What Is the Future of Humans If We Utilise All Aspects of Available Biotechnology?
Humans are on a constant quest in the search for perfection and advancement in all areas of life through progressive scientific knowledge. From such a stance, the future of humans appears boundless with all the potential possibilities biotechnology provides, but such developments will cause ethical, social and biological implications.
Biotechnology, at its simplest is technology based on biology – it employs the use of cellular and bimolecular processes to develop products and technologies. The variety of living cells used for their biochemical talents range from simple singled-cells bacteria and yeast to complex multi-cellular organisms, such as plants and humans. Over the years, biotechnology has been a rapidly developing area of science that seeks to improve living conditions for all people across the world. Although the word biotechnology carries modern connotations, humans have used biological processes involving microorganisms for thousands of years in aiding the production of food products. A few of the most prominent and areas of science that utilises biotechnology are; cloning, IVF and stem cell research. Cloning is the creation of an organism that is the exact genetic copy of another. There are multiple ways that cloning can be achieved through biotechnology. Artificial embryo twinning is the more basic version of cloning. It mimics the natural occurrence of twins as a zygote divides into a two celled embryo but this process takes place in a Petri-dish instead of the mother’s body. The resulting embryos are then placed in a surrogate mother where they are developed. The process that ‘cloning’ generally refers to is scientifically known as somatic cell nuclear transfer. In this procedure the DNA of a cell of an adult animal (the donor) is extracted from body cells and then reinserted into the egg of another animal of the same species. The egg, with its nucleus removed will replicate the DNA of the donor cells and continue to act like a freshly
Biotechnology, at its simplest is technology based on biology – it employs the use of cellular and bimolecular processes to develop products and technologies. The variety of living cells used for their biochemical talents range from simple singled-cells bacteria and yeast to complex multi-cellular organisms, such as plants and humans. Over the years, biotechnology has been a rapidly developing area of science that seeks to improve living conditions for all people across the world. Although the word biotechnology carries modern connotations, humans have used biological processes involving microorganisms for thousands of years in aiding the production of food products. A few of the most prominent and areas of science that utilises biotechnology are; cloning, IVF and stem cell research. Cloning is the creation of an organism that is the exact genetic copy of another. There are multiple ways that cloning can be achieved through biotechnology. Artificial embryo twinning is the more basic version of cloning. It mimics the natural occurrence of twins as a zygote divides into a two celled embryo but this process takes place in a Petri-dish instead of the mother’s body. The resulting embryos are then placed in a surrogate mother where they are developed. The process that ‘cloning’ generally refers to is scientifically known as somatic cell nuclear transfer. In this procedure the DNA of a cell of an adult animal (the donor) is extracted from body cells and then reinserted into the egg of another animal of the same species. The egg, with its nucleus removed will replicate the DNA of the donor cells and continue to act like a freshly