Biotechnology is one of those sciences with a big, intimidating name that makes it sound new, complicated, and super-advanced. In fact, biotechnology is one of the oldest sciences around, but at the same time, it is hugely important to the future of the planet. If you’re looking for a career in science, it’s an important field to get into.
So, what is Biotechnology, anyway?
Biotechnology is literally technology based on biology, meaning we’re getting nature to make things for us instead of machines. It sounds complicated and experimental, but biotechnology is already used for so much in the world, and has been for centuries. Bread, cheese, yogurt, wine and beer only exist because of biotechnology, for example
What’s biotechnology used for?
According to the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, Conserve Energy Future and CPI, biotechnology is behind many of the products you use at home every day, like food, detergent, paper and textiles. That’s just on a small scale. On a large scale, industrial biotechnology could solve some of the planet’s greatest problems, like feeding big populations and creating new energy sources.
Biotechnology for health
In 1928, Sir Alexander Fleming managed to extract penicillin from mould, the original infection-treating antibacterial. That’s an early use of biotechnology for medicine, though it took until the 1940s until we figured out how to extract penicillin on a large, industrial scale. Modern industrial biotechnology can be used both to find new medicines, but also to find safer, more efficient ways to produce the medicines we already know about. By being able to mass-produce medicine, it becomes easier to bring that medicine to populations that need it.
Biotechnology for food
As mentioned, the oldest uses of biotechnology included making foods like bread, yogurt and alcohol. Beer, for example, is made from water, some kind of starch, brewer’s yeast, and flavouring, before being left to ferment through natural biology. Today, we’re expanding biotechnology’s effects on food to humanitarian ones. Biotechnology can be used to engineer crops that are resistant to insects and herbicides, or simply yield larger, healthier harvests of more nutritional food. It can even be used to make special breeds of food that don’t have allergens, like special white strawberries that are safe to eat by people who are normally allergic.
Biotechnology around the house
A common way of dying the fabrics that make up clothes is in a fermentation vat, which is also one of the oldest methods. Today, biochemicals are also used to make tanning agents, as well as nylon and polyester fabrics, useful not just for clothes, but also carpets and upholstery. And when it comes to cleaning those fabrics, the detergent that we use to wash things is made from cells or enzymes from cells. In some ways, cells are the smallest factories in existence, churning out enzymes that make many different things happen. It’s not the only use of cells, either. Probiotic yogurt and the kind of veggie burgers that don’t contain soy are also made with microbial cells.
Biotechnology for a greener planet
Finally, we get to one of the most important uses of biotechnology, saving the planet. Biofuel, an alternative to straight fossil fuels, is produced using a similar process to making wine and beer, by fermenting sugars from plants so they become ethanol. That ethanol is then blended with fossil fuels, creating a mixture that gives off less greenhouse gas emissions. Similarly, new bioplastics are on their way to replacing traditional plastics made from fossil fuels. Bioplastics that are less harmful to the environment are already being used in products like phone cases, pens and sunglasses.
Want to take part?
Centennial College’s fast-track biology program can get you there faster, by letting you use your previous college or university experience to get directly admitted into the program’s second year, meaning you can get your diploma in as little as a single year. You’ll be properly trained in our college to work as a laboratory technician in the food, medicine and cosmetic industries, ready to lend a hand with the science that’s changing the world.
Written By: Anthony Geremia