 Thousands of years ago, when the first seed was planted in the ground, the foundation for biotechnology was laid. Just think. The first grapevines and wheat fields paved the way to our understanding of yeast and how its fermentation could create a tasty bread, a tart vinegar, or a satisfying wine. It wasn't long before biotechnology found its way into the practice of animal breeding. Without any real understanding of genetics, Early Man figured out that by mating farm animals with desired characteristics and traits, he could obtain a breed that was highly suited to the work he needed performed. Yes, Early Farmers and Breeders knew they were tapping into a world of possibilities, and they were. They were tapping into the limitless world of biotechnology. The true watershed moment in history for biotechnology was in the 16th century, when a crude microscope was used to observe and ultimately coin the term cells of plant tissues. That quickly led to, first, a better quality microscope, and then, the identification and isolation of a large variety of microorganisms. This vast new world of discovery now opened a door to endless possibilities for medical applications. And with the first inoculation by needle against smallpox, biotechnology really took off. Enter onto the stage in the 1800s, Louis Pasteur, with his development of the process of pasteurization, and Gregor Mendel, who pioneered the chromosomal theory of inheritance. Joseph Lister brought antiseptics into the surgery procedure, and the world began to realize that everything could change with these revelations. It was time to give a name to this amazing field of research. In 1917, Hungarian scientist Karl Recky discovered he could raise hundreds of pigs through the large-scale production of sugar beets for food. He inadvertently called this art of using living things to make other things biotechnology. It certainly deserved a name and definition by that time in history. So where did it go from there? Where didn't it go might be a better question. As advances continued, the world saw many more examples of beneficial progress through experimentation with bacteria and yeast. For example, during World War II, when the demand for chemicals such as acetone and butane was high, scientists discovered that these could be produced on a large scale through fermentation by bacteria and yeast cells. The revelation of the transforming principle of DNA was a game-changing discovery, followed by the breakthrough in 1953 by Watson and Crick that the structure of DNA is that of a double helix. The ever-progressing field then became known as modern biotechnology. This new foundation that all organisms, plant, animal, or other have the same genetic material, DNA, but differ in the sequencing of that DNA led to the 1960s rush to understand the genetic code. It's 1972 and the world's first recombinant DNA molecule has entered the scene. Paul Berg isolated a restriction enzyme to cut the DNA and two separate strands are pasted together to form the first hybrid DNA molecule. This led to the first recombinant commercial product, human insulin, produced in bacterial cells. As a side note, Genentech, the company that introduced this product, went public on the stock market on October 14, 1980 and saw the value of that stock move from $35 to $89 in just one day. That remains the fastest increase in stock value in a set amount of time in the history of the market. Now in this even broader area of research and discovery, the term molecular biotechnology took hold along with this refined definition, the use of biological and biochemical systems to produce products and to better the human condition. In 1990, the Human Genome Project set up to map all of the genes in the human body, which led to the isolation of genes that caused disease. Yet another world of opportunity was opened. The turn of the century heralded a new and limitless frontier for molecular biotechnology, as the industry began growing by leaps and bounds with companies springing up daily and needing thousands of employees to grow with them. The field is an ever-growing one today, as molecular biotechnology continues to better understand diseases to find vaccines, therapies, diagnostic tests and cures. It offers wide applications in plant and animal agriculture, aquaculture, chemical and textile manufacturing, forestry and food processing. It will be utilized to further research in human genome sequencing, stem cell research, in vitro fertilization and environmental progress. Every aspect of our lives in the coming decades will be affected by this dynamic field, even space exploration and research. That's right, many laboratories are involved in researching plants and microorganisms grown in low pressure and microgravity conditions for their potential use in long-distance space missions and beyond. Biotechnology, it started with the humblest of beginnings, has grown by leaps and bounds over the past thousands of years, and yet it's still at its early stages of potential. If you're planning on a career in biotechnology, good news, the sky's the limit. Or is it?