鈥� of them. But people said they had no control over biotechnology and so mistrusted it.
People are likely to feel more 鈥渋n control鈥� of the technology if they鈥檝e tried it themselves, said Shepherd. 鈥淚t will lose its mystique, and people will feel more comfortable with it.鈥