Greetings, members of Stem Social and all members of the hive blockchain.
This post is an introduction to biotechnology and so not to bore you with much, I wouldn’t delve so much into some things. I’ll leave that for the subsequent posts I plan to make here.
Science and technology as we know it has improved and advanced so much so that, it is helping us humans achieve and do so many things everyday. Things we had no idea was possible are being done. Science and technology go hand and hand and co-exists to make each other better and more useful.
Technology has helped science achieve success in the fields of health, food, among others.
There are so many branches of science as we’re made aware of very early in our lives as students of the sciences. We have the physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, earth science, geological sciences, just to name a few. Combination of two or more of some of the sciences produces other fields of sciences that have proven to be just as useful.
Biotechnology is a host of several sciences which include the natural science and engineering or technological sciences. It makes use of knowledge in physics, biology and even mathematics.
Biotechnology is takin advantage of living organisms and their cells and molecules to produce a host of products. Biotechnology has benefited a lot in food, industries and genetics.
Biotechnology began somewhere in the 1750BC after living organisms were used to produce beer, wine and other foods. Biotechnology when first introduced was used in the production of food hence, food biotechnology.
Food biotechnology is the most ancient form of biotechnology which funnily enough was discovered by accident and focused mainly on the production of food products with fermented products. Food biotechnology since it’s introduction around 9000BC has long evolved from just production of wine and beer or cheese.
Agricultural biotechnology is the use of tools and modern day technology to take advantage of living organisms to develop important products and microorganisms for agriculture. This can help in the modification of some plants and their seeds into production of seeds that grow and mature faster.
This form of biotechnology helps farmers a lot by providing them with tools for their work. It makes their work easier and faster and increases crop yield. With Agricola biotechnology, some crops have been genetically engineered to withstand some types of herbicides or pesticides and even certain weather conditions.
As we know agriculture isn’t limited to only plants but animals are just as important. We often forget about this aspect when talking about agriculture. With regards to animals, agricultural biotechnology has provided the platform for the production of antibiotics leading to the production of vaccines for diseases like rabies.
Classical biotechnology or industrial biotechnology as it has evolved to be involves the further application of food biotechnology and its fermentation to produce products and services in huge quantities. These include the production of bulk antibiotics, vitamins, vinegar, butanol,
Classical biotechnology follows the work of Louis Pasteur theory which has helped in the in the manufacture of products in large quantities. This form of biotechnology develops antibiotic producing organisms. With respects to classical biotechnology, biotechnologists change the physical characteristics of microorganisms and other living organisms by altering their DNA to cause genotypic changes.
The last form of biotechnology is the advanced biotechnology or modern biotechnology started by the father of genetic engineering Paul Berg. Paul Berg along with some colleagues conducted experiments that allowed the transfer of genetic material from one organism to another organism.
Modern biotechnology has been useful in medicine where gene modification like the production of human insulin helps in the fight of diabetes.
Gene therapy is another aspect of modern biotechnology that helps in treating diseases. Cancer is one for eh diseases that gene therapy treats.
This aspect of biotechnology is so advanced that it even helps in crime fighting. DNA profiling helps in the identification of DNA samples at crime scenes which then allows authorities of the law to ID suspects.
Biotechnology undoubtedly has brought so many advantages to the human race but as the field is advancing, there are questions which have been raised by some people about the ethical side of things especially when it has to do with the advanced biotechnology. DNA cloning is something that is still debated and something everyone has an opinion on.
Since this is just an introduction to what biotechnology is, I would like to end here. Apologies for boring you guys.😏
Thank you.
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