1935 lithograph titled Merchants of Death by socialist printmaker Mabel Dwight
Merchants of death is a pejorative directed at the arms industry and also often at international bankers. It originated in the Great Depression.
This theory claimed that an international munitions industry conspired
to control the fate of nations via improper influence over government
officials. The purpose of this supposed conspiracy was to extract
profits from human death. During peacetime, the conspirators would stir
up antagonism and war between nations so that they could then arm the
combatants and line their pockets with the proceeds. The phrase is a
forerunner of the military-industrial complex concept that became popular during the Vietnam War.
Usage
Merchants of death is considered a derogatory term by scholars. Anti-war activists who use the phrase likewise describe it as a pejorative. It has been described as ugly in spirit and slanderous. In addition to its use as a derogatory term, merchants of death refers
to a conspiracy theory claiming that war is caused by artificial
conflicts stirred up by arms makers and bankers for their own profit. The first use of the term occurred during the Great Depression and it quickly achieved popularity during the lead-up to WWII.
A very comforting myth has evolved
through the years to account for mankind's penchant for
self-destruction. War can be blamed squarely on two elements of society
that are limited in number, highly visible, and unloved—the munitions
makers and their associates, the international bankers. These devils
have come to be known collectively as "merchants of death," although the
term is quite often applied to the munitions makers alone.
— Anne Trotter
Although a few cases of unethical behavior on the part of arms makers
around the year 1900 influenced the later birth of the term, the
allegations of conspiracy that were widely alleged under the moniker merchants of death were found to be baseless by the Nye Committee and subsequent investigations.
The term became popular once again during the Vietnam War at the same time that the similar phrase military-industrial complex first achieved common usage. Military-industrial complex is likewise almost always pejorative and carries sinister overtones.
History of the theory
Popular anxiety that a ruler may lead a nation into war for his own
self-interests has a long history dating to the dawn of society.
However, criticism of arms makers is a modern phenomenon originating in
the Industrial Revolution. Armorers were well-to-do artisans in Ancient Greece and Rome through the Middle Ages in European towns known for arms making such as Toledo, Milan, Nuremberg, and Liège. But ancient armorers remained firmly in the class of respectable artisans rather than rising to become wealthy businessmen.
Animosity towards the arms industry became a matter of public debate at the start of the 20th century. Socialists began blaming war on capitalists at the Second International where they took up the cause of antimilitarism and J. A. Hobson claimed in 1902 that wars are started by businessmen feigning national antagonisms which have no basis in reality. A fictional arms manufacturer was portrayed negatively in the 1905 play Major Barbara with lines like You will make war when it suits us, and keep peace when it doesn’t The international peace movement first focused attention on large European arms makers such as Schneider-Creusot, Krupp, Vickers, Armstrong Whitworth, and Škoda around the time of the Second Hague Conference in 1907.
Following the Anglo-German Naval Race of 1909, public criticism of munitions makers increased in England. The War Traders
by George Perris influenced intellectuals and socialists to begin
discussing nationalization of munitions makers to put them under public
control. The attacks on the arms industry just prior to WWI had all the elements
of the merchants of death theory that erupted 20 years later. These
included charges of war scares fomented by industry, international arms
cartels, manipulation of the news media, and conflicts of interest in
government procurement. These claims were promoted by pamphlets such as National Labour Press’s The War Trust Exposed, Union of Democratic Control’s The International Industry of War, National Peace Council’s The War Traders, and World Peace Foundation’s Syndicates for War and Dreadnoughts and Dividends.
there is a powerful group of
capitalists, closely allied to the fighting services, firmly entrenched
in society, and well served by politicians and journalists, whose
business it is to exploit the rivalries and jealousies of nations.
Conflict between the peace movement and the Navy League of the United States broke out in the lead-up to WWI when Clyde H. Tavenner
accused the League of being a front for the vested interests of its
officers and arms makers. Tavenner called for nationalization of the
arms industries in a speech in the United States House of Representatives.Progressives
in America began targeting arms makers as a subset of their more
general enemies of big business and bankers. An early victory in this
fight was a prohibition on loans to the belligerents by Secretary of
State William Jennings Bryan, though that was reversed the following year by his successor. When Woodrow Wilson
began preparing the nation for war, Progressives in Congress reacted by
enacting a special tax on munitions makers and a war excess-profits
tax.
Criticism of armaments cooled in Europe with the outbreak of war
in 1914, and in America when it entered the war in 1917, though a
minority in America including George W. Norris continued to claim that arms makers and financiers were pushing the country into the war.
The industrialized weapons of WWI ushered in the era of
industrialized warfare that efficiently killed men without any of the
chivalry of ancient battle. The general public came to consider large wartime profits as compelling evidence of profiteering
without considering the complexities of what constitutes a fair profit
or that munitions makers are necessary during wartime. An additional
aspect of moral outrage was a general feeling that producing equipment
for the purpose of destroying human life was wrong, but that the farmer
who grows cotton for explosives or the miner who digs ore that is forged
into guns was above reproach. Rather than considering the moral
dimensions of each citizen's participation, a simple stereotype
developed that assigned all moral opprobrium to owners of the munitions
industry, or merchants of death, as they came to be known. When DuPont
emerged from the war having made a large profit on sales of explosives,
they were branded as greedy profiteers despite having lowered prices
during the war.
Outrage cooled following the Armistice with the League of Nations's attempts at international arms control receiving little popular support in America. However, things flared up again in 1926 with the publication of Genesis of War by controversial historian Harry Elmer Barnes who claimed Germany was blameless and that Wilson and his warmongering assistants were at fault instead.
Arms control was debated by the United States Congress
in the late 1920s including the Burton Resolution of 1928 and the
Capper and Porter resolutions of 1929 which proposed to prohibit exports
of arms to any nation engaged in war. In August of 1929, three large
American shipbuilding companies were revealed to have employed William
Shearer to sabotage the Geneva Naval Conference of 1927. An investigation by the United States Senate resulted in considerable press coverage, but no concrete action. War itself was renounced with the signing of the Kellogg–Briand Pact.
The Great Depression
As the world descended into the Great Depression
and European nations defaulted on their debts, disenchanted Americans
became certain that “someone” in big business must be responsible for
the mess they found themselves in. Public fear of war built during the Depression as the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, the Chaco War, and Adolf Hitler's rise to power made clear the possibility of another world war.
