The field of biotechnology has since reached an astounding height in producing sophisticated medicines, medical devices, diagnostics, biomaterials, and more. Humans are born without bacteria and acquire them over the first few years of life.
Answer:
1. Humans are born without bacteria, and they first acquire them while moving through the birth canal. Babies born through a C-section have a different microbiota from those born through vaginal birth. Such babies are at high risk of conditions such as obesity and allergies.
2. All human DNA is 99.9% similar. It is the 0.1% that accounts for the difference in people (individual uniqueness).
3. Biotechnology has been in use since 1919, and its first application was in a DNA recombination experiment with bacteria. Today, biotechnology has been applied in the manufacture of medicines, medical devices, diagnostic tools, biomaterials, and food production.
4. The human DNA is 98% similar to chimpanzees and 92% with mice. This would explain why mice and apes are used in drug studies.
5. Each cell in your body contains about 2 meters of DNA. If the whole DNA in one person was laid end to end in a straight line, it would measure up to 200 billion kilometres that is more than a thousand times the distance from the earth to the sun.
6. Some of the genetic material that makes up your DNA is not of human origin; viruses and bacteria have inserted some of it in a process known as Horizontal DNA Transfer.
7. DNA can be used to store data just like your typical hard drives. Scientists have been able to store 700 terabytes in a single gram of DNA.
8. The Human Genome Project was completed in 2003; before then, no one knew all the genes in a human.
9. Through biotechnology, it is possible to turn carbon dioxide into proteins, which is a great process to counter the effects of global warming.
10. Viruses are not alive; they are inanimate complicated organic matter. They lack any form of energy, carbon metabolism and cannot replicate or evolve unless they are in a living cell.
