What Is The Most Important Contribution Of Science And Technology To Society With Regards To Health?

The most important contribution of science and technology to society is probably the advent of the biotechnology industry following the sequencing of the human genome. Not only did this event open up the key to understanding the nature of genes, noncoding DNA and other biological processes that were previously unexplored, it also helped to develop the infrastructure and technology to help explore the data produced. The biotechnology industry now is involved in many different aspects of society, but in terms of health, the most prevalent applications are the use of genetic screening for disease diagnosis, the applications of gene therapy, the comparison studies of polymorphism between individual humans and chimpanzee to discover differences that shape our uniqueness, the discovery of environmental factors that can modify our genetic makeup, and now the latest research on elements apart from genes that control the biological processes of organisms (non-coding DNA). Any one of these contributions can be regarded as being significant to health, depending on your angle. However, up to now, the sequencing of the human genome would be the event that started the genomic revolution, and that would be in my opinion the most important contribution, and the first significant co-operation between science and technology.

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