Biotechnology

Biotechnology

While the computer has had a profound effect on society in so many ways, there are other new technologies that are changing, or could change, our lives no less dramatically. One of these is the new science of biotechnology. Virtually unheard of thirty years ago, biotechnology is considered by many to be the most important development of the late twentieth century. It falls into three main areas: genetics, embryology and microbiology.

Genetics is the study and manipulation of genes in plants and animals. From the moment that each living thing---plant or animal---comes into being, its characteristics are strictly determined. Its shape, size, color, intelligence are all the result of a set of instructions contained in every cell of its body. These instructions are in the form of a “code”, its genes, passed on from parent to offspring. The genes themselves are arranged on a long chain in a complex chemical known as DNA. To understand DNA is to understand the secret of life: to be able to alter DNA is the basis of the new science of genetic engineering.

The implications of this are dramatic. Using genetic engineering, it is possible to produce plants and animals that have particular characteristics: to grow plants, for example, that are resistant to disease, or which yield an extra large crop, or grow in difficult conditions; or again, to breed animals that are good meat or milk producers---even to breed entirely new animals.

Such plants or animals can be created not only once, but also, from a basic genetic model, in endless numbers of identical units---a process known as “cloning”.

Genetic science does also have a relevance for human beings. Many diseases and handicaps are hereditary, that is, are passed on from one generation to the next through genes. Identifying the presence of harmful genes in unborn children or potential parents, a technique known as “genetic screening”, is already possible and widely done. Thus a doctor can now inform parents who are expecting a child that it will be born handicapped, effectively giving them the choice of whether to go ahead with the birth or not. Similarly, a couple thinking of marriage could be screened for potential genetic problems. With the growing threat of the disease of AIDS, genetic screening is becoming more and more of a daily reality.

The second major area of biotechnology is embryology. Here, one technique in particular has attracted special attention: the fertilization of human eggs outside the body. In vitro fertilization(IVF)---or in more popular l anguage, the conception of “test tube babies”---allows a woman unable to give birth in the normal way to have some of her eggs removed, fertilized in the laboratory by her partner’s sperm, and reimplanted in her uterus, where they would have the chance to develop naturally. It is a technique which therefore offers hope to many couples who would otherwise remain childless.

IVF and related techniques like AI (artificial insemination) create moral and legal problems because they allow, within limits, any egg to be fertilized by any sperm and implanted in any body. Thus a woman’s egg may be fertilized by sperm other than her partner’s, drawn from what is usually called a “sperm bank”; alternatively, it is possible for an egg other than a woman’s own to be implanted in her body---a process known as “surrogate motherhood”.

The third area of biotechnology is that of microbiology, the study of bacteria (microbes) and in particular, their use in industrial processes.

Bacteria are tiny organism which cause unpleasant spots on your face and turn milk sour. So far, not very useful. But the number and variety of bacteria are enormous and, using genetic

engineering, even more can be created. Some of these can do things which have the most positive advantages to man: there a re bacteria, for example, capable of producing oil, or “eating” toxic waste, or helping to manufacture plastic. The coal industry in Britain is currently looking into microbes that will liquefy coal, making it possible to pump it to the surface instead of mining it in the traditional way. There is even talk of bacteria able to convert sunlight into electrochemical energy; these are called “biological solar cells”.