| Humanity’s intentional manipulation of the gene pool dates back to the selective breeding of dogs in an attempt to domesticate them over 14,000 years ago. At the end of the last ice age, about 10,000 years ago, we extended our control over other life forms to include the domestication of animals. Societies in various parts of Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas transformed themselves from nomadic tribes of hunters and gatherers to communities based on fixed agriculture. What’s more, long before civilization began in China or the ancient Sumerians settled in Mesopotamia, our ancestors were experienced at fermenting grains and fruits to create alcoholic beverages. This “domestication” of microorganisms, like that of animals and plants, was based on trial and error and what was directly perceivable through taste, smell, and vision, and not on any understanding of the underlying genetic mechanisms for selective breeding. Fast forward to the twenty-first century. We are in the midst of biotechnology revolution that is profoundly transforming medicine, agriculture, material science, the military, and even our sense of self. For many, public awareness of biotechnology is marked by the sequencing of the human genome at the start of this millennium, by the introduction of the ill-fated FlavrSavr transgenic tomato in 1995, by the creation of Dolly the sheep in 1996, and the discovery of structure of DNA by the Nobel laureates James Watson and Francis Crick in 1953. Aldous Huxley’s 1932 novel Brave New World made the world conscious of a harsh use of genetic determinism. Regardless of when the public became aware of it, awareness of the biotech miracle is inescapable today. The news is full of reports of human clones, new, more powerful medicines, and cheaper synthesis of traditional medicines. There are new biological materials grown instead of manufactured, high-yield, high-nutrition agricultural crops, artificial organs and tissues for transplant surgery, and a stream of discoveries of genes for particular diseases. In the business arena, patents for new gene sequences are filed daily, computer companies are designing and selling high-end computer systems capable of manipulating and storing the terabytes of data that the industry is generating, and pharmaceutical companies are positioning themselves to benefit from the flood of genomic data either by developing competence inhouse, or by acquiring established biotech companies. The ethics of genetically modified crops, human clones, and embryonic stem cell research are hotly debated by legislators, religious leaders, and the lay public. Stock markets worldwide anxiously track the successes and failures of biotech companies for signs that might signal another boom like the dot-com boom of the 1990s. ..In many firms and academic centers, scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs are diligently engaged in successful research and development of the core technologies that are resulting in practical applications and products. As a result, few dispute the belief that biotechnology is the seed of an inevitable revolution of business—and life on this planet—that will have a much larger social, environmental, religious, ethical, and business impact than the industrial or technology revolutions. | — Bryan Bergeron, Paul Chan, Biotech Industry: A Global, Economic, and Financing Overview | Indexes/08 |
1 comments:
Stock markets in the world, tracing longingly to the biotechnology company's success and failure can lead to a vibrant symbol of the bubble, like the entire 1990s.
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