Evaluate the impact of biotechnology on the individual, society, and the environment, including medical and ethical issues (NGSSS SC.912.L.16.10; Reporting Category 2, Classification, Heredity, and Evolution).

What this topic is asking

The NGSSS benchmark SC.912.L.16.10 asks you to evaluate the impact of biotechnology on the individual, society, and the environment, including medical and ethical issues. For the Florida Biology 1 EOC the key word is evaluate: you are not just defining biotechnology, you are weighing its benefits against its risks and ethical concerns. Items often describe a biotechnology and ask for the response that reflects a balanced, evidence-based evaluation.

What biotechnology is

The main techniques and applications

The EOC expects familiarity with several biotechnologies:

• Genetic engineering. Inserting a gene from one organism into another to give it a new trait. Because the genetic code is universal, a human gene placed in bacteria is read the same way, so the bacteria make a human protein. The standard example is bacteria engineered to produce human insulin for people with diabetes.
• Genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Crops or animals whose DNA has been changed, for example crops engineered to resist insects or tolerate drought, raising yields and reducing pesticide use.
• Gene therapy. Inserting a working copy of a gene into a patient's cells to treat a genetic disease caused by a faulty gene.
• Cloning. Producing genetically identical copies of a cell or organism.
• DNA fingerprinting (DNA profiling). Comparing DNA samples to identify individuals, used in forensics (matching a suspect to a crime scene) and in establishing biological relationships.
• Selective breeding. Choosing organisms with desired traits to be parents over many generations, an older form of biotechnology that changes a population's traits without directly editing DNA.

Weighing benefits, risks, and ethics

On the EOC, the correct response to "evaluate this biotechnology" is the option that weighs benefits against risks and ethics. Options that say "all technology is good" or "all technology is harmful" are wrong because they ignore the evidence.

Try this

Q1. Explain why a human gene can be inserted into bacteria so that the bacteria make a human protein. [2]

• Cue. The genetic code is essentially universal, so the bacteria read the inserted gene's codons as the same amino acids and produce the same protein.

Q2. State one benefit and one ethical or environmental concern of growing genetically modified crops. [2]

• Cue. Benefit: higher yields or less pesticide use (or pest resistance). Concern: possible spread of modified genes to wild plants, effects on other species, or safety and access questions.