Congress investigated ways to “remove profits from war” with the
War Policies Commission established in 1930. The commission featured Bernard Baruch as its star witness, who published Taking the Profit out of War around the same time.
The term Merchants of Death was introduced to the public in 1932 as the title of an article in Le Crapouillot by French journalist Xavier de Hauteclocque [fr] about a British arms dealer named Basil Zaharoff, originally called in French "Sir Basil Zaharoff, le magnat de la mort subite" and translated as "Zaharoff, Merchant of Death." Hautcloque referred to Zaharoff as "marchand de mort subite," which had many idiomatic meanings in French but wasn't used to refer to arms dealers.
The American delegation to the World Disarmament Conference
of 1932 enjoyed broad public support for establishing international
control over arms makers. The international arms industry was then
accused of sabotaging this conference first in British and French press,
and then in the The Literary Digest and The Nation through 1933. The most important American publications of this period were a series of three articles by Progressive historian Charles A. Beard in The New Republic that focused specifically on alleged abuses by American arms makers.
American politician Gerald Nye who rose to fame by investigating "merchants of death"
Things came to a head with formation of the Nye Committee which generated headlines for the next two years.Gerald Nye
rose to fame by launching a series of congressional hearings aiming to
prove the theory that munitions makers and bankers were responsible for
American entry into WWI, and for war in general. Ninety-three hearings
were held, over 200 witnesses were called, and little hard evidence of a
conspiracy was found. The Nye Committee came to an end when Chairman
Nye accused President Woodrow Wilson of withholding information from
Congress when he chose to enter World War I. The Nye Committee failed to substantiate the theory, but succeeded in convincing the public by way of sensationalist rhetoric.When the hearings were finished and a final report made, the committee
members were almost unanimous in their view that the evidence failed to
support the merchants of death theory. However, Nye did uncover rampant conflicts of interest and questionable practices among members of the War Industries Board.President Truman later called the Nye Committee “…pure demagoguery in the guise of a Congressional Investigating Committee.”
The outrage whipped up by the Nye Committee resulted in a series of isolationist Neutrality Acts
that prohibited private loans and sales of war materials whenever a
state of war existed anywhere on the globe. These laws are now generally
regarded as having aided the rise of Nazi Germany and were repealed in 1941.
Influential scandals
Anglo-French naval panics
The Royal Navy was known to be in superb shape in 1884, but a series of editorials in the Pall Mall Gazette
claimed that England was in imminent danger of invasion by a secret
French navy. The rumor spread to newspapers around the country and was
aided by voices of businessmen who were concerned about the high
unemployment rate at the time. The panic caused the Admiralty to ask for
emergency funds to reinforce its fleet, despite believing such a tax
increase to be unnecessary.
Carnegie Steel
In 1894, allegations of fraud were made against the Carnegie Steel Company in connection with armor plate that it was manufacturing for the government. The company’s president, Charles M. Schwab,
was called to testify before Congress. However, despite the bluster of
some congressmen who pushed for a federal armor factory, the furor
passed after it became clear that the government gained more from the
relationship than it lost. The incident brought to light the problem of a revolving door where naval officers on temporary leave worked for these steel companies and even received royalties on patents.
Anglo-German Naval Race of 1909
British naval officers and industrialists agreed to interpret German
naval expansion as a threat to British security in order to secure
dramatically increased naval spending from the British people. This
collusion fueled the arms race.
The arms race was fomented by H.H. Mulliner, director of the Coventry Ordnance Works who wished to increase his firm’s government orders.
He went about this by sharing what he claimed was secret intelligence
that the Germans were about to overtake England in shipbuilding. Krupp,
a German firm with a fearsome reputation, was implicated in this false
rumor. After attempting to directly influence the Admiralty with his
story it was leaked to the press which had the desired effect of
inflaming public sentiment to the point that protesters began demanding
an increase in English shipbuilding to counter the fictitious German
threat. Denials by Krupp and Berlin only made matters worse. Parliament
responded by allocating money for four new ships, which prompted Germany
to increase its own spending.
Mulliner’s scheme was revealed three years after he started
spreading the rumors when his firm received only a small share of the
anticipated work, prompting him to write a series of letters to the The Times
explaining his role in fabricating the scare, while defending himself
has having acted out of a sense of patriotism. Mulliner was fired by
Coventry Ordnance Works and the firm was blocked from government
contracts for 3 years.
Shearer affair
In August 1929, three large American shipbuilding companies were revealed to have employed William Shearer to sabotage the Geneva Naval Conference of 1927. An investigation by the United States Senate resulted in considerable press coverage, but no concrete action.
Biomolecular engineers purposefully manipulate carbohydrates, proteins, nucleic acids and lipids within the framework of the relation between their structure (see: nucleic acid structure, carbohydrate chemistry, protein structure,), function (see: protein function) and properties and in relation to applicability to such areas as environmental remediation,
crop and livestock production, biofuel cells and biomolecular
diagnostics. The thermodynamics and kinetics of molecular recognition in
enzymes, antibodies, DNA hybridization,
bio-conjugation/bio-immobilization and bioseparations are studied.
Attention is also given to the rudiments of engineered biomolecules in cell signaling, cell growth kinetics, biochemical pathway engineering and bioreactor engineering.
Timeline
History
During World War II, the need for large quantities of penicillin
of acceptable quality brought together chemical engineers and
microbiologists to focus on penicillin production. This created the
right conditions to start a chain of reactions that lead to the creation
of the field of biomolecular engineering. Biomolecular engineering was
first defined in 1992 by the U.S. National Institutes of Health
as research at the interface of chemical engineering and biology with
an emphasis at the molecular level". Although first defined as research,
biomolecular engineering has since become an academic discipline and a
field of engineering practice. Herceptin, a humanized Mab for breast cancer treatment, became the first drug designed by a biomolecular engineering approach and was approved by the U.S. FDA. Also, Biomolecular Engineering was a former name of the journal New Biotechnology.
Future
Bio-inspired technologies of the future can help explain biomolecular engineering. Looking at the Moore's law "Prediction", in the future quantum
and biology-based processors are "big" technologies. With the use of
biomolecular engineering, the way our processors work can be manipulated
in order to function in the same sense a biological cell work.
