Genetic engineering, altering the inherited characteristics of an organism in a
predetermined way, by introducing into it a piece of the genetic material of
another organism. Genetic engineering offers the hope of cures for many
inherited diseases, once the problem of low efficiencies of effective transfer
of genetic material is overcome.
Another development has been the refinement of the technique called
cloning, which produces large numbers of genetically identical individuals by
transplanting whole cell nuclei. With other techniques scientists can isolate
sections of DNA representi…