Scientists are like the heroes who don’t wear capes. They try to incorporate technology with humanity whenever they can to make living easier. This is how they stumbled upon the concept of biotechnology! This field has experienced an exponential growth over the last century.
You may now ask what are the possible advantages of using biotechnology? From cheesemaking to animal breeding to gene modification, this field has now become a crucial part of our daily lives. In fact, biotechnology has been used for making COVID-19 vaccines!
Stay tuned as we are going to discuss more about the benefits of using biotechnology in our lives.
Possible Benefits of Using Biotechnology
Being an absolute savior to mankind, biotechnology is being widely used in the medical and agricultural fields in lots of ways. Some of its applications are noted down below:
Designing New Antibiotics
Antibiotics are essential in the clinical and medicinal fields as they help to reduce any bacterial growth inside the body. However, they often stop working once they become habituated to the bacteria.
With the help of biotechnology, people working in the medical field managed to develop new antibiotics which do not grow resistant to any bacteria. Using gene mutation, scientists are also artificially creating unique gene combinations that speed up their work.
As a result, these renewed antibiotics can now cure some rare diseases which were considered untreatable in the past.
Introducing In Vitro Fertilization (IVF)
Although controversial to the norms, in vitro fertilization is most likely the miraculous invention of the century. Thanks to biotechnology, people with fertility issues can now become parents even when they have very low chances to become one by themselves.
This method involves fertilizing an egg with sperm outside the body in a sterilized petri dish. After that, it is transferred inside the woman’s uterus which later gives birth to a normal healthy baby.
Genetic engineers are also working on curing Down Syndrome and other genetic diseases by modifying chromosomes using IVF.
Developing Stem Cell Research
Dead cells, i.e. brain cells, facial cells, red blood cells, and others can be replaced using stem cell research by artificially creating new cells. It is important for understanding different kinds of diseases inside the body or other damages caused to the outside of the body.
Using biotechnology in this research is to analyze how the body can cure itself just by restoring these dead cells. Not only this, stem cells are used in plastic surgery to reconstruct facial features necessary for burn victims, for people who are aging, or simply for those not happy with their own beauty.
Producing Genetically Modified Crops
Genetically modified crops are the latest hack for a healthier and happier life. By incorporating biotechnology, additional DNAs can be added to crops in order to make food more nutritional. It means that these crops will be more fulfilling for the body even if a person decides to eat less.
These kinds of plants are grown in special greenhouses regulating the climate inside. This can also help to boost crop production and provides a better yield. Fewer pesticides are also used in this process, which prevents additional diseases. Moreover, this method can also combat trees from becoming endangered just like animals.
Using Artificial Selection
With the exception of vegetarians and pescatarians, people who eat meat can make the most out of artificial selection. Humans can get better quality meat from domestic animals with the assistance of biotechnology.
Not only that but animals can also produce greater amounts of milk which are more profitable for farmers. This procedure also results in animals having a more diverse generation of offspring simply by crossbreeding and choosing two desired animals.
For example, sheep can result in having a thicker and greater amount of furs than their parents thanks to artificial breeding.
Creating Plastic-Eating Bacteria
More than five trillion of plastic has been unloaded into our oceans all over the world. This has become a serious issue as millions of sea creatures are dying by choking on this plastic, resulting in a negative impact on our ecosystem.
Biotechnology introduced plastic-eating bacteria which is used to decompose a huge tonn of this careless plastic disposal. As a result, this can reduce the risk of some of these marine animals becoming endangered so that the future generation does not miss out on it.
Formulating Genetic Restoration
Apart from sea creatures, mammals and other land animals are also slowly becoming extinct. This is mainly caused due to our forests and jungles being demolished for building new industries.
However, biotechnology has managed to give us a solution to prevent these exotic animals from being endangered. The genetic restoration method helps to restore the genes of these animals so that we can preserve their existence. Artificial breeding is also used to encourage diversity in their ongoing generations.
Reducing Waste Disposal
Biotechnology has the power to save and restore our environment in different ways. The burning of fossil fuels has the most adverse effects on our environment, which single-handedly ruins our nature by emitting huge amounts of carbon dioxide. So, it is better to use biofuels instead, which reduces waste to a greater amount.
Next, is using biodegradable products which are easily decomposable by the soil. Finally, modern sewage farms and using bacteria to treat our sewage system have to be the most clever way to treat our surroundings.
Bottom Line
If you have made it to the end, you should know by now how biotechnology is a miracle for human life’s betterment and environmental reservation. It seems as if biotechnology has taken an oath to serve humans!
This marvel of modern technology is being used by people like us every day without us even realizing it. From saving us, our environment, and our agriculture, biotechnology does it all!
In a nutshell, the application of biotechnology in our lives has far more advantages than you could ever think. Therefore, this amazing gift from science should be handled with care and nurtured regularly by humans.