Biomolecular engineering has the potential to become one of the most
important scientific disciplines because of its advancements in the
analyses of gene expression patterns as well as the purposeful
manipulation of many important biomolecules to improve functionality.
Research in this field may lead to new drug discoveries, improved
therapies, and advancement in new bioprocess technology. With the
increasing knowledge of biomolecules, the rate of finding new high-value
molecules including but not limited to antibodies, enzymes, vaccines, and therapeutic peptides
will continue to accelerate. Biomolecular engineering will produce new
designs for therapeutic drugs and high-value biomolecules for treatment
or prevention of cancers, genetic diseases, and other types of metabolic diseases. Also, there is anticipation of industrial enzymes
that are engineered to have desirable properties for process
improvement as well the manufacturing of high-value biomolecular
products at a much lower production cost. Using recombinant technology, new antibiotics that are active against resistant strains will also be produced.
Basic biomolecules
Biomolecular engineering deals with the manipulation of many key
biomolecules. These include, but are not limited to, proteins,
carbohydrates, nucleic acids, and lipids. These molecules are the basic
building blocks of life and by controlling, creating, and manipulating
their form and function there are many new avenues and advantages
available to society. Since every biomolecule is different, there are a number of techniques used to manipulate each one respectively.
Proteins are polymers that are made up of amino acid chains linked with peptide bonds.
They have four distinct levels of structure: primary, secondary,
tertiary, and quaternary.
Primary structure refers to the amino acid backbone sequence. Secondary
structure focuses on minor conformations that develop as a result of
the hydrogen bonding between the amino acid chain. If most of the
protein contains intermolecular hydrogen bonds it is said to be
fibrillar, and the majority of its secondary structure will be beta sheets.
However, if the majority of the orientation contains intramolecular
hydrogen bonds, then the protein is referred to as globular and mostly
consists of alpha helices. There are also conformations that consist of a mix of alpha helices and beta sheets as well as a beta helixes with an alpha sheets.
The tertiary structure of proteins deal with their folding
process and how the overall molecule is arranged. Finally, a quaternary
structure is a group of tertiary proteins coming together and binding.
With all of these levels, proteins have a wide variety of places in
which they can be manipulated and adjusted. Techniques are used to
affect the amino acid sequence of the protein (site-directed
mutagenesis), the folding and conformation of the protein, or the
folding of a single tertiary protein within a quaternary protein matrix.
Proteins that are the main focus of manipulation are typically enzymes. These are proteins that act as catalysts for biochemical reactions.
By manipulating these catalysts, the reaction rates, products, and
effects can be controlled. Enzymes and proteins are important to the
biological field and research that there are specific divisions of
engineering focusing only on proteins and enzymes.
Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are another important biomolecule. These are polymers, called polysaccharides, which are made up of chains of simple sugars connected via glycosidic bonds. These monosaccharides
consist of a five to six carbon ring that contains carbon, hydrogen,
and oxygen - typically in a 1:2:1 ratio, respectively. Common
monosaccharides are glucose, fructose, and ribose. When linked together monosaccharides can form disaccharides, oligosaccharides,
and polysaccharides: the nomenclature is dependent on the number of
monosaccharides linked together. Common dissacharides, two
monosaccharides joined, are sucrose, maltose, and lactose. Important polysaccharides, links of many monosaccharides, are cellulose, starch, and chitin.
Cellulose
is a polysaccharide made up of beta 1-4 linkages between repeat glucose
monomers. It is the most abundant source of sugar in nature and is a
major part of the paper industry.
Starch
is also a polysaccharide made up of glucose monomers; however, they are
connected via an alpha 1-4 linkage instead of beta. Starches,
particularly amylase, are important in many industries, including the paper, cosmetic, and food.
Chitin is a derivation of cellulose, possessing an acetamide group instead of an –OH on one of its carbons. Acetimide group is deacetylated the polymer chain is then called chitosan. Both of these cellulose derivatives are a major source of research for the biomedical and food industries. They have been shown to assist with blood clotting, have antimicrobial properties, and dietary applications. A lot of engineering and research is focusing on the degree of deacetylation that provides the most effective result for specific applications.
Nucleic acids
Nucleic acids
are macromolecules that consist of DNA and RNA which are biopolymers
consisting of chains of biomolecules. These two molecules are the
genetic code and template that make life possible. Manipulation of
these molecules and structures causes major changes in function and
expression of other macromolecules. Nucleosides are glycosylamines containing a nucleobase bound to either ribose or deoxyribose sugar via a beta-glycosidic linkage. The sequence of the bases determine the genetic code. Nucleotides are nucleosides that are phosphorylated by specific kinases via a phosphodiester bond. Nucleotides are the repeating structural units of nucleic acids. The
nucleotides are made of a nitrogenous base, a pentose (ribose for RNA or
deoxyribose for DNA), and three phosphate groups. See, Site-directed mutagenesis, recombinant DNA, and ELISAs.
Lipids
Lipids are biomolecules that are made up of glycerol derivatives bonded with fatty acid chains. Glycerol is a simple polyol that has a formula of C3H5(OH)3. Fatty acids are long carbon chains that have a carboxylic acid group at the end. The carbon
chains can be either saturated with hydrogen; every carbon bond is
occupied by a hydrogen atom or a single bond to another carbon in the
carbon chain, or they can be unsaturated; namely, there are double bonds
between the carbon atoms in the chain. Common fatty acids include lauric acid, stearic acid, and oleic acid.
The study and engineering of lipids typically focuses on the
manipulation of lipid membranes and encapsulation. Cellular membranes
and other biological membranes typically consist of a phospholipid bilayer
membrane, or a derivative thereof. Along with the study of cellular
membranes, lipids are also important molecules for energy storage. By
utilizing encapsulation properties and thermodynamic characteristics, lipids become significant assets in structure and energy control when engineering molecules.
Recombinant DNA
are DNA biomolecules that contain genetic sequences that are not native
to the organism's genome. Using recombinant techniques, it is possible
to insert, delete, or alter a DNA sequence precisely without depending
on the location of restriction sites. Recombinant DNA is used for a wide
range of applications.
Method
Creating
recombinant DNA. After the plasmid is cleaved by restriction enzymes,
ligases insert the foreign DNA fragments into the plasmid.
The traditional method for creating recombinant DNA typically involves the use of plasmids
in the host bacteria. The plasmid contains a genetic sequence
corresponding to the recognition site of a restriction endonuclease,
such as EcoR1.
