Uses and benefits of biotechnology
Due to the long history, the rapid progress and the more and more diverse fields of application the uses and benefits of biotechnology are wide ranging. Those who want to be convinced need neither a lot of time nor profound specialist knowledge. It is sufficient to consciously experience your own working day.
Let’s begin with breakfast: with the slice of bread or the pot of yoghurt we are ingesting classic products of biotechnology. Maybe also a glass of apple juice? Biotechnologically manufactured enzymes have degraded the clouding agents in it. Apart from breakfast, unfortunately taking medications is part of the morning programme for many people. And here, too it is likely that biotechnological processes were used to develop or manufacture the drug. The comfortable stone washed jeans which we finally slip on; equally owe their appearance and structure to biotechnological procedures, as the material was treated with enzymes.
On the way to work a biotechnological product also plays a part in us being able to move forward: the fuel petrol contains up to five percent ethanol today. Having arrived at the work place with its help, we come into contact with further biotechnological products - of course depending on the sector. In the hospital for example with new implants, on the farm with enzymes in feeding aids, in the supermarket with the carrier bag made of bioplastics. In the evening we let biotechnology work for us - as washing powder in the washing machine.
- From gene to medication: bacteria as a producer / Photo: Dr. Volker Brinkmann, Max-Planck-Institute for infection biology, Berlin
- High performance research and development with the pipettor robot / Photo: Helmholtz-Centre Munich/Bernd Müller
- Biotechnologically produced medications / Photo: Melanie Vollmert/pixelio.de
We encounter many facets of biotechnology. For those who would like more in-depth information about its uses, a division according to fields of application facilitates orientation:
- Red biotechnology stands for the health sector.
- Green biotechnology encompasses its uses in agriculture.
- If the use of micro organisms in industrial production is concerned, we talk about white biotechnology.
An overview of biotechnology in Germany shows more about the 600 companies in the sector.
