The World of Biotechnology - an introduction

The word "Biotechnology" is bandied about in the press quite a lot these days, but nowhere is it mentioned in our biology textbooks. What is biotechnology? Why don't we learn about it in school? The first part of the word, "bio", implies something about biology and we all know what "technology" is, so there must be a connection? We study biology and technology separately at school; where is this connection?

Biotechnology is a marriage of biology and technology just as the make-up of the word suggests. It is essentially using living things (microbes mainly) in industrial processes to make something that is useful to us, for example, an industrial process that uses microbes to help clean up pollutants. In short, biotechnology occurs where humans use living thinks to work for them.

Biologists and technologists work in tandem in biotechnology. The biologists select the relevant microbes, plants or animals for the specific commercial enterprises. Today they are also able to enhance their usefulness through genetic improvement. Technologists work out ways in which to grow the microbes, plants or animals on a commercial scale, extract the product, purify it and market it.

There are several reasons why we are relatively "in the dark" about biotechnology. Firstly; previously the people who set our curricula saw biology as a subject for learners who wanted to go into the health professions or into nature conservation. They ignored the fact that biology can be applied to the greater good of humanity in industry and that this field may also require professional biologists. Consequently, they filled the syllabuses with biology relevant only to a few applications, leaving out biotechnology.

A second reason why we are not familiar with biotechnology is that it has only been in the news spotlight relatively recently, although it is possibly the oldest industry in human history. (We have, after all, been using yeast for bread, wine and beer production for as long as we can remember.) There has been a cloud of controversy around much biotech work. People serving various interests, among them personal, in anti-biotech lobby groups have cast this cloud. The media tend to milk controversial issues and have thus elevated biotechnology to front-page status.

The question you may ask is why all the hullabaloo now and not before. The answer is that biotechnology has in the last decade or so taken a leap forward in its complexity. Whereas biotech used to include mainly ancient processes that occurred in nature anyway, we are now able to use microbes to do things at the sub-cellular level. Because many people are not aware of the existence of cells let alone their make-up and physiology, they build up a scary aura around this new level of biotechnological science. They think up all sorts of imaginative scams that scientists could get up to and run off to the press with them as though they were occurring already.

Biotechnology has been in the news a lot lately because people who keep themselves ignorant of its benefits are excited about all the negative possibilities rather than the positive probabilities it can offer. They have coined terms such as "Frankenstein foods" to scare off people who are denied the truthful information. They deliberately underplay all the benefits that biotechnology offers, citing unproven alternatives as adequate to do what biotech promises.

This article is the first in a series of monthly articles that will look at the development of biotechnology and its current applications as well as the ethical issues around it. We will start off by looking at the roots of biotechnology, mainly in food preservation. We will then take a look at the role of biotech in biodiversity and conservation, bioremediation, mining using microorganisms, the importance of biotech in clinical medicine and forensics. We will look at industrial chemicals, which include enzymes, fuels and plastics, the importance of biotech in agriculture and particularly horticulture and water treatment and sewage treatment. I am looking forward to sharing my learning with you in the months to come. Don't forget to hit this site next month at the same time, Until then

Yours in biotechnology

Colleen