After foreign DNA fragments, which have also been cut with the same
restriction endonuclease, have been inserted into host cell, the
restriction endonuclease gene is expressed by applying heat, or by introducing a biomolecule, such as arabinose. Upon expression, the enzyme will cleave the plasmid at its corresponding recognition site creating sticky ends on the plasmid. Ligases then joins the sticky ends to the corresponding sticky ends of the foreign DNA fragments creating a recombinant DNA plasmid.
Advances in genetic engineering
have made the modification of genes in microbes quite efficient
allowing constructs to be made in about a weeks worth of time. It has
also made it possible to modify the organism's genome itself.
Specifically, use of the genes from the bacteriophage lambda are used in recombination. This mechanism, known as recombineering,
utilizes the three proteins Exo, Beta, and Gam, which are created by
the genes exo, bet, and gam respectively. Exo is a double stranded DNA exonuclease
with 5' to 3' activity. It cuts the double stranded DNA leaving 3'
overhangs. Beta is a protein that binds to single stranded DNA and
assists homologous recombination
by promoting annealing between the homology regions of the inserted DNA
and the chromosomal DNA. Gam functions to protect the DNA insert from
being destroyed by native nucleases within the cell.
Applications
Recombinant DNA can be engineered for a wide variety of purposes. The
techniques utilized allow for specific modification of genes making it
possible to modify any biomolecule. It can be engineered for laboratory
purposes, where it can be used to analyze genes in a given organism. In
the pharmaceutical industry, proteins can be modified using
recombination techniques. Some of these proteins include human insulin. Recombinant insulin is synthesized by inserting the human insulin gene into E. coli, which then produces insulin for human use. Other proteins, such as human growth hormone, factor VIII,
and hepatitis B vaccine are produced using similar means. Recombinant
DNA can also be used for diagnostic methods involving the use of the ELISA
method. This makes it possible to engineer antigens, as well as the
enzymes attached, to recognize different substrates or be modified for
bioimmobilization. Recombinant DNA is also responsible for many products
found in the agricultural industry. Genetically modified food, such as golden rice, has been engineered to have increased production of vitamin A
for use in societies and cultures where dietary vitamin A is scarce.
Other properties that have been engineered into crops include
herbicide-resistance and insect-resistance.
Site-directed mutagenesis
Site-directed mutagenesis
is a technique that has been around since the 1970s. The early days of
research in this field yielded discoveries about the potential of
certain chemicals such as bisulfite and aminopurine
to change certain bases in a gene. This research continued, and other
processes were developed to create certain nucleotide sequences on a
gene, such as the use of restriction enzymes to fragment certain viral
strands and use them as primers for bacterial plasmids. The modern
method, developed by Michael Smith in 1978, uses an oligonucleotide that
is complementary to a bacterial plasmid with a single base pair
mismatch or a series of mismatches.
General procedure
Site directed mutagenesis
is a valuable technique that allows for the replacement of a single
base in an oligonucleotide or gene. The basics of this technique involve
the preparation of a primer that will be a complementary strand to a
wild type bacterial plasmid. This primer will have a base pair mismatch
at the site where the replacement is desired. The primer must also be
long enough such that the primer will anneal to the wild type plasmid.
After the primer anneals, a DNA polymerase will complete the primer.
When the bacterial plasmid is replicated, the mutated strand will be
replicated as well. The same technique can be used to create a gene
insertion or deletion. Often, an antibiotic resistant gene is inserted
along with the modification of interest and the bacteria are cultured on
an antibiotic medium. The bacteria that were not successfully mutated
will not survive on this medium, and the mutated bacteria can easily be
cultured.
This animation shows the basic steps of site directed mutagenesis, where X-Y is the desired base pair replacement of T-A.
Applications
Site-directed mutagenesis can be helpful for many different reasons. A single base-pair replacement will change the codon, potentially replacing an amino acid
in a protein. Mutagenesis can help determine the function of proteins
and the roles of specific amino acids. If an amino acid near the active
site is mutated, the kinetic parameters may change drastically, or the
enzyme might behave differently. Another application of site-directed
mutagenesis is exchanging an amino acid residue far from the active site
with a lysine residue or cysteine
residue. These amino acids make it easier to covalently bond the enzyme
to a solid surface, which allows for enzyme re-use and the use of
enzymes in continuous processes. Sometimes, amino acids with non-natural
functional groups (such as an aldehyde introduced through an aldehyde tag) are added to proteins. These additions may be for ease of bioconjugation or to study the
effects of amino acid changes on the form and function of the proteins.
One example of how mutagenesis is used is found in the coupling of
site-directed mutagenesis and PCR to reduce interleukin-6 activity in cancerous cells. In another example, Bacillus subtilis is used in site-directed mutagenesis, to secrete the enzyme subtilisin through the cell wall. Biomolecular engineers can purposely manipulate this gene to
essentially make the cell a factory for producing whatever protein the
insertion in the gene codes.
Bio-immobilization and bio-conjugation
Bio-immobilization and bio-conjugation is the purposeful manipulation
of a biomolecule's mobility by chemical or physical means to obtain a
desired property. Immobilization of biomolecules allows exploiting
characteristics of the molecule under controlled environments. For
example, the immobilization of glucose oxidase on calcium alginate gel beads
can be used in a bioreactor. The resulting product will not need
purification to remove the enzyme because it will remain linked to the
beads in the column. Examples of types of biomolecules that are
immobilized are enzymes, organelles, and complete cells.
Biomolecules can be immobilized using a range of techniques. The most
popular are physical entrapment, adsorption, and covalent modification.
Physical entrapment - the use of a polymer to contain the biomolecule in a matrix without
chemical modification. Entrapment can be between lattices of polymer,
known as gel entrapment, or within micro-cavities of synthetic fibers,
known as fiber entrapment. Examples include entrapment of enzymes such
as glucose oxidase in gel column for use as a bioreactor.
Important characteristic with entrapment is biocatalyst remains
structurally unchanged, but creates large diffusion barriers for
substrates.
Adsorption-
immobilization of biomolecules due to interaction between the
biomolecule and groups on support. Can be physical adsorption, ionic
bonding, or metal binding chelation. Such techniques can be performed
under mild conditions and relatively simple, although the linkages are
highly dependent upon pH, solvent and temperature. Examples include
enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays.
