By inserting genetic instructions into bacteria or yeast—thereby modifying their genetic code—scientists have used microbes to create all sorts of substances, from vaccines and medicines to enzymes that help with the manufacture of cheese. According to Amanda Maxham, Ph.D, a writer and Research Associate with the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights:
Bacteria transform milk into yogurt, are used in the mining of copper and remove waste from water. If you feed sugar to yeast, in a mixture of water and hops, it will reward you by producing carbonated beer. If there is one thing that these microbes are good at, it is taking in one substance as food and turning it into another as waste. And what is one organism’s trash could be another’s treasure.
In the 1970s, genetic engineers discovered the technology to custom-build these tiny “factories.” By inserting genetic instructions into bacteria or yeast—thereby modifying their genetic code—scientists have used microbes to create all sorts of substances, from vaccines and medicines to enzymes that help with the manufacture of cheese.
Read the full, original story here: “Small but mighty genetically modified microbes (#GMOMonday)”
