TS+P1Biotechnology+MR-Writing+Assignments


 * How does biotechnology effect our food chain?

Facts:**
 * Biotechnology has created more than 200 new therapies and vaccines, including products to treat cancer, diabetes, HIV/AIDS and autoimmune disorders.
 * There are more than 400 biotech drug products and vaccines currently in clinical trials targeting more than 200 diseases, including various cancers, Alzheimer's disease, heart disease, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, AIDS and arthritis.
 * Biotechnology is responsible for hundreds of medical diagnostic tests that keep the blood supply safe from the AIDS virus and detect other conditions early enough to be successfully treated. Home pregnancy tests are also biotechnology diagnostic products.
 * Consumers are enjoying biotechnology foods such as papaya, soybeans and corn. Biopesticides and other agricultural products also are being used to improve our food supply and to reduce our dependence on conventional chemical pesticides.
 * Environmental biotechnology products make it possible to clean up hazardous waste more efficiently by harnessing pollution-eating microbes without the use of caustic chemicals.
 * Industrial biotechnology applications have led to cleaner processes that produce less waste and use less energy and water in such industrial sectors as chemicals, pulp and paper, textiles, food, energy, and metals and minerals. For example, most laundry detergents produced in the United States contain biotechnology-based enzymes.
 * DNA fingerprinting, a biotech process, has dramatically improved criminal investigation and forensic medicine, as well as afforded significant advances in anthropology and wildlife management.
 * The biotech industry is regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Agriculture (USDA).
 * As of Dec. 31, 2005, there were 1,415 biotechnology companies in the United States, of which 329 were publicly held.
 * Market capitalization, the total value of publicly traded biotech companies (U.S.) at market prices, was $410 billion as of Dec. 31, 2005.
 * The biotechnology industry has mushroomed since 1992, with U.S. health-care biotech revenues increasing from $8 billion in 1992 to $50.7 billion in 2005.
 * Biotechnology is one of the most research-intensive industries in the world. The U.S. biotech industry spent $19.8 billion on research and development in 2005.
 * The top five biotech companies invested an average of $130,000 per employee in R&D in 2005.
 * In 1982, recombinant human insulin became the first biotech therapy to earn FDA approval. The product was developed by Genentech and Eli Lilly and Co.
 * Corporate partnering has been critical to biotech success. In 2005, biotech companies signed 564 new agreements with pharmaceutical firms and 354 with fellow biotechs, according to BioWorld.
 * Most biotechnology companies are young companies developing their first products and depend on investor capital for survival. Biotechnology attracted more than $20 billion in financing in 2005 and has raised more than $100 billion since 2000.
 * The biosciences-including not just biotechnology but all life sciences activities-employed 1.2 million people in the United States in 2004 and generated an additional 5.8 million related jobs.
 * The average annual wage of U.S. bioscience workers was $65,775 in 2004, more than $26,000 greater than the average private sector annual wage.
 * Bioethanol-made from crop wastes using biotech enzymes-could meet a quarter of U.S. energy needs by 2025.
 * The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) was founded in 1993 to represent biotechnology companies at the local, state, federal and international levels. As of December 2006, BIO's membership consisted of more than 1,100 biotechnology companies, academic centers, state and local associations and related enterprises.