Covalent modification- involves chemical reactions between certain
functional groups and matrix. This method forms stable complex between
biomolecule and matrix and is suited for mass production. Due to the
formation of chemical bond to functional groups, loss of activity can
occur. Examples of chemistries used are DCC coupling PDC coupling and EDC/NHS coupling, all of which take advantage of the reactive amines on the biomolecule's surface.
Because immobilization restricts the biomolecule, care must be given
to ensure that functionality is not entirely lost. Variables to consider
are pH, temperature, solvent choice, ionic strength, orientation of active
sites due to conjugation. For enzymes, the conjugation will lower the
kinetic rate due to a change in the 3-dimensional structure, so care
must be taken to ensure functionality is not lost.
Bio-immobilization is used in technologies such as diagnostic bioassays, biosensors, ELISA,
and bioseparations. Interleukin (IL-6) can also be bioimmobilized on
biosensors. The ability to observe these changes in IL-6 levels is
important in diagnosing an illness. A cancer patient will have elevated
IL-6 level and monitoring those levels will allow the physician to watch
the disease progress. A direct immobilization of IL-6 on the surface of
a biosensor offers a fast alternative to ELISA.
Polymerase
chain reaction. There are three main steps involved in PCR. In the
first step, the double stranded DNA strands are "melted" or denatured
forming single stranded DNA. Next, primers, which have been designed to
target a specific gene sequence on the DNA, anneal to the single
stranded DNA. Lastly, DNA polymerase synthesizes a new DNA strand
complementary to the original DNA. These three steps are repeated
multiple times until the desired number of copies are made.
Biomolecular engineering techniques involved in PCR
A number of biomolecular engineering strategies have played a very important role in the development and practice of PCR. For instance a crucial step in ensuring the accurate replication of the desired DNA fragment is the creation of the correct DNA primer. The most common method of primer synthesis is by the phosphoramidite
method. This method includes the biomolecular engineering of a number
of molecules to attain the desired primer sequence. The most prominent
biomolecular engineering technique seen in this primer
design method is the initial bioimmobilization of a nucleotide to a
solid support. This step is commonly done via the formation of a
covalent bond between the 3'-hydroxy group of the first nucleotide of
the primer and the solid support material.
Furthermore, as the DNA primer is created certain functional groups of nucleotides to be added to the growing primer
require blocking to prevent undesired side reactions. This blocking of
functional groups as well as the subsequent de-blocking of the groups,
coupling of subsequent nucleotides, and eventual cleaving from the solid
support are all methods of manipulation of biomolecules that can be attributed
to biomolecular engineering. The increase in interleukin levels is
directly proportional to the increased death rate in breast cancer
patients. PCR paired with Western blotting and ELISA help define the
relationship between cancer cells and IL-6.
Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay is an assay that utilizes the principle of antibody-antigen recognition to test for the presence of certain substances. The three main types of ELISA tests which are indirect ELISA, sandwich ELISA, and competitive ELISA all rely on the fact that antibodies have an affinity for only one specific antigen. Furthermore, these antigens or antibodies can be attached to enzymes which can react to create a colorimetric result indicating the presence of the antibody or antigen of interest. Enzyme linked immunosorbent assays are used most commonly as diagnostic tests to detect HIV antibodies in blood samples to test for HIV, human chorionic gonadotropin molecules in urine to indicate pregnancy, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis antibodies in blood to test patients for tuberculosis. Furthermore, ELISA is also widely used as a toxicology screen to test people's serum for the presence of illegal drugs.
Techniques involved in ELISA
Although there are three different types of solid state enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays, all three types begin with the bioimmobilization of either an antibody or antigen to a surface. This bioimmobilization is the first instance of biomolecular engineering that can be seen in ELISA
implementation. This step can be performed in a number of ways
including a covalent linkage to a surface which may be coated with
protein or another substance. The bioimmobilization can also be
performed via hydrophobic interactions between the molecule and the surface. Because there are many different types of ELISAs
used for many different purposes the biomolecular engineering that this
step requires varies depending on the specific purpose of the ELISA.
Another biomolecular engineering technique that is used in ELISA development is the bioconjugation of an enzyme to either an antibody or antigen depending on the type of ELISA. There is much to consider in this enzymebioconjugation such as avoiding interference with the active site of the enzyme as well as the antibody binding site in the case that the antibody is conjugated with enzyme. This bioconjugation
is commonly performed by creating crosslinks between the two molecules
of interest and can require a wide variety of different reagents
depending on the nature of the specific molecules.
Interleukin (IL-6) is a signaling protein that has been known to
be present during an immune response. The use of the sandwich type ELISA quantifies the presence of this cytokine within spinal fluid or bone marrow samples.
Applications and fields
In industry
Graph showing number of biotech companies per countryGraph showing percentages of biotech firms by application
Biomolecular engineering is an extensive discipline with applications
in many different industries and fields. As such, it is difficult to
pinpoint a general perspective on the Biomolecular engineering
profession. The biotechnology industry, however, provides an adequate
representation. The biotechnology industry, or biotech industry,
encompasses all firms that use biotechnology to produce goods or
services or to perform biotechnology research and development. In this way, it encompasses many of the industrial applications of the
biomolecular engineering discipline. By examination of the biotech
industry, it can be gathered that the principal leader of the industry
is the United States, followed by France and Spain. It is also true that the focus of the biotechnology industry and the
application of biomolecular engineering is primarily clinical and
medical. People are willing to pay for good health, so most of the
money directed towards the biotech industry stays in health-related
ventures.
Scale-up
Scaling up a process involves using data from an experimental-scale
operation (model or pilot plant) for the design of a large (scaled-up)
unit, of commercial size. Scaling up is a crucial part of
commercializing a process. For example, insulin produced by genetically modified Escherichia coli
bacteria was initialized on a lab-scale, but to be made commercially
viable had to be scaled up to an industrial level. In order to achieve
this scale-up a lot of lab data had to be used to design commercial
sized units. For example, one of the steps in insulin production
involves the crystallization of high purity glargin insulin. In order to achieve this process on a large scale we want to keep the
Power/Volume ratio of both the lab-scale and large-scale crystallizers
the same in order to achieve homogeneous mixing. We also assume the lab-scale crystallizer has geometric similarity to the large-scale crystallizer. Therefore,
A broad term encompassing all engineering applied to the life sciences. This field of study utilizes the principles of biology along with engineering principles to create marketable products. Some bioengineering applications include:
Biomimetics
- The study and development of synthetic systems that mimic the form
and function of natural biologically produced substances and processes.
