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April 19th, 2024 | 9:21 PM ET

Biotechnology’s Dark Side

Posted: January 17th, 2016

Right now, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) at the Pentagon is trying to figure out how to create artificial life forms and living factories. We live in a brave new world, wherein great strides in biotechnology have led to vast improvements in numerous fields, from health care to agriculture to manufacturing and energy production.  However, those advancements have not come without cost, and the potential for abuse or deliberately harmful applications of this technology appears to be increasing as well.

So what is biotechnology? According to the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, biotechnology  “harnesses cellular and biomolecular processes to develop technologies and products.” In a very real sense, humans have been using biotechnology for a long time. The use of yeast for the creation of bread and beer, for example, is a form of biotechnology that has been around for thousands of years. The same could be argued for genetic engineering, as people have been selectively breeding plants and animals to enhance specific qualities for just as long.

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Categorized as:Defense Systems Tech/CyberTagged with:

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