innovation or technology in biology that has significantly change society and humankind's way of life?

Question

since ancient time until today

Answer 1

One of the major innovations is called appertization or canning. In the 1800's a frenchman named Nicolas Appert invented the process and it changed the way people lived and ate. It allowed explorers a greater variety of food and settlers to survive harsh conditions. Appertization kills most or all of the microbes present (C. botulinum is an exception) and allows the food to be stored for a long, long time.

"Appert's method was as follows: He would fill thick, large-mouthed glass bottles with edibles of every description, ranging from beef, fowl, eggs, milk, and prepared dishes (according to sources, his largest success for publicity purposes was an entire mutton). Leaving enough air space at the top, the cork would then be sealed firmly in the jar by using a vise. The bottle was then wrapped in canvas to protect it, while it was dunked into boiling water and then boiled for as much time as Appert deemed appropriate for cooking the contents thoroughly."

Answer 2

There's been numerous ones, but realize that biology is one of the newest sciences, and the huge leaps in biology have been made in the last century or so, and it has completely revoultionized modern society.

Darwin and his evolutionary theory has led to several offshoots of the theory affecting society; the prominant one being the idea of social darwinism in the late 1800's.

The discovery of bacteria and how diseases were caused by it would lead to actual prevention and cures which would drastically help the health of society. Vaccines later on would be able to protect humans against even the most deadly of diseases (take smallpox for example).

And now in modern society, the discovery of the structure of DNA allowed huge amounts of advances to happen. I'm sure i don't need to name them all; it's virtually allowed us to really understand the secret of life. We have begun to understand how life works from it's most fundamental levels, and also understanding doesn't often affect human society, it has changed how we view the world. Also, numerous products, especially from the medicine industry, comes from work in biology.

Edit: i'm not sure what canning has to do with biology.... canning is an industrial process- absolutely nothing to do with pretty much any of the sciences. Maybe the fact that it kills most bacteria and stuff, but that's only because when you can somehting you put it in an anaerobic environment, where a lot of modern organisms can no longer live in. However, C botulinum is an obligate anaerobe, and it can only live in places without oxygen, so it thrives in there, and it produces one of the deadliest toxins in the world.