ENTC 3020 Technology & Society

Biotechnology

Biotechnology--Systematic Treatment of the Life Arts

Webster's New College Dictionary:
"The aspect of technology concerned with the application of scientific and engineering data relating to man and the machine."

Healthcare Theories

1. Personalistic Systems

• Soul-based; Religious Ideologies
• External Good & Malevolent Powers
• God, Angels, & Saints
• Ghosts, Spirits, & Demons
• Life & Death based upon Faith & Fate

2. Naturalistic

• Herbal Remedies (Folk Remedies)
• Hot & Cold Treatments
• "Humors"-Body Fluids & Health
• Willow Bark
• Biodiversity Treaty, Rain Forests, and Multinational Pharmaceuticals

3. Biomedicine

• Western-The Scientific Method
• Seek Root Causes (Germ Theory)
• Viruses & Bacteria
• Laboratories
• Treatments
• Statistics

Human Genome Project

• $3 Billion ($2 billion by U.S.)
• Map the 50,000 to 100,000 Genes in the 23 Chromosome Pairs
• 3 Billion Codes
• Goal is to define and understand the genetic sequences: RNA-> proteins

DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid) The Building Blocks of Life

4 Components

• Adenine & Thymine
• Guanine & Cytosine

Gee-Wiz Statistics--(Human) DNA

• 3,000,000,000 (3 billion) pairs.
• Encyclopedia Britannica contains 280 million letters.
• Unabridged Dictionary-76 million letters equals the DNA sequence of the smallest chromosome.
• 46 volumes of each "book" ( ½ chromosome) in each cell.

Comparative Sequence Sizes

• Largest known (as of 1995) continuous DNA sequence--350 Thousand (yeast chromosome 3)
• Escherichia coli (bacterium) genome-4.6 M
• Largest yeast chromosome now mapped-5.8 M
• Entire yeast genome-15 Million
• Smallest human chromosome (Y)-50 Million
• Largest human chromosome (1) -250 Million
• Entire human genome-3 Billion

Genome on the Internet

Human Genome Program

Primer on Molecular Genetics June 1992

U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Research
Office of Health and Environmental Research
Washington, D.C. 20585