medicine and agriculture
Biotechnology is the use of biological agents for technological advancement. Biotechnology was used for breeding livestock and crops long before the scientific basis of these techniques was understood. Since the discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953, the field of biotechnology has grown rapidly through both academic research and private companies. The primary applications of this technology are in medicine production of vaccines and antibiotics and agriculture genetic modification of crops, such as to increase yields . Biotechnology also has many industrial applications, such as fermentation, the treatment of oil spills, and the production of biofuels Figure 17.2 .