INNOVATION COURSE Unit 2: Technology Learning object 2: biotechnology
Long ago, most of the man-made world consisted of things he had cultivated himself. Clothes, carpets, sheets and blankets were woven with wool, linen, cotton, or if you were lucky with silk. The shoes were leather. The furniture and utensils were made of wood, which also served as fuel for heating and cooking. Then, humanity discovered coal, oil and chemistry.
Today, only the poorest and the richest burn wood, and many of its uses have been absorbed by plastic. Natural fibers have also yielded much of their market to artificial ones. But it is possible that biology is about to take revenge on the industrial world based on oil and synthetic materials, providing new materials and fuels. And under this appearance, it could even be acceptable in the environmental movement.
For thousands of years, humanity has taken advantage of the biochemical activities of living cells. Bread and beer, for example, depend entirely on the ability of microscopic cells of different yeasts to convert sugars into carbon dioxide and ethanol. The same can be said of cheese and yogurt.
Biotechnology promises new medical procedures adapted to each patient, new cultures and innovative industrial procedures. Indeed, the industrial uses that are made of the genetic manipulation could be more significant than their best known and for other controversial agricultural applications.
OBJECTIVES
Establish relationships between health, agriculture and sustainability
Establish differences between the red, green and white colors.
Understand health from a biotechnological model.
RULE NINE
Let the group know that there are no other selves. Let the group know that there is no color but light, so that darkness occupies the place of light, hiding all differences, eliminating all forms. Then - in the place of tension and at that darkest point - that the group sees a point of light and cold fire and that in that fire (in exactly the same heart) the Rector appears One, whose star shone when the first Portal was transposed.
INTRODUCTORY ACTIVITY: of technologists, engineers and weavers
David is an android who studies ancient languages, such as Proto-European, and English with British intonation, through twentieth-century films. Monitors the crew of the ship traveling in hypersleep. Peter Weyland, the old founder and owner of the Weyland Corporation, was the one who gathered the funds for the creation and launch of the Prometheus scientific ship and travel to the distant moon, the only habitable in the planetary system of a star map found in 2089 by archaeologists Elizabeth Shaw and Charlie Holloway in writings of several ancient cultures without contact between them. That is interpreted as an invitation from the precursors or designers of humanity, their Engineers, to visit a planetary system that appears on the map. After arriving at the planetoid during Christmas 2093, Shaw and Holloway explain to the rest of the crew the characteristics of the mission, which consists of finding the Engineers. The mission director, Meredith Vickers, orders them to avoid making contact without their permission. Prometheus lands near a large artificial structure, which a part of the team explores. Prometheus is a science fiction and horror movie of the year 2012
Wesley Gibson is a young man tired and burdened by having to live as one in the world, not standing out at all. After a hard training where he learns to use his adrenaline discharge ability, combat skills and shoot bullets with curved trajectories, Wesley feels he is ready to kill Cross, his father's killer and traitor of the Fraternity of murderers to which it now belongs. Sloan reveals to Wesley a weaving machine, which was controlled by "fate" and gave in his tissues the names of people who were to be killed to maintain balance in the world, just as He had devised a thousand years ago. Wanted is a 2008 American movie based on the Mark Millar comic.
- After watching the Prometheus and Wanted movies, answer the following questions. How technology takes the step to engineering, what is the importance of genetic engineering? What is the relationship? n of the fire with the DNA ?. How do you imagine a weaver who does not design criminal beings but creative beings?
While Prometheus is the god of fire, the reapers are the goddesses of fate, three spinning sisters who personify birth, life and death. They wrote the fate of men on the walls of a huge bronze wall and no one could erase what they wrote. The three were engaged in spinning; then they cut the thread that measured the length of life with a scissor and that cut fixed the moment of death. They spun white wool and intermingled threads of gold and threads of black wool. The golden threads meant the blissful moments in people's lives and the black wool, the sad periods.
ACTIVITY ONE: Biotechnology.
Biotechnology is the use of techniques for the modification of living organisms. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development defines biotechnology as the "application of principles of science and engineering for treatments of organic and inorganic materials by biological systems to produce goods and services." Its bases are engineering, physics, chemistry, medicine and veterinary; and the field of this science has great repercussion in pharmacy, medicine, food science, solid, liquid, gaseous and agricultural waste treatment. According to the Convention on Biological Diversity of 1992, biotechnology could be defined as “any technological application that uses biological systems and living organisms or their derivatives for the creation or modification of products or processes for specific uses”.
Biotechnology has applications in important industrial areas, such as health care, with the development of new approaches to the treatment of diseases; agriculture with the development of improved crops and food; non-food uses of crops, for example biodegradable plastics, vegetable oils and biofuels; and environmental care through bioremediation, such as recycling, waste treatment and cleaning of sites contaminated by industrial activities. This specific use of plants in biotechnology is called plant biotechnology. It is also applied in genetics to modify certain organisms.
