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...almost certainly originated nearly 3.5 billion years ago as a mechanism for repairing the DNA of bacteria. Because ancient earth was such a violent place, the genes of these unicellular organisms would have been frequently damaged by intense heat and ultraviolet radiation. "Conjugation" -- the intricate process in which one bacterium infuses genetic material into another -- provided an ingenious, if cumbersome, solution to this problem, although bacteria continued to rely on asexual reproduction to increase their numbers...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Is Sex Really Necessary? | 1/20/1992 | See Source »

Research in the chemist's lab focuses on the vancomycins. Like many other antibiotics, vancomycins are produced in nature by the bacteria Streptomyces...

Author: By Charles J. Boudreau, | Title: Scientist's Organic Synthesis Techniques Widely Used for Production of Antibiotics | 1/13/1992 | See Source »

...process of synthesizing antibiotics, enzymes within the bacteria act as the catalyst. The smaller molecules can accomplish the same task as the bulkier enzymes...

Author: By Charles J. Boudreau, | Title: Scientist's Organic Synthesis Techniques Widely Used for Production of Antibiotics | 1/13/1992 | See Source »

OPTICAL TWEEZERS. With a single beam of infrared laser light, scientists can seize and manipulate everything from DNA molecules to bacteria and yeast without harming them. Among other things, optical tweezers can keep a tiny organism swimming in place while scientists study its paddling flagella under a microscope. Optical tweezers can also reach right through cell membranes to grab specialized structures known as organelles and twirl them around. Currently, researchers are using the technology to measure the mechanical force exerted by a single molecule of myosin, one of the muscle proteins responsible for motion. Scientists are also examining the swimming...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Adventures In Lilliput | 12/30/1991 | See Source »

Such marvels, of course, will not materialize overnight. Cautions IBM physicist Donald Eigler: "The single-atom switch looks small until you realize it took a whole roomful of equipment to make it work." Still, computer chips the size of bacteria and motors as small as molecules of myosin are rapidly moving out of the world of fantasy and into the realm of possibility. "For years, scientists have been taking atoms and molecules apart in order to understand them," says futurist K. Eric Drexler, president of the Foresight Institute in Palo Alto, Calif. "Now it's time to start figuring...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Adventures In Lilliput | 12/30/1991 | See Source »

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