Biotechnology
Man and Environment , Science
Group Work
By: Joey, Adeline, Ming Yang and Jun Wei
P6 Resilient
Rosyth School
What Is Biotechnology?
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Biotechnology is the use of living systems and organisms to develop or make
useful products.
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Examples of biotechnology are selective breeding, in which parents with
specific genes are selected to breed to produce young with those genes, or
genetic modification, in which an organism's genes are directly manipulated.
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Biotechnology is used in fields like medicine and agriculture, and even
engineering, bioremediation and biodegradation!
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Medical biotechnology is the use of living cells and cell
materials to experiment and produce products that help
treat and prevent human diseases.
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The first medical product of modern medical biotechnology
was introduced in 1978.
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In medicine, modern biotechnology finds promising
applications in areas such as drug production,
pharmacogenomics, gene therapy and genetic testing.
Genetic testing or screening is a technique in biology to
detect genetic diseases. For example, testing the developing
fetus for Down's syndrome, Amniocentesis, which is the
sampling of amniotic fluid using a hollow needle inserted
into the uterus to screen for developmental abnormalities in
a fetus and Chorionic villus Sampling, which is a form of
prenatal diagnosis to determine chromosomal or genetic
disorders in the fetus.
Medical biotechnology is helpful, as there are medicines that can help treat
and prevent human diseases faster than other medicines due to the cells
modified in it.
Medical biotechnology can also help detect any genetic disorders in the fetus
so that the doctors or parents can be notified of any risks during birth.
Overall, medical biotechnology is very helpful as it has helped save many
lives, and scientists are constantly researching to find other ways to
modify and create medicines that will help treat humans.
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Every year, one new disease is discovered, and most of
them are extremely harmful to the human body, and can
be deadly. Scientists may take five to ten years to find
and create a medicine to treat the disease.
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Luckily, there has been no epidemic in recent years killing
over 1 million people.
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Medical biotechnology has contributed to improved
medical diagnostics and treatment.
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Agricultural biotechnology is a collection of scientific techniques
used to improve plants, animals and microorganisms.
Based on an understanding of Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA),
scientists have developed solutions to increase agricultural productivity.
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Genetic engineering is moving genes from one organism to another. This
process allows the transfer of useful characteristics into a plant, animal or
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microorganism by inserting genes from another organism.
Molecular markers are used to select plants or animals that possess a
desirable gene, even in the absence of a visible trait. They can also be used to
identify undesirable genes that can be eliminated in future generations.
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Molecular diagnostics are methods to detect genes or gene products that
are very precise and specific. Molecular diagnostics are used in agriculture
to more accurately diagnose crop and livestock diseases.
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Biotechnology-derived vaccines can be used in livestock and humans.
They may also be cheaper, better and safer than traditional vaccines. They
are also stable at room temperature, and do not need refrigerated storage
which is an important advantage for smallholders in tropical countries.
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Tissue culture is the regeneration of plants in the laboratory from disease-
free plant parts. This technique allows for the reproduction of disease-free
planting material for crops.
How is this Helpful?
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Like traditional breeding, biotechnology helps make our food supply
safer for consumers and the environment and less expensive to produce.
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For example, when plants are modified to be resistant to pests, less
pesticides can be used, thus soil pollution will be reduced.
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Plants can be altered to have:
o Insect and virus resistance
o Herbicide tolerance
o Delayed fruit ripening
o Fruit with higher nutritional value
In conclusion, agricultural biotechnology will help ensure
that we have a sufficient food supply and the
advantages brought about by the research of
agricultural biotechnology has been a big step forward
in improving crop productivity and can also help in
solving the problem of food shortage.
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Biological engineering is the application of lots
of (sometimes extremely complicated) concepts
to problems in real life.
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The word 'biological' suggests that it has to do
with science and the word 'engineering' suggests
that it has to do with real life.
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Examples of biological engineering can be found
everywhere in our daily lives.
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For example, the concept of plastic being a poor conductor
of heat has led to plastic handles for pots and pans so that
people can avoid getting burnt.
Of course, it is easy to see that biological engineering is
helpful as it can solve problems in our daily lives!
Without the example of biological engineering
mentioned earlier, we would probably still be burnt
by hot pots and pans today.
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Humanity is meeting new problems and challenges all
the time.
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To improve biological engineering, we can think of
more innovative solutions to problems that are cheap
and effective. (The Innovative Programme in our
school is an example.)
Bioremediation
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Use of microorganisms to remove harmful pollutants
Returns the harmed environment to its original state
Biodegradation
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Nature's way of recycling wastes
Breaking down of organic matter by enzymes of an
organism into a harmless natural state to be used by
living things again
Bioremediation
1. Using prokaryotes to clean up oil spills or remove
pollutants.
2. Introducing parasitic bacteria to kill other bacteria
3. Using duckweed to absorb additional mineral nutrients,
like nitrogen and phosphates.
Biodegradation
1. Banana peel reduced from cellulose to water, carbon
dioxide and humus.
2. Plastic can be biodegraded but it takes about 100-400
years.
Bioremediation
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Allows natural processes to clean up harmful
particles in environment
Biodegradation
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Reduces environmental pollution
Environmentally-friendly
Bioremediation
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Efficiency
Cost
- Reduce the cost of a carrier used to grow bacteria
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- Reduce the cost of the electrical network used to blow air for
growth of bacteria
Reliability
Speed
Biodegradation
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Time taken for materials to biodegrade
Biotechnology is not always good. In some ways,
biotechnology alters the abiotic factors of the environment.
Just now, we mentioned bioremediation. This
actually can be harmful to the community that the
bacteria are put in as the bacteria might cause new
diseases which would force other organisms to develop
immunity or die out.
After the environmental factors are altered, some
organisms may not be able to adapt to the new circumstances
and will die out.
Then, the other organisms may also die out either due to
a lack of food or no consumers to control the population.
Eventually, the entire ecosystem will collapse.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Man has to bear absolute
responsibility for harming the environment as it is the
environment that has provided Man with resources to
improve biotechnology. It is important that Man realises
that technology is not good or bad in itself, but it is how he
uses it that is good or bad. Man should put his technology
to good use and make every effort to save the
environment.
~End~
We hope you enjoyed our powerpoint presentation!