Can you Explain Biotechnology?

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Answer 1

of course i can. i'm a biotech major! :-D

basically it is a biological science. the main differenc between biology and biotechnology is the content. biology tends to be a general subject (like a biology class in high school) that covers everything from plants to animals to ecology to genetics. biotechnology tends to be simply a more technical aspect of biology, and focuses more (it seems to me anyways) on how things are done technique-wise, and doesn't seem to care so much about things like ecology and the nitrogen cycle and food webs and all that sort of stuff.

here's exactly what is says on the RIT Department of Biological Sciences website about the two majors:

Biology is the branch of knowledge that deals with

living things and vital processes.

and

Biotechnology is the use of basic knowledge and laboratory gene techniques in biology, genetics and biochemistry to manipulate genes and genetic materials for the purpose of creating useful products.

required classes for the majors at RIT (where i go to college):

in both majors: general chem 1-3, organic chem 1-3, elementary calculus 1 & 2, data analysis 1, cell biology, molecular biology, genetics.

biology major: general biology 1-3, evolution biology, college physics 1-3, developmental biology, comparative physiology, general ecology.

biotechnology major: intro biology 1-3 (a step above gen. bio.), intro microbiology, immunology, tissue culture, biochemistry:  conformations & dynamics, biochemistry:  metabolism, analytical chemistry:  separations.

the elective classes are mostly in common, just because of the course numbers. but anatomy & physiology (for example) counts as a biology elective but not as a biotechnology elective.

try searching different colleges and google to find a difference if this doesn't satisfy your question.