Q 01/05

In the 1980 Chakrabarty ruling that living organisms can be patented, the engineered bacterium was designed to do what?

A) Produce human insulin

B) Break down crude oil

C) Glow in the dark

D) Digest plastic waste

Answer · why

B) Break down crude oil

Break down crude oil: Ananda Chakrabarty built the bacterium at General Electric to clean up spills, and the Supreme Court's 5–4 ruling for him set of...

Q 02/05

The Flavr Savr, the first genetically engineered food licensed for sale in the US in 1994, was a slow-softening what?

A) A potato

B) A soybean

C) A tomato

D) A strawberry

Answer · why

C) A tomato

The Flavr Savr tomato, developed by the company Calgene, carried a reversed gene that slowed production of a rotting enzyme so the fruit stayed firm f...

Q 03/05

Kary Mullis said the idea for PCR, the DNA-copying method that earned him a Nobel, came to him while doing what?

A) Surfing at dawn

B) Driving in the countryside

C) Taking a hot shower

D) Dozing through a lecture

Answer · why

B) Driving in the countryside

Driving in the countryside one night in 1983, heading for his Mendocino County cabin, Mullis hit on two primers bracketing a stretch of DNA, then pull...

Q 04/05

The heat-loving bacterium whose enzyme made PCR practical was first found in a hot spring of which national park?

A) Yosemite

B) Yellowstone

C) Hot Springs

D) Lassen Volcanic

Answer · why

B) Yellowstone

Yellowstone's Mushroom Spring yielded Thermus aquaticus in the 1960s, yet the park has received no share of the money made from its Taq enzyme.

Q 05/05

Károly Ereky, the agricultural engineer who coined the word 'biotechnology' in a 1919 book, came from which country?

A) Germany

B) Austria

C) Poland

D) Hungary

Answer · why

D) Hungary

Hungary was home to Ereky, whose Berlin-published book dealt with livestock production on large farms, so 'biotechnology' began as a farming word deca...