be used as an immunization. Also he discovered that the size of the microbes that carried the disease rabies was so small that it cannot be seen by a microscope, thus discovering viruses. (LExplorateur) Pasteur is most well know for developing pasteurization, the process of heating foods so that the diseases in it are destroyed. Another influential scientist was Gregor Mendel, he described how traits were inherited, which has become one of the most important discoveries in the history of science. (Amgen) This discovery led to another discovery by Francis Crick and James Watson, the discovery of deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA. (NHGRI) DNA is the fundamental genetic structure, which defines virtually every living thing. The discovery of DNA then led to the direct manipulation on genes. The biotechnological era began slowly in the 70s when universities first developed techniques for manipulating and inserting genes into bacteria. One of the first instances of manipulating genes was used in solving the insulin problem. People with diabetes cant produce their own insulin; thus they rely on an outside source to regulate the blood sugar levels. At first insulin from cows this was the outside source, which worked well, but health concerns where taken into consideration so another option was desirable. The solution was a synthetic version of the human insulin gene, which was constructed in 1978 by Herbert Boyer. (Amgen) Insulin was created by isolating the sequence of DNA and inserting it into a plasmid which was the carrier into bacteria cells, then bacteria produced the insulin. This technique lead to more successful application, which we use today. What is Biotechnology?Biotechnology is a precise way to find good traits and incorporate them into certain organisms. (whybiotech) Biotechnology is, by definition, any technology that relies on living organisms or biological systems. But this is not what most people mean when they refer ...
