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History of Technology 3: Genetically Modifying Plants and Animals 5 Views


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Description:

Genetically modifying plants and animals has given us many things, perhaps the most important being glowing fish. We wish we were kidding.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:03

Agriculture, when we think of agriculture we don't always think of

00:06

super high-tech sciency stuff. we tend to think of old-fashioned tractors and [scientist in a lab]

00:11

men wearing overalls maybe some happy cows mooing in the distance . happy

00:16

little tree here oh wait that's a Bob Ross. all right well anyway as it turns

00:21

out agriculture is actually using some of the most cutting-edge science in town.

00:25

we're talking about the power to mix and match DNA .seriously like making corn

00:31

that poisoned bugs. tomatoes that don't rot. in sakko plants that glow. also needs

00:37

to wait for evolution when we can jump-started ourselves. what could

00:41

possibly go wrong? well the jury is turning out on that one.

00:46

genetically modifying plants and animals is definitely a new technology humans

00:50

didn't even have the ability to mix and match DNA into the late 1970s. and way

00:55

back then people mistakenly thought DNA meant disco now and always. truth is we

01:01

didn't even know what DNA was until recently, but even though it didn't [two men with a disco ball]

01:05

happen in a petri dish humans have been manipulating genes for a long time. we

01:10

could even say that the beginning of Agriculture was an example of humans

01:13

artificially selecting which genetic traits they liked best, but the very

01:19

least humans were giving evolution and assist. in the early 20th century we got

01:24

even more serious about using evolution to our advantage.

01:27

scientists in the US Japan and Mexico all started crossbreeding plants in labs [people look skeptical]

01:32

to make them produce more food and resist certain diseases. they were all

01:36

trying to make high yielding varieties or hy Vees of different grains mostly

01:42

wheat and rice to you know feed the world. by the 1960's hy Vees were grown

01:47

successfully all over the place grain production skyrocketed in the Green

01:51

Revolution kicked into high gear. you might be thinking to yourself well that

01:55

sounds like a good place to stop. but when has humanity ever said that? well in

02:01

1972 two biochemist named Boyer and Cohen managed to invent recombinant DNA

02:08

or r- DNA. r- DNA molecules are artificially made little [terms defined]

02:13

pieces of DNA that scientists use to do a little genetic remixing. so basically Moyer and Cohen

02:20

figured out how we could use DNA DJ's we can now take DNA from one animal plant

02:25

or bacteria and stick them in the middle of some other type bugs animal or plant

02:31

DNA. yeah well dogs with elephant parts? no probs

02:35

okay it's a little more complicated than cutting and pasting but that's the

02:38

general idea. one of the very first things scientists made was artificial

02:42

insulin which is the stuff that helps treat diabetes. we used to take it from

02:47

pigs and cows just come on what if they need it for right? they were just hogging

02:53

it. well anyway r- DNA was also used to make the hepatitis

02:58

B vaccine and a human blood clotting factor. oh and also glowing fish here's

03:05

what fish the glow under a blacklight just goes to show that some scientists

03:09

really aren't taking this very seriously.

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