1.5 Biology and Your Future

KEY CONCEPTUnderstanding biology can help you make informed decisions.

1.5 Biology and Your Future

• SC.912.L.16.10* Evaluate the impact of biotechnology on the individual, society and the environment, including medical and ethical issues. (HIGH)

1.5 Biology and Your Future

Your health and the health of the environment depend on your knowledge of biology.

• Knowledge of biology helps you understand your health.– food allergies– potential effects of obesity

1.5 Biology and Your Future

– cancer

• Knowledge of biology helps you understand your health.

– effects of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs

brain

lungs

heart

liver

kidneys

– food allergies

– potential effects of obesity

1.5 Biology and Your Future

• Knowledge of biology can help you understand environmental issues.– interactions in ecosystems

– biodiversity– pollution

1.5 Biology and Your Future

Biotechnology offers great promise but also raises many issues.

• Biotechnology is the use and application of living things and biological processes.

Biotechnology is being used in the search sources, such as shown in this bioreactor that used algae to produce hydrogen gas or alternative energy

1.5 Biology and Your Future

– DNA testing in medicine and forensics

• Biotechnology is the use and application of living things and biological processes.

– transgenic (genetically modified) crops– transgenic bacteria

1.5 Biology and Your Future

• Questions are raised about the use of biotechnology.

– spread of undesirable genes– decrease in biodiversity– ethical considerations

– safety of genetically

modified crops

Risks—unknown long-term effects of genetically modified crops, safety of GM plants,possibility of decreasing biodiversity

Ethical concerns—privacy of genetic testing, possible discrimination based on geneticscreening, ethics of choosing characteristics of children, use of genetic information

1.5 Biology and Your Future

Biology presents many unanswered questions.

• Over the past 50 years, biological knowledge has greatly increased.

Methane worms live in frozen methane gas at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. Because some organisms can live in such extreme environments, some scientist hypothesize that life exists, or once existed on the planet mars.

SEM magnification 20X

1.5 Biology and Your Future

• There are still many questions to answer in biology.

– How are memories stored in the brain?

1.5 Biology and Your Future

• There are still many questions to answer in biology.

– How are memories stored in the brain?

– Does life exist on planets other than Earth?

– How do viruses mutate?

surface proteins

lipid

envelope

nucleic acid capsid