Biotechnology is the branch of science in which living things for example microorganisms are used to perform different experiments. These experiments can be in the field of microbiology, Genetics and medicine.
Over the past 20 years, biotechnology, due to its specific advantages over other sciences, made a decisive breakthrough on the industrial level, which to a large extent is also associated with the development of new research methods and the strengthening of the process that opened previously unknown possibilities in obtaining biological products, methods of isolation, identification and purification biologically active substances.
The most impressive features of biotechnology have opened with the introduction of the latest techniques. The most promising of which is genetic engineering. It allowed the production of number of fundamentally new major products in various sectors of biotechnology like food industry, agriculture, medical and pharmaceutical industries, chemicals, oil production, mining and processing, etc., as well as the environmental cleanup of the environment and disposal of various wastes.
Basis of Success
The basis of these successes are obtained by genetic engineering methods which made possible the production of antibiotics, enzymes, amino acids, vitamins, hormones, etc. it also helped in the synthesis of recombinant vaccine strains of bacteria and viruses, transgenic plants like grasses, self-locking nitrogen from the soil which can dramatically reduce the need for fertilizer and also the plants with natural resistance to pests and pathogens which excludes the use of plant protection products. Those plants have also been produced by using the methods of biotechnology which contain high amounts of protein, increase their nutritional value, and produce protein complexes, antigens. This field has also helped humans to produce transgenic animals which can produce milk by using the drugs.
Issue of genetically modified objects, foods and medicines derived from the development of genetic engineering, can be considered one of the features of modern human development.
Biotechnology as a science, and its central part:-
Bioengineering is developing rapidly in the whole world. Its achievements are used on large-scale in many industries. However, the intervention of scientists in the structure of the genome, DNA and genesis of serious concern in the community is the most prominent. Security problems of biotechnological research in obtaining genetically modified organisms today attract the attention of an increasingly wider both academic and civil society. The range of currently existing transgenic organisms includes a variety of crops, animals and microorganisms.
Biotechnology as environmental risk:-
A threat to the environment due to the presence of genetically modified foods is called environmental risk. These foods to some extent make their impact on the environment negatively. For example there is an increased risk of cancer, and food allergies due to the intake of such foods. They also reduce the quality and caloric values of food. There is also possibility of antibiotic resistance in living organisms especially humans. They can be the cause of genetic pollution due to which they are the threat to beneficial insects and soil fertility emergence of new viruses and bacteria, toxins and poisons.
One cannot disagree with the fact that genetically modified foods have their place and the consumer must have sufficient information about genetically modified foods before buying them. This means that genetically modified products should be detected, identified and marked accordingly.
Biotechnology has also played an important role in the field of medicine and pharmaceuticals. Many diseases have been cured by using the methods of biotech. Genetics is another biggest advantage of biotechnology which has made the scientists to examine the disease at the genes' level. This is the biggest achievement of scientists that now they know the basics of the structure of the body.
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