Red biotechnology : applies to the use of biotechnology in medical processes. Some examples are obtaining organisms to produce antibiotics, the development of safer vaccines and new drugs, molecular diagnoses, regenerative therapies and the development of genetic engineering to cure diseases through gene manipulation.
White biotechnology : also known as industrial biotechnology, is that applied to industrial processes. An example is the obtaining of microorganisms to generate a chemical or the use of enzymes as catalysts or industrial enzyme inhibitors, either to produce valuable chemicals or destroy dangerous chemical contaminants (for example using oxidoreductases). of biotechnology in the textile industry, in the creation of new materials, such as biodegradable plastics and in the production of biofuels.
Green biotechnology : is biotechnology applied to agricultural processes. An example of this is the obtaining of transgenic plants capable of growing in unfavorable environmental conditions or plants resistant to pests and diseases. Green biotechnology is expected to produce more environmentally friendly solutions than the traditional methods of industrial agriculture. An example of this is genetic engineering in plants to express pesticides, which eliminates the need for their external application, such as Bt corn.
Blue biotechnology: also called marine biotechnology, it is a term used to describe the applications of biotechnology in marine and aquatic environments. It is still in an early stage of development. Its applications are promising for aquaculture, health care, cosmetics and food products.
Gray biotechnology : also called environmental biotechnology, is that applied to the maintenance of biodiversity, preservation of species and the elimination of pollutants and heavy metals from nature. It is closely linked to bioremediation, using plants and microorganisms to reduce contaminants.
Orange biotechnology : it is educational biotechnology and it is applied to the diffusion of biotechnology and training in this area. Provides interdisciplinary information and training on biotechnology issues (for example, the development of educational strategies to present biotechnological issues such as the design of organisms to produce antibiotics) for the whole society including people with special needs, such as people with hearing problems and / or visuals. It is intended to encourage, identify and attract people with a scientific vocation and high capacities / giftedness for biotechnology.
An example in which beneficial use of biotechnology has been made is in the manufacture of insulin, the hormone that a large number of diabetics have to take regularly, whose organism cannot produce it naturally. Normally insulin is produced by special cells of the pancreas of mammals; that used by diabetics is mainly obtained from pig pancreas through an extraction and purification process; Purification involves many phases dedicated to the elimination of other proteins that, injected into humans, could be harmful.
Products like insulin have great value, so it is likely that the large research and development costs of establishing a genetic engineering process will be offset. In recent years biotechnology has produced an increasing number of products of great value. These come not only from microorganisms, but also from large-scale fermentation of animal and plant cells.
- It proposes how the human being naturally elaborates his nine essential hormones and how is the process of spiritual purification.
ACTIVITY TWO: Biochemistry
The biochemistry is dedicated to something more than the structure of the molecules found in living systems, also studies how these molecules are produced, what changes can occur in the cells, how they interact with the different parts of the body, what chemical processes are behind the effects it causes and what happens to them as consequence.
Proteins are the most common large molecules in living things. They constitute about 50% of the total organic matter. They are important structural components, both of the cells and of the extracellular medium that form the tissues. All proteins are composed of amino acids and there are about 20 essential ones, except for methionine and cysteine (which contain a sulfur atom) all consist of only four elements: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen. Hemoglobin, a red substance that carries oxygen in the blood, is an example of a protein with a quaternary structure, composed of 4 polypeptide chains, each grouped around a heme group; Each of the four heme contains an iron atom that establishes a reversible bond with oxygen. Chlorophyll, the green pigment of plants, is analogous to hemoglobin, but contains magnesium instead of iron.
Enzymes are proteins which have a reputation for capricious molecules if they are exposed to the wrong temperature, acidity, exit or pressure, sometimes they stop working permanently. and the temperature, acidity, salinity or pressure of industrial chemistry are often very different from those found in living beings. Enzyme catalyzed processes have always been a more efficient way to make molecules than traditional chemistry.
Antibodies are another type of specialized protein that are part of the body's defenses against diseases: they are the draft horses of the immune system. Like most proteins, they have an active site on their surface, with a shape that fits in a part of another molecule. Unlike other proteins, antibodies can have active sites in several ways. In nature, that allows them to bind to certain parts of invading pathogens, neutralizing them. The most recent trick is to bind a radioactive isotope with an antibody, so that when the isotope decays, the white cell is destroyed by radiation. This is the most accurate form of radiation therapy imaginable. Rheumatoid arthritis is another target. Adalimumab, an antibody binds to a molecule called tumor necrosis factor, a very important link in the molecular chain that causes arthritis.
- It establishes the origin of amino acids and the difference between hormones, neurotransmitters and antibodies.
ACTIVITY THREE: Agribusiness
Genetic engineering allows organisms to be modified by transgenesis or cisgenesis, that is, the insertion of one or more genes in the genome. Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) include microorganisms such as bacteria or yeasts, plants, insects, fish and other animals. These organisms are the source of genetically modified foods, and are widely used in scientific research to produce goods other than food.
