WHAT IS BIOTECHNOLOGY?

A BIOTECH TOOL: RESTRICTION ENZYMES


TRANSGENIC BIOTECHNOLOGY



The biotecnology is the application of technology to natural biological processes.
Innovations result from insights that are both biological in nature.
When you hear the word "biotechnology", designer grass may not inmediately come to
mind. But in this one product, it´s possible to see most of the elements that make
biotechnologyseem both so promising and yet so threatening. Note that designer
grass:

* Shakes up our notions of what is possible in the world
* Has a big commercial potencial. The market for low-mow grass has been estimated
at a whoppinng $10 billion per year.
* Could have a personal impact. If brought to market, low-mow grass would affect
not only business ( think of tennis courses) but personal lives as well.
It would mean a change in how our lawns look and how we spend our lawns look
and how we spend our time.
* Has critics who would like to see it go away enterily. The American Soiciety of
Landscape Architects petitioned the U.S.Departament of Agriculture to suspend low-mow field tests until the departament determined that pollen from the grass won't
mix or "hibridize" with strains of natural grasses: The fear is that low-mow traits could spread, with unknown ecological consequences.

Professor : G. Charles Castro M.