BIOTECHNOLOGY

Biotechnology has been around almost as long as the human species. Early humans depended on plants and animals for food, clothing, shelter and fuel. The change from hunting and gathering as a way of life to an agrarian lifestyle led to selective breeding of plants and animals. The first attempts at agriculture involved the spreading of seeds on the ground and the harvesting of the plants that grew from them. Over time they noticed that certain plants from the same species had superior characteristics.
Some produced a greater yield; some were better tasting, while others were more resistant to adverse environmental conditions. By selecting seeds from these desirable plants they were able to produce a greater amount of high quality food. Similar practices led to the development of many breeds of domestic animals. For example the domestic cow has been developed to be a docile animal, which has good milk or meat production. The biological processes of microorganisms were used for 6,000 years to make useful food products, such as bread and cheese, and to preserve dairy products and crops.
Early examples of biotechnology involved manipulating entire organisms. Today it is possible to manipulate organisms at the molecular level. During the 1960s and '70s our understanding of biology reached a point where began the use of the smallest parts of organisms, their cells and molecules, in addition to using whole organisms. The biological molecules most often used are nucleic acids, such as DNA, and proteins. Our concept of the gene has changed from that of particles or "unit characters" to that of segments of the DNA molecule. Bioengineering involves the manipulation of specific genes. For example the gene for human growth hormone can be extracted and inserted into bacteria that will in turn manufacture the hormone.
Better meaning of the word biotechnology can be derived by simply changed singular noun to its plural form="biotechnologies", because biotechnology is a collection of technologies using cells and biological molecules. Cells and molecules are extraordinarily specific in their interactions. Because of this specificity, the tools and techniques of biotechnology are quite precise and are tailored to operate in known, predictable ways. As a result, the products of biotechnology will be better targeted to solving specific problems, generating lesser side effects and having fewer unintended consequences. Specific, precise, and predictable are the words that best describe today's biotechnology.