In 2002, some African governments rejected donated food that could contain transgenic grains, so that their own crops would not be "contaminated" with cross-pollination that would make them unacceptable among European consumers. Instead of risking this, they preferred to let people starve to death.
Monsanto has been dedicated to modifying the protein composition of soybeans and corn intended for balanced feed, enhancing the levels of essential amino acids. A second deficiency of the balanced food, its lack of useful phosphorus, is faced by Diversa, who promises a bacterial enzyme called phytase.
The most promising applications of the new model enzymes are plastic and fuels. Biopolymers are twice as environmentally friendly. Since few fossil hydrocarbons are used in their manufacture, they do not contribute to global warming. At this point, there are idealistic people in the industry who start talking about a future "carbohydrate economy" that replaces the current hydrocarbon economy. The rural sector would be rejuvenated as a source of raw materials.
Dolly sheep, the first cloned mammal of an adult cell, died in early 2003. Neither the cloning nor the genetic manipulation of farm animals in trade have yet taken off. Animals are being designed to serve as factories to make therapeutic proteins. It tries to get the animals to secrete the desired protein with their milk. The protein gene is inserted into a goat ovum and, to ensure that it is activated only in the udder cells, an additional segment of DNA, called a beta casein promoter, is added to its side.
It has been achieved that corn plantations develop therapeutic antibodies and express them in large quantities in the endosperms of their seeds. Other products that are part of the mechanism include antibodies against herpes and respiratory syncytial virus, which causes dangerous lung infections in children. An antibody is also being developed for one of the proteins used in Alzheimer's disease.
- Ask what would be the synthesis that you try to achieve in the organization or industry to which it belongs.
ABOUT COLOR AND LIGHT
The striking orange-colored tunics of Buddhist monks are stained, by tradition, based on dry stigmas of saffron, an iridic plant whose active component is a volatile oil called picrocrocin. Saffron, in addition to being used as a dye, is in great demand as a food seasoning because of its penetrating aroma and unmistakable bitter taste.
Perhaps neon ads are the application of noble gases that is more familiar to us. When an electric current passes through a tube with low pressure neon, the ionized gas emits a red light. Through different gas mixtures it is possible to produce the full range of colors of the neon signs.
A common aspect of all organic compounds is the existence in their structure of sequences of atoms linked by double bonds, which form chains or rings. And those sequences, or chromophores, are responsible for absorbing specific wavelengths of light. The reflected wavelengths confer the color to the respective compound, for that reason, by altering the number and sequence of the double bond atoms, chemists deliberately vary the colors of those compounds.
The symbolism of light and darkness is contained in the words: That the group knows that there is no color but light then that darkness occupies the place of light.
Just as the individual must go through the stage where all “color” disappears from life when it leaves the mirage that conditions the astral plane, similarly the groups that prepare for Learning must go through the same devastating process. The mirage disappears and for the first time the group (the same as the individual) wanders in the light. The units of the group, by wandering together in this way, learn the lesson clearly enunciated by modern science that light and substance are synonymous terms; The true nature of the substance, as a field and medium of activity, appears clearly for the apprentice members of the group.
THE WEAVER IN THE LIGHT
Expert apprentices are dedicated to achieving synthesis in their various fields of activity. The practical result of the synthesis is "Weaving in the Light", working with a planned purpose, with loving understanding and intelligent activity. Finally, the work and life of the apprentice become an "immortal flame that burns on the Altar of Humanity."
The Yoga of Synthesis has been called by Master Morya Agni Yoga or Yoga of Fire, because precisely the Fire element breaks down the barriers of separativity or evil. It is the cohesive element and also the purifying process. It produces magnetic and dynamic energies. There is much talk about the fire of the mind, but it is only the universal awareness of the Love of God. Therefore, Love is Fire manifesting itself as Light, Energy and Magnetism.
It is fair and convenient for the apprentice to seek synthesis now. This implies more than a fervent aspiration, the application of fire to life. It consists of using whole life to express, through vehicles, contact with the soul. Such an expression is dynamic and magnetic. Using whole life means that there must be a double influx, horizontal and vertical.
It is the identification with the soul, plus the identification with every expression of manifested life. Vertically, it constitutes the Presence Technique, the knowledge of one's identity whose presence is life, light and love, or light, energy and magnetism. Horizontally, it constitutes the technique of the path of service, the knowledge that this same Life or Presence is expressed in all forms, both material and subtle, and allowing this knowledge to act in our life as an intelligent and loving activity. Every aspirant who has made contact with the soul knows that this vertical and perpendicular work also presupposes the process of a double influx, a give and take. The same goes for horizontal work.
The vertical or Technical Work of the Presence is founded on the immutable Law of Unity in Diversity. As El Tibetano says: "The interaction of the soul and the mind produces the manifested universe, with everything that exists in it." The single word Love describes it.
JORGE ARIEL SOTO LÓPEZ
April 21, 2018
