Unlikely Pair?
Insect Repellent
Genetic engineering has also allowed plants to become resistant to insects that would otherwise cause disease. In 1972 the environmental protection agency categorized a cotton plant that produced insect killing proteins from bacterium under the federal insecticide, fungicide and Rodenticide act (Mestel). It can be seen that genetic engineering has allowed us to not use pesticides on plants, but in turn letting the plants produce their own repellent. This has allowed us to greatly improve upon the rate at which crops are grown today.
Holy Trees!
With the threat of global warming constantly growing and devastating many animals’ habitats, a solutions need to be made before it is too late. Global warming is depleting one of the world’s most valuable resources, oxygen. The field of genetic engineering provides many outlooks into this field. Carbon dioxide is one of the leading green house gases that cause global warming today. It is common knowledge that plants absorb carbon dioxide to produce oxygen, but when there is too much carbon dioxide the plant will start to die. Klaus Lackner, a director of lenfest center for sustainable energy in Columbia University has come up with artificial a tree that absorbs carbon dioxide from the air using its leaves passively (Vince). It is 1000 times more efficient than regular plants (Vince). In other words these artificial trees can potentially solve global warming all together if mass produced. They are very economically efficient and do not take up much space. In the end providing a solution to our resource depletion problem we have today.
Bacteria
Genetic engineering may potentially lead to new advancements in energy production. Currently energy is a resource that nations around the world need desperately. Technology in our world today is rapidly growing and in result that requires more energy. Without energy nations cannot advance in technology without sacrificing others. Luckily genetic engineering shines light into this field. Genetic engineering on bacteria is still restricted to laboratories, but is shows promise for energy production, medicine and other areas (Vastag). With this in mind we can possibly produce energy generating bacterium adding on to the medical benefits of genetic engineering. Energy producing bacterium would at last produce a viable source of energy without creating a dangerous radioactive waste zone. In due allow countries around the world to stagger the speed at which we consume our resources.
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Eco-friendly Source of energy!
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