Bioprocess engineering
- The study and development of process equipment and optimization that
aids in the production of many products such as food and pharmaceuticals.
Biochemistry is the study of chemical processes in living organisms,
including, but not limited to, living matter. Biochemical processes
govern all living organisms and living processes and the field of
biochemistry seeks to understand and manipulate these processes.
Bioelectrical engineering involves the electrical fields generated by living cells or organisms. Examples include the electric potential developed between muscles or nerves of the body. This discipline requires knowledge in the fields of electricity and biology to understand and utilize these concepts to improve or better current bioprocesses or technology.
Bioelectrochemistry - Chemistry concerned with electron/proton transport throughout the cell
Bioelectronics - Field of research coupling biology and electronics
Biomedical engineering is a sub category of bioengineering
that uses many of the same principles but focuses more on the medical
applications of the various engineering developments. Some applications
of biomedical engineering include:
Biomaterials - Design of new materials for implantation in the human body and analysis of their effect on the body.
Man-machine interfacing - Control of surgical robots and remote
diagnostic and therapeutic systems using eye tracking, voice recognition
and muscle and brain wave controls
Chemical engineering is the processing of raw materials into chemical
products. It involves preparation of raw materials to produce
reactants, the chemical reaction of these reactants under controlled
conditions, the separation of products, the recycle of byproducts, and
the disposal of wastes. Each step involves certain basic building blocks
called "unit operations," such as extraction, filtration, and
distillation. These unit operations are found in all chemical processes. Biomolecular
engineering is a subset of Chemical Engineering that applies these same
principles to the processing of chemical substances made by living
organisms.
Education and programs
Newly developed and offered undergraduate programs across the United
States, often coupled to the chemical engineering program, allow
students to achieve a B.S. degree. According to ABET
(Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology), biomolecular
engineering curricula "must provide thorough grounding in the basic
sciences including chemistry, physics, and biology, with some content at
an advanced level... [and] engineering application of these basic
sciences to design, analysis, and control, of chemical, physical, and/or
biological processes." Common curricula consist of major engineering courses including
transport, thermodynamics, separations, and kinetics, with additions of life sciences
courses including biology and biochemistry, and including specialized
biomolecular courses focusing on cell biology, nano- and biotechnology,
biopolymers, etc.
Market economies range from minimally regulated to highly regulated systems. On the least regulated side, free market and laissez-faire systems are where state activity is restricted to providing public goods and services and safeguarding private ownership, while interventionist economies are where the government plays an active role in correcting market failures and promoting social welfare. State-directed or dirigist economies are those where the state plays a directive role in guiding the overall development of the market through industrial policies or indicative planning—which guides yet does not substitute the market for economic planning—a form sometimes referred to as a mixed economy. [DJS-I question this statement]
Market economies are contrasted with planned economies where investment and production decisions are embodied in an integrated economy-wide economic plan. In a centrally planned economy, economic planning is the principal allocation mechanism between firms rather than markets, with the economy's means of production being owned and operated by a single organizational body.
Characteristics
Property rights
For market economies to function efficiently, governments must establish clearly defined and enforceable property rights
for assets and capital goods. However, property rights do not
specifically mean private property rights and market economies do not
logically presuppose the existence of private ownership of the means of production. Market economies can and often do include various types of cooperatives or autonomous state-owned enterprises that acquire capital goods and raw materials in capital markets. These enterprises utilize a market-determined free price system to allocate capital goods and labor. In addition, there are many variations of market socialism
where the majority of capital assets are socially owned with markets
allocating resources between socially owned firms. These models range
from systems based on employee-owned enterprises based on self-management to a combination of public ownership of the means of production with factor markets.
Supply and demand
Supply and demand work in tandem. The economic theory is that supply
slopes upwards as people buy more and demand drops as prices rise and
people buy less.
Market economies rely upon a price system to signal market actors
to adjust production and investment. Price formation relies on the
interaction of supply and demand to reach or approximate an equilibrium
where the unit price for a particular good or service is at a point
where the quantity demanded equals the quantity supplied.
The price data point where the supply and demand lines intersect is called the market-clearing price.
Market economy supply and demand
Governments can intervene by establishing price ceilings or price floors in specific markets (such as minimum wage laws in the labor market), or use fiscal policy to discourage certain consumer behavior or to address market externalities generated by certain transactions (Pigovian taxes).
Different perspectives exist on the role of government in both
regulating and guiding market economies and in addressing social
inequalities produced by markets. Fundamentally, a market economy
requires that a price system affected by supply and demand exists as the
primary mechanism for allocating resources irrespective of the level of
regulation.
Capitalism is an economic system where the means of production are largely or entirely privately owned and operated for a profit, structured on the process of capital accumulation.
In general, in capitalist systems investment, distribution, income and
prices are determined by markets, whether regulated or unregulated.
There are different variations of capitalism with different relationships to markets. In laissez-faire and free-market
variations of capitalism, markets are utilized most extensively with
minimal or no state intervention and minimal or no regulation over
prices and the supply of goods and services. In interventionist, welfare capitalism and mixed economies, markets continue to play a dominant role, but they are regulated to some extent by the government in order to correct market failures or to promote social welfare. In state capitalist systems, markets are relied upon the least, with the state relying heavily on either indicative planning and/or state-owned enterprises to accumulate capital.
Capitalism has been dominant in the Western world since the end of mercantilism. However, it is argued that the term mixed economies
more precisely describes most contemporary economies due to their
containing both private-owned and state-owned enterprises. In
capitalism, prices determine the demand-supply scale. Higher demand for
certain goods and services leads to higher prices and lower demand for
certain goods lead to lower prices, in relation to supply.
A capitalist free-market economy is an economic system where prices
for goods and services are set freely by the forces of supply and demand
and are expected by its supporters to reach their point of equilibrium
without intervention by government policy. It typically entails support
for highly competitive markets, private ownership of productive
enterprises. Laissez-faire is a more extensive form of free-market economy where the role of the state is limited to protecting property rights and enforcing contracts.
