If you had to line up the entire DNA in the human body, it would reach to the sun and back more than 600 times. And the information would probably fill 200 telephone directories! Think this is interesting? Then maybe you should look into a career in biotechnology…
Biotechnologists use new technology to study living organisms and systems, then modify and manipulate these systems to make the world a better, more efficient place. Confused? Then let’s explain with a few examples:
* The clever guys of Oxford took the gene for poison in the tail of a scorpion, and combined it with a cabbage. These cabbages now kill caterpillars because they have learned to grow scorpion poison in their sap.
* Or, the guys who created a goat with spider genes that creates "silk" in its milk. We call them Spider-goats. (All together now: “Spider-goat, Spider-goat, does whatever Spider-goat can…”)
* Biotechnology also includes adding human genes to sheep so that they secrete alpha-1 antitrypsin in their milk - useful in treating some cases of lung disease.
In short: Biotechnologists seems to have the power to alter the very basis of life on earth - a daunting, but exciting task. It fuses aspects of genetics, ecology, molecular biology and other fields, including chemistry and pharmacology. You could work in a laboratory finding new ways to ‘play’ with bacteria or cures for disease, or get out there in the field for cutting edge-research, like the examples we just mentioned.
Interested? Then you probably have a great interest in life and technology, enjoy puzzling work and have an aptitude for mathematics.
