What exactly is biotechnology? There are plenty of definitions being floated around by different organizations. Using biology in order to develop technology, with regard to product development and research, is what biotechnology entails. The fields biotechnology can feasibly be used in include agriculture, medicine, food science, environment and robotics.

We have always tried to manipulate and control the world, change it to suit our needs. We do that when we ferment beer, we do it when we culture bacteria, and now we have moved to new levels that would have been considered impossible a few decades back - we have cloned animals and research has turned to concepts like nucleotide-based organ regeneration.

But even before there was a name to call it by, biotechnology was in existence. Even something that people have been doing for centuries, like preservatives to keep food edible during winter, is a form of biotechnology. When around 6000 BC, fruit juice was first fermented to form alcohol, it was another instance of biotechnology. Of course, it has emerged as a science only recently.

The biotechnology we know today started gaining attention only about twenty years ago, when genetics were discovered to be the primary element for synthesizing essential proteins in an organism. The discovery of DNA and the related development of molecular biology was the true beginning of biotechnology as we know it now.

The eighties marked an epoch in biotechnology with the discovery of new concepts, the most important being that modification of genetic structures was possible through combinations of plants and animals. This discovery led to research into fields like disease resistance and increase in productivity rate. Medicine and research in other fields of biology have found the most use for biotechnology. Now, plant-generated pharmaceuticals are common enough, as are creation of insulin and antibiotics.

There are three categories in modern biotechnology. The first is red biotechnology. This concerns the making of substances used in medicine and pharmaceuticals, like vaccines, proteins, antibiotics and vitamins. Red biotechnology also deals with genome manipulation. The other two kinds of biotechnology are green and white biotechnology.

White Biotechnology is also called bio-manufacturing, or Grey Biotechnology. In this field, live organisms are changed and controlled to produce industrial chemicals. The organisms that White Biotechnology uses are moulds, enzymes, yeast and bacteria.

Green Biotechnology is important in agriculture - making better produce that stays fresh and lasts longer, and is more nutritious. This is something people have been doing for a long time - making sturdier crops, like cross-bred wheat for example.