Facts are from BIO.org-Biotechnology Industry Organization

Biotechnology is changing society rapidly, and the way that our food and crops that are grown everyday. Genetically modified foods are entering our supermarkets and we are starting to consume food that has been modified by scientists.Genetic engineering has brought an uproar in England, while other countries such as United States, and Southeast countries are promoting this newly developed food. Genetically modified foods areplants or crops that scientist alter the gene [gene splicing] or its chararcteristic, such as making a tomatoe more red, making watermelons more sweet, and rice to grow faster. Genetically modified food being in the supermarket has brought rivarly amongst many peoples. While it can help with providing foods and saving countries from starvation, and being able to keep up the food production with the rapid human population growth, this could be harmful in a way, because we are not sure what the side effects may be, or what will happen to these crops in the future, and how peoples bodies will react to it in the future. What is biotechnology? Biotechnology is difined in the dictionary as "the use of living organisms or other biological systems in the manufacture of drugs or other products or for environmental management, as in waste recycling." But we can go further than that, biotechnology has changed the way our food is grown, and it has changed our food systems. Today there are gentically modified foods in our supermarket shelves, and we may not even know about it. Many of us daily consume genetically modified foods. There are genetically modified foods in, Frito-Lay Fritos Corn Chips, Bravos Tortilla Chips, Kellogg's Corn Flakes, Enfamil ProSobee Soy Formula, Similac Isomil Soy Formula. As you can see, it is even put into baby foods. GM foods are produced to increase our food supply, with the increase of the human population. The initial idea was to improve the food, to make a fruit taste better, or even last longer.
 * The Effect of Biotechnology In Our Food**

- How it affects gene splicing? - What it does to adding hormones? - Is it healthy or unhealthy?
 * How has biotechnology affected food production?**

- Any new methods? - How were the old methods? - Is it harmful or helpful?
 * How has biotechnology changed our vaccines?**

- What are the views on biotechnology? - How do biotechnology and religion work together? - How has biotech affected their believes?
 * How has biotechnology affected religion?**

- What are views from people about cloning? - Is cloning harmful or helpful to society? - How has it affected food reproduction?
 * How has cloning affected society?**

- How does it effect genetically modified foods - Do foods last longer or grow faster? - Does it help with starvation?
 * How does food science affect biotechnology?**

- How it affects the environment? - How it affects species? - Is it changing the animals and how they live and survive?
 * How does biotechnology affect nature?**

- Is it bad or good for human health? - How did humans live before? - How is it affecting their lives, improving or making it better?
 * What does biotechnology do for humans?**

- What was old therapy? - What is the new therapy? - What is bio-gene therapy?
 * How has bio-gene therapy affected therapy?**

Gatherers found food from plants they found in nature, and farmers planted seeds saved from domesticated crops. Foods were manipulated through the use of yeast and fermentation. Some naturalists and farmers began to recognize "hybrids," which are plants produced through natural breeding between related varieties of plants. European plant scientists began using Gregor Mendel's genetic theory to manipulate and improve plant species. This is called "classic selection." A plant of one variety is crossed with a related plant to produce desired characteristics. James Watson and Francis Crick publish their discovery of the three-dimensional double helix structure of DNA. This discovery will eventually lead to the ability of scientists to identify and "splice" genes from one kind of organism into the DNA of another. Herbert Boyer and Stanley Cohen combine their research to create the first successful recombinant DNA organism. The U.S. Supreme Court in //Diamond v. Chakrabarty// rules that genetically altered life forms can be patented. The decision allows the Exxon Oil Company to patent an oil-eating microorganism. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves the first genetically engineered drug, Genentech's Humulin, a form of human insulin produced by bacteria. This is the first consumer product developed through modern bioengineering. The first field tests of genetically engineered plants (tobacco) are conducted in Belgium. The first field tests of genetically engineered crops (tobacco and tomato) are conducted in the United States. Calgene's Favor Savor tomato, engineered to remain firm for a longer period of time, is approved for commercial production by the US Department of Agriculture. The FDA declares that genetically engineered foods are "not inherently dangerous" and do not require special regulation. The European Union's first genetically engineered crop, tobacco, is approved in France. International Biosafety Protocol is approved by 130 countries at the Convention on Biological Diversity in Montréal, Canada. The protocol agrees upon labeling of genetically engineered crops, but still needs to be ratified by 50 nations before it goes into effect.
 * //__“Time Line of Biotechnology”__//**
 * //Before genetic engineering://**
 * Prehistoric times to 1900**
 * 1900**
 * //Modern genetic engineering//**
 * 1953**
 * 1973**
 * 1980**
 * 1982**
 * 1986**
 * 1987**
 * 1992**
 * 1992**
 * 1994**
 * 2000**