Laissez-faire is synonymous with what was referred to as strict free-market economy during the early and mid-19th century as a classical liberal
ideal to achieve. It is generally understood that the necessary
components for the functioning of an idealized free market include the
complete absence of government regulation, subsidies, artificial price
pressures and government-granted monopolies (usually classified as coercive monopoly
by free market advocates) and no taxes or tariffs other than what is
necessary for the government to provide protection from coercion and
theft, maintaining peace and property rights and providing for basic
public goods. Right-libertarian advocates of anarcho-capitalism see the state as morally illegitimate and economically unnecessary and destructive. Although laissez-faire has been commonly associated with capitalism, there is a similar left-winglaissez-faire system called free-market anarchism, also known as free-market anti-capitalism and free-market socialism to distinguish it from laissez-faire capitalism. Thus, critics of laissez-faire as commonly understood argues that a truly laissez-faire system would be anti-capitalist and socialist.
Welfare capitalism is a capitalist economy that includes public
policies favoring extensive provisions for social welfare services. The
economic mechanism involves a free market and the predominance of
privately owned enterprises in the economy, but public provision of
universal welfare services aimed at enhancing individual autonomy and
maximizing equality. Examples of contemporary welfare capitalism include
the Nordic model of capitalism predominant in Northern Europe.
Anglo-Saxon capitalism is the form of capitalism predominant in Anglophone countries and typified by the economy of the United States. It is contrasted with European models of capitalism such as the continental social market model and the Nordic model.
Anglo-Saxon capitalism refers to a macroeconomic policy regime and
capital market structure common to the Anglophone economies. Among these
characteristics are low rates of taxation, more open international
markets, lower labor market protections and a less generous welfare state eschewing collective bargaining schemes found in the continental and northern European models of capitalism.
The East Asian model of capitalism involves a strong role for state
investment and in some instances involves state-owned enterprises. The
state takes an active role in promoting economic development through
subsidies, the facilitation of "national champions" and an export-based
model of growth. The actual practice of this model varies by country.
This designation has been applied to the economies of China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Vietnam, and sometimes to those of Hong Kong and Taiwan.
The social market economy was implemented by Alfred Müller-Armack and Ludwig Erhard after World War II in West Germany. The social market economic model, sometimes called Rhine capitalism,
is based upon the idea of realizing the benefits of a free-market
economy, especially economic performance and high supply of goods while
avoiding disadvantages such as market failure, destructive competition, concentration of economic power
and the socially harmful effects of market processes. The aim of the
social market economy is to realize greatest prosperity combined with
best possible social security. One difference from the free market
economy is that the state is not passive, but instead takes active regulatory measures. The social policy objectives include employment, housing and education
policies, as well as a socio-politically motivated balancing of the
distribution of income growth. Characteristics of social market
economies are a strong competition policy and a contractionary monetary policy. The philosophical background is neoliberalism or ordoliberalism.
Market socialism is a form of market economy where the means of production are socially owned.
In a market socialist economy, firms operate according to the rules of
supply and demand and operate to maximize profit; the principal
difference between market socialism and capitalism being that the
profits accrue either directly to the workers of the company or society
as a whole as opposed to private owners.
The distinguishing feature between non-market socialism and market socialism is the existence of a market for factors of production
and the criteria of profitability for enterprises. Profits derived from
publicly owned enterprises can variously be used to reinvest in further
production, to directly finance government and social services, or be
distributed to the public at large through a social dividend or basic income system.
Advocates of market socialism such as Jaroslav Vaněk
argue that genuinely free markets are not possible under conditions of
private ownership of productive property. Instead, he contends that the
class differences and inequalities in income and power that result from
private ownership enable the interests of the dominant class to skew the
market to their favor, either in the form of monopoly and market power,
or by utilizing their wealth and resources to legislate government
policies that benefit their specific business interests. Additionally,
Vaněk states that workers in a socialist economy based on cooperative
and self-managed enterprises have stronger incentives to maximize
productivity because they would receive a share of the profits (based on
the overall performance of their enterprise) in addition to receiving
their fixed wage or salary. The stronger incentives to maximize
productivity that he conceives as possible in a socialist economy based
on cooperative and self-managed enterprises might be accomplished in a
free-market economy if cooperatives were the norm as envisioned by various thinkers including Louis O. Kelso and James S. Albus.
In the 1930s, the economists Oskar Lange and Abba Lerner
developed a model of socialism that posited that a public body (dubbed
the Central Planning Board) could set prices through a trial-and-error
approach until they equaled the marginal cost of production in order to achieve perfect competition and pareto optimality.
In this model of socialism, firms would be state-owned and managed by
their employees and the profits would be disbursed among the population
in a social dividend. This model came to be referred to as market
socialism because it involved the use of money, a price system and simulated capital markets, all of which were absent from traditional non-market socialism.
A more contemporary model of market socialism is that put forth by the American economist John Roemer, referred to as economic democracy. In this model, social ownership
is achieved through public ownership of equity in a market economy. A
Bureau of Public Ownership would own controlling shares in publicly
listed firms, so that the profits generated would be used for public
finance and the provision of a basic income.
Some anarchists and libertarian socialists
promote a form of market socialism in which enterprises are owned and
managed cooperatively by their workforce so that the profits directly
remunerate the employee-owners. These cooperative enterprises would
compete with each other in the same way private companies compete with
each other in a capitalist market. The first major elaboration of this
type of market socialism was made by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and was called mutualism.
Self-managed market socialism was promoted in Yugoslavia by economists Branko Horvat and Jaroslav Vaněk.
In the self-managed model of socialism, firms would be directly owned
by their employees and the management board would be elected by
employees. These cooperative firms would compete with each other in a
market for both capital goods and for selling consumer goods.
Socialist market economy
Following the 1978 reforms, China developed what it calls a socialist market economy
in which most of the economy is under state ownership, with the state
enterprises organized as joint-stock companies with various government
agencies owning controlling shares through a shareholder system. Prices
are set by a largely free-price system and the state-owned enterprises
are not subjected to micromanagement by a government planning agency. A
similar system called socialist-oriented market economy has emerged in Vietnam following the Đổi Mới reforms in 1986. This system is frequently characterized as state capitalism
instead of market socialism because there is no meaningful degree of
employee self-management in firms, because the state enterprises retain
their profits instead of distributing them to the workforce or
government and because many function as de facto private
enterprises. The profits neither finance a social dividend to benefit
the population at large, nor do they accrue to their employees. In
China, this economic model is presented as a preliminary stage of socialism
to explain the dominance of capitalistic management practices and forms
of enterprise organization in both the state and non-state sectors.
