Biotechnology includes areas such as gene expression, protein synthesis and characterisation, DNA chips, genomics, biosensors, drug delivery and bioremediation. This research will affect health care, pharmaceuticals, environmental management, agriculture, marine science, medical devices, consumer products and food and drink businesses. The technology foresight report notes that by 2005 the worldwide market for biotechnology industries is expected to rise to €250 billion and will support 3 million jobs in Europe. Beyond such specific financial expectations lies the widely accepted view that research and technologies in these areas will be key drivers of global and national economies. Research in biotechnology promises to play as pivotal a role in social and industrial development over the next few decades as physics and chemistry did following the Second World War.