Publications
Regulating Biotechnology: Some Questions and Answers
IPA BACKGROUNDER
Forty years ago James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the molecular structure of DNA and, from the early seventies, biotechnologists progressively learned more precise ways of introducing genes into plants and animals. Although by cross-breeding and selection most domesticated and cultivated species have been changed radically from their wild forebears, technology which became referred to as 'genetic engineering' or 'recombinant DNA (r-DNA) technology' allowed the incorporation of novel characteristics which traditional breeding cannot achieve.