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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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genetically modifying plants and animals is definitely a new technology humans

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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even more serious about using evolution to our advantage.

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

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

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

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

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successfully all over the place grain production skyrocketed in the Green

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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DNA. yeah well dogs with elephant parts? no probs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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really aren't taking this very seriously.

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