Fiechter / Sautter Green Gene Technology

Research in an Area of Social Conflict
1. Auflage 2007
ISBN: 978-3-540-71323-4
Verlag: Springer
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: 1 - PDF Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, Band 107, 304 Seiten, eBook

Reihe: Advances in Biochemical Engineering - Biotechnology

Advances in Biochemical Engineering/Biotechnology reviews actual trends in modern biotechnology. Its aim is to cover all aspects of this interdisciplinary technology where knowledge, methods and expertise are required for chemistry, biochemistry, micro-biology, genetics, chemical engineering and computer science.

Special volumes are dedicated to selected topicswhich focus on newbiotechnological products and new processes for their synthesis and purification. They give the state-of-the-art of a topic in a comprehensive way thus being a valuable source for the next 3–5 years. It also discusses new discoveries and applications. Special volumes are edited by well known guest editors who invite reputed authors for the review articles in their volumes.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Fiechter, Armin

Sautter, Christof

Inhaltsverzeichnis

The Gap between Science and Perception: The Case of Plant Biotechnology in Europe.- Biotechnology Patenting Policy in the European Union – as Exemplified by the Development in Germany.- Bioscience, Bioinnovations, and Bioethics.- Genetically Modified Organisms in the United States: Implementation, Concerns, and Public Perception.- Agricultural Biotechnology and its Contribution to the Global Knowledge Economy.- Exploration and Swiss Field-Testing of a Viral Gene for Specific Quantitative Resistance Against Smuts and Bunts in Wheat.- Recombinant DNA Technology in Apple.- Prospects for Biopolymer Production in Plants.- Plastoglobule Lipid Bodies: their Functions in Chloroplasts and their Potential for Applications.- Genetic and Ecological Consequences of Transgene Flow to the Wild Flora.- Assessing Effects of Transgenic Crops on Soil Microbial Communities.- Ecological Impacts of Genetically Modified Crops: Ten Years of Field Research and Commercial Cultivation.

Leseproben

Bioscience, Bioinnovations, and Bioethics (p. 41-42)

Matti Leisola Laboratory of Bioprocess Engineering, Department of Chemical Technology, Helsinki University of Technology, P.O. Box 6100, 02015 TKK Helsinki, Finland

Abstract Biosciences and their applications, which we call biotechnology, have affected human society in many ways. Great hopes have been set on future biotechnology. The future depends on three key issues. First, we need good science. Recent developments in biosciences have surprised us in many ways. I shall explain in this article how. Secondly, we need structured innovation systems in order to commercialize our discoveries. Europe is slow in this respect compared to our Japanese and American competitors and may lose in the competition. I shall describe the Finnish innovation chain using the rewarded Otaniemi model as an example of how commercialization can be done in a systematic way. Thirdly, we need norms to guide what to do and where to go. Bioethics is probably the most neglected of the three key issues. With modern biotechnology we are able to do things that should worry every citizen, but the ethical discussion has been largely neglected or the discussion in our pluralistic society is leading nowhere. I shall .nally discuss these problems from a historical perspective.

Keywords Biosystems · Biotechnology · Commercialization · Otaniemi model · Bioethics

1 Revolution in Biosciences

We tend to think that facts define our theory. Einstein realized that "it is the theory which decides what we can observe" [1]. The Austrian philosopher of science, Karl Popper, wrote in 1935 that scientists do not work according to the so-called scientific method [2]. The same was said even more sharply by Paul Feyerabend: "The attempt... to discover the secrets of nature and of man entails, therefore, the rejection of all universal standards and of all rigid traditions" [3]. Science is not a neutral field which is not in.uenced by philosophy, religion, or culture. Feyerabend claims that there is no systematic scienti.c method for revolutionary discoveries. Most new discoveries have been surprises and it has often taken a long time before they have been accepted by the establishment. It is fair to say that biology keeps on surprising us with its complexity.

1.1 Biological Surprises

Everything in biology is complex. This complexity has often been underestimated. Life was once considered a simple phenomenon which arose spontaneously from nonliving matter. Ernst Haeckel is known for his comparative studies on mammalian embryos and for his famous concept "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny". Less well known is that he faked his embryo drawings [4]. Haeckel described the .rst living cell Monera which was supposed to be easily formed from nonliving matter, but he actually faked the Monera life cycle [5]. His Monera pictures were recycled in the literature for 50 years as the basis of the famous all-encompassing tree of the animal kingdom, although Pasteur’s sterilization experiments had actually shown almost 10 years before that he was wrong at the start.