Biotechnology Definition, Timeline
Understanding what is Biotechnology??
What is biotechnology?
Perhaps, this would be the question of individuals who first heard of this term. Biotechnology is a term used by people in the field of agriculture and related field. This has been actually practiced for several centuries already. This can be traced from the time when the man starts to learn how to plant crops and breed poultry. Discovering of the fermentation is one of its common forms. Biotechnology is actually a term for producing food or medicine in a natural way. These methods are from making yogurt or cheese from milk, converting juices from the fruit to wines, making beer and leavening bread. As a matter of fact, it can be traced during the ancient Egyptians according to some archeologists.
Timeline of What is Biotechnology
Karl Ereky, a Hungarian engineer, coined the term biotechnology in 1919. During this time, all the techniques were considered to as the production with the assistance of living organisms. In the last part of the 19th century, the concept of Gregor Mendel about inheritance and trait covered the concept of science via selective breeding. This is the point wherein individuals started to learn to choose and grow plants with bigger and great results as well as to breed healthy poultry.
Moreover, biotechnology is not just used in plants and animals, but also in humans. In the 1970s, Stanley Cohen and Herb Boyer verified the generation of the human gene with the help of bacteria in the early 70s. This is when a genetically modified bacterium is able to generate human insulin. This breath through science and technology directed to the production of the first Hepatitis B vaccine.
In the 1980s, the Human Genome Project by many biotechnologists is considered as one of the most ambitious plans. This was a project to map the human genome. It offers information regarding the roles of the gene and how they interact with each other. In 1985, the genetic fingerprints are considered as real proof in the courtroom. Afterward, forensic science has become a procedure in the investigation. If you fond of watching TV shows about crime investigation. This is how you can see how the characters use the aid of biotechnology to catch the criminal.
In 1994, one of the breakthroughs of technology is to determine the gene that verifies the gender of a human being. Later on, the gay gene was also discovered. Furthermore, Dolly, the sheep is the first successful cloning in the world.
In 2000, human embryonic stem cells were grown in laboratories. Experts believed that having a stem cell injection will help people to have improved health and even a cure for Parkinson’s disease and diabetes. As a matter of fact, these days, more and more people are getting stem cell injections especially seniors or adults to prevent disease and enhance health.
At present, DNA technology is now the newest fad in the field of science and technology. The application of what is biotechnology in several fields has achieved a higher level. The research about DNA technology is continuous apart from the debates about being ethically right or not.
What is Biotechnology – The Opportunities
As biotechnology is now the latest trend, it is an ideal way for you to consider this as your career opportunity especially if you love science and technology. These days, students are now very smart when it comes to choosing the course or career they want. Gone are the days, wherein parents suggest a certain course or recommend following his or her brother or sister’s career. Biotechnology may be new, but it is expected to boom in the coming years. This is how information technology has its golden period.
Moreover, biotechnology is actually a technology according to biology. This is because biotechnology harnesses biomolecular and cellular processes to develop products and technologies that can help to enhance life and health in the world.
Modern biotechnology provides breakthrough products and technologies to combat debilitating, and rare diseases, reduce our environmental footprint, feed the hungry, use less and cleaner energy, and have safer, cleaner and more efficient industrial manufacturing processes.
Advantages of What is Biotechnology
Biotechnology helps to heal the planet by using the own toolbox of nature and by using own genetic makeup in order to guide and heal. Meaning to say, it can help to enhance the lives of individuals.
- – Reduces the number of infectious diseases
- – It can save the lives of many children
- – It can change the odds of life-threatening and serious conditions that affect millions of people all over the planet.
- – Custom made treatments to people to lessen side effects and health risks.
- – It helps to create more accurate tools to detect disease
- – It can help to combat health disease that can affect many people
- – Biotechnology uses biological procedures like harnesses and fermentation biocatalyst like yeast, enzymes, and other microbes in order to become small manufacturing plants. This is an ideal way to fuel the needs of the world.
- – Reforming the processes of chemical manufacturing
- – Lessening the temperature for cleaning the clothes thus saving billions of dollars.
- – Enhancing the efficiency of the manufacturing process in order to save 50 percent on the operating expenses.
- – Lessening the use of petrochemicals.
What is Biochemistry to Feed the World?
What is biotechnology enhances the resistance of the insect, crop herbicide tolerance as well as the use of facilities that are more environment-friendly and using practices that cannot harm nature? This makes what is biotechnology helps to feed the world.
- – Generates higher quality crops with fewer inputs
- – Lessening the number of agricultural chemicals needed to plant crops thus saving the environment.
- – The use of biotech crops that require few applications of the pesticides and can allow the farmers to reduce tilling of farmland. Finally, what is biotechnology is indeed a very useful way to enhance and improve the lives of many people. This makes its essential to learn and understand the world of biotechnology to help the world and the future.
