First thing

I see that Google is investing in biotechnology. It seems that all of a sudden the world is waking up to the idea that biotechnology can be both useful and profitable, while the inherent risks and dangers associated with it are being put to one side in the name of Mammon.

Don't get me wrong, I believe that biotechnology is a wonderful and fascinating world which can potentially solve many problems and make people's lives better and healthier. Only the other day I was watching a pretty hysterical programme on Tv that looked at some of the monstrosities that farmers are producing, not only through selective breeding but also through genetic manipulation. At first glance, chickens with no feathers appear pretty hideous and one considers words like "unnatural", but at the end of the day what is the point of domestic animals anyway? If they were not going to be eaten, would they exist? Can you imagine herds of cattle, flocks of sheep and whatever the collective name for pigs might be, running loose over the western world? I think not. Were it not for Omnivores, these animals would have become more or less extinct anyway.

The featherless chicken was produced to solve a problem. That of overheating in tropical countries. Now farmers in the middle east and central Africa can produce chickens much more effectively than they could before. The chickens will suffer less in the heat and everyone is happy.

Human insulin, routinely injected by type one diabetics is produced by bacteria. The gene that signals for the production of that hormone was extracted from a human cell and inserted into harmless bacteria. The bacteria are then grown in culture and allowed to express the gene and the insulin is purified and collected.

I could go on - the benefits of biotechnology are legion, but let us not overlook the potential risks and inherent dangers. The driving force behind business today is profit. Google would not be putting its money into a company if it did not expect to see a profit. What happens when that becomes the only driving force? Do the companies begin to cut corners and spend less on health and safety concerns? We have seen this happen with the railway system in the UK.

Money talks, of that there is no doubt. As an interviewer once said to Debbie Magee - "What first attracted you to Millionaire Paul Daniels?" Businesses, like people, look out for their own interests.