In religion
A wide range of philosophers and theologians have linked market economies to concepts from monotheistic religions. Michael Novak described capitalism as being closely related to Catholicism, but Max Weber drew a connection between capitalism and Protestantism. The economist Jeffrey Sachs has stated that his work was inspired by the healing characteristics of Judaism. Chief RabbiLord Sacks of the United Synagogue draws a correlation between modern capitalism and the Jewish image of the Golden Calf.
Christianity
In the Christian faith, the liberation theology
movement advocated involving the church in labor market capitalism.
Many priests and nuns integrated themselves into labor organizations
while others moved into the slums to live among the poor. The Holy Trinity was interpreted as a call for social equality and the elimination of poverty. However, the Pope John Paul II was highly active in his criticism of liberation theology. He was particularly concerned about the increased fusion between Christianity and Marxism. He closed Catholic institutions that taught liberation theology and dismissed some of its activists from the church.
Buddhism
The Buddhist approach to the market economy was dealt with in E. F. Schumacher's
1966 essay "Buddhist Economics". Schumacher asserted that a market
economy guided by Buddhist principles would more successfully meet the
needs of its people. He emphasized the importance of pursuing
occupations that adhered to Buddhist teachings. The essay would later
become required reading for a course that Clair Brown offered at University of California, Berkeley.
Criticism
The economist Joseph Stiglitz
argues that markets suffer from informational inefficiency and the
presumed efficiency of markets stems from the faulty assumptions of neoclassical
welfare economics, particularly the assumption of perfect and costless
information and related incentive problems. Neoclassical economics
assumes static equilibrium and efficient markets require that there be
no non-convexities,
even though nonconvexities are pervasive in modern economies.
Stiglitz's critique applies to both existing models of capitalism and to
hypothetical models of market socialism. However, Stiglitz does not
advocate replacing markets, but instead states that there is a
significant role for government intervention to boost the efficiency of markets and to address the pervasive market failures that exist in contemporary economies. A fair market economy is in fact a martingale or a Brownian motion
model and for a participant competitor in such a model there is no more
than 50% of success chances at any given moment. Due to the fractal nature of any fair market and being market participants subject to the law of competition which impose reinvesting an increasing part of profits, the mean statistical chance of bankruptcy within the half life of any participant is also 50% and 100% whether an infinite sample of time is considered.
Robin Hahnel and Michael Albert claim that "markets inherently produce class division". Albert states that even if everyone started out with a balanced job complex
(doing a mix of roles of varying creativity, responsibility and
empowerment) in a market economy, class divisions would arise, arguing:
Without taking the argument that far, it is evident that
in a market system with uneven distribution of empowering work, such as
Economic Democracy, some workers will be more able than others to
capture the benefits of economic gain. For example, if one worker
designs cars and another builds them, the designer will use his
cognitive skills more frequently than the builder. In the long term, the
designer will become more adept at conceptual work than the builder,
giving the former greater bargaining power in a firm over the
distribution of income. A conceptual worker who is not satisfied with
his income can threaten to work for a company that will pay him more.
The effect is a class division between conceptual and manual laborers,
and ultimately managers and workers, and a de facto labor market for
conceptual workers.
David McNally argues in the Marxist tradition that the logic of the market inherently produces inequitable outcomes and leads to unequal exchanges, arguing that Adam Smith's
moral intent and moral philosophy espousing equal exchange was
undermined by the practice of the free markets he championed. The
development of the market economy involved coercion, exploitation and
violence that Smith's moral philosophy could not countenance. McNally
also criticizes market socialists for believing in the possibility of
fair markets based on equal exchanges to be achieved by purging
parasitical elements from the market economy such as private ownership of the means of production. McNally argues that market socialism is an oxymoron when socialism is defined as an end to wage-based labor.
The role of supply and demand in a market economy
Supply and demand play an instrumental role in driving market
economies by setting both prices and quantities traded in markets.
Supply is defined as any increase in price leading to an increase in
supply from producers; demand on the other hand means any drop leads to
an increase in desired quantities from consumers; these two laws meet at
equilibrium when provided quantity equals quantity demanded - known as
equilibrium price/quantity equilibrium point. Prices play an extremely vital role in market economies by providing
important information about commodity and service availability. When
there is strong demand but limited supply, prices increase, signaling to
producers that there may be opportunities to increase profits by
producing more of that product. Conversely, when there is low demand with increased supply then prices
reduce, showing manufacturers they must either reduce output or find
methods of cutting costs in order to stay competitive and remain
profitable.
External factors, including shifting technological standards, new
government laws, and natural catastrophes can have a substantial impact
on supply and demand. Technological innovations may increase supply,
while laws issued by governments could decrease it or even demand.
Natural disasters have the ability to severely disrupt supply chains,
creating shortages of key items that increase costs while simultaneously
decreasing demand. Supply and demand play an indispensable role in any
market economy by ensuring prices reflect market forces accurately,
adapting accordingly as conditions shift between supply and demand
situations, while producers adjust production according to price signals
from consumers, fulfilling customers' requests while giving individuals
freedom in making purchasing choices based on personal preferences or
financial constraints. Thus supply and demand play an instrumental part
in shaping and stabilizing economies governed by market forces.
Sustainable market economy
A sustainable market economy seeks to balance economic expansion and environmental preservation. It acknowledges that sustainable environmental protection and resource
management are essential for long-term economic growth. To achieve this
balance, implementing sustainable practices across sectors, such as
lowering carbon emissions, developing renewable energy sources, and
putting circular economy ideas into practice. Tax incentives, carbon
trading programs, and environmental requirements are just a few ways
government rules and policies encourage enterprises to adopt sustainable
practices.
At the same time, consumer demand for eco-friendly goods and
services and understanding of these issues may influence market dynamics
to favour more sustainable options. A sustainable market economy may encourage innovation, provide green
employment, and guarantee the welfare of future generations by
incorporating environmental factors into economic decision-making.
Prioritizing sustainability while preserving economic development needs
cooperation between governments, corporations, and people.
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