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Feel free to add, remove, strike or object any of the to-do's below, but remember to discuss controversial topics here. --Victor D PARLE 18:54, 29 July 2006 (UTC) [edit] To be added The article should speak about: "new materials" of "biotechnological origin" i.e. Biomaterials "Biotechnology in alimentation" i.e. cheese, wine, vinegar or sauerkraut Biotechnology as a future alternative to petroleum, i.e. Biofuels, plastics from plant origin Biotechnology criticism (antitrangenics, antiabortists) Ecological repercusion: Bioremediation, plants that needs less Nitrogen (less deforestation), new sources of paper... Additional sourcing is needed. Current sourcing is spotty at best. [edit] Spam The external links should be freed of all spam. --Victor D PARLE 18:54, 29 July 2006 (UTC) Started These websites are being removed in the 1st phase. Editors please ensure that these do not enter the article later (See: External link spamming and Links normally to be avoided ). --Victor D PARLE 19:36, 1 August 2006 (UTC) Removed websites and their justifications: Building Biotechnology Advertisement of a book - commercial site. Biotech Research Training Biopharmaceutical indusrty training - commercial site (tuition fees mentioned). Careers in Biotechnology Biophamaceutical industry recruitment agency. Tools and Solutions for biotechnology Bioinformatics consulting group. Clinical Research Services clinical research services - commercial. International Clinical Research Services and Corporate Trainings Contract research and training - commercial site. These are replaced by these compact resources: [1] and [2] from FAO. Biotechnology Abbreviations and Acronyms Biotechnology Glossary / Definitions Biotechnology: Frequently asked questions FAQ only concerning clinical research. Trinational Biotechnology Degree: Ecole Supérieure de Biotechnologie de Strasbourg (ESBS) Advertisement about University degree. Biotechnology societies/associations are numerous in the world. Its not fair mentioning only three and its not possible mentioning all! Costa Rican Biotechnology Society Chile's Biotechnology Society International Biopharmaceutical Association The website of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is already present in this link-List of Food and Drugs Regulatory Agencies. Complete. Please post your objections/suggestions below: --Victor D PARLE 15:33, 5 August 2006 (UTC) [edit] New linkspam This is a list of new spamlinks removed and to be avoided in future.--Victor D PARLE 21:32, 7 December 2006 (UTC) http://www.biohealthinvestor.com Blog

[edit] Neutrality?

I know biotechnology is widely regarded as a good thing. The definition is broad enough to include selective breeding. But at a certain point we have to leave room for its abysmal failures.

Africanized bee

The bioethics article should be referred within this article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Johnfravolda (talk • contribs) 04:09, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Contradictory?

This two statements from the article seem, perhaps, to be contradictory:

1. "Most of the current commercial applications of modern biotechnology in agriculture are on reducing the dependence of farmers on agrochemicals."

2. "From 1996 to 2001, herbicide tolerance was the most dominant trait introduced to commercially available transgenic crops, followed by insect resistance."

If they're not, could someone in the know make this more clear. (Perhaps this is saying, obliquely, that increased tolerance to herbicides doses was the major application but now it's reduced need for herbicides.) 81.159.88.206

Well a goal of biotech is to use less herbicide. How can you achieve that? Well by implanting a specific herbicide resistance into crop thus everything dies but not your crop. cfr roundup soja if i'm not mistaking. Isect resistance is something else. That is achieved by producing insecticides in the plant. Thus the plants become insect resistant cfr western corn rootworm I think. So the farmers dependence for insecticides is "nihil" and he only has to buy 1 kind of herbicide (monopoly danger!). --Snelleeddy 16:05, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

Creating herbicid resistant plants is not necessarily going to increase the amount or danger of herbicide in the environment. As Snelleedy noted above, the case of Round up glyphosate and GM soy beans is an example of making it easier to apply an herbicide that is significantly less environmentally persistant than many others (although this case is less than clear cut, since glyphosate was already used on soy beans, but had to be applied by field workers on individual weeds).

Bacillus thuingiensis toxin is another GM crop instance. Here, genes for a naturally occurring toxin were cloned into corn (maize) making them death to corn eathing caterpillers (but we don't seem to mind eating it). This sounds great, but may also have its downside Bacillus_thuringiensis#Lepidopteran_toxicity. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Johnfravolda (talk • contribs) 04:34, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

[edit] How does Biotechnology solve problems in the Agriculture Industry ?

Im a student and we were given an assignment on this topic. Can anybody help me. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 119.235.97.3 (talk) 11:48, 4 June 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Poor writing

I started editing this when I saw an obvious mistake in the first sentence. As I went on, I found the paragraph is confusing and delves into specialized terms (such as vector and Agrobacterium) that are unncessary for an introductory paragraph. It would be good to re-write this.

"Before 1971, the term, biotechnology, was primarily used within the agricultural industries. Since the 1970s, it began to be used by the Western scientific establishment to refer to laboratory-based techniques being developed in biological research, such as recombinant DNA or tissue culture-based processes, or horizontal gene transfer in living plants, using vectors such as the Agrobacterium bacteria to transfer DNA into a host organism. In fact, the term may be used in a much broader sense to describe the whole range of methods, both ancient and modern, used to manipulate organic materials for purposes including the production of food or other substances derived from living things. So the term could be defined as, "The application of indigenous and/or scientific knowledge to the management of (parts of) microorganisms, or of cells and tissues of higher organisms, so that these supply goods and services of use to the food industry and its consumers.[2]" —Preceding unsigned comment added by Johnfravolda (talk • contribs) 00:43, 28 July 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Notable researchers and individuals ... uh, well??

I think it is nice to see a list of important people, although it would have to be incomplete. However, this seems a quite incomplete and I can see several mistakes right off.

First of all, the section title is redundant (are any of these "individuals" not "researchers"?)

Second, why and how are people assigned to nations (Sydney Brenner assigned to the US??)?

Third, what makes them important to biotechnology (many of these people are pivotal actors in molecular biological science and not "technologists").

Fourth, there are some really glaring exclusions (Fredrik Sanger inventor of DNA sequencing, Kary Mullis inventor of PCR).

Perhaps it would be better to list people alphabetically and provide a short description of their contribution. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Johnfravolda (talk • contribs) 04:52, 10 November 2009 (UTC)