Word: cocoon
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...being spiteful, but really I was happy because now my friend would have to be closer to me. He had been forced to realize-as I already had-that however hard you try, it doesn't make any difference." A Cliffie said, "I wrapped myself in a cocoon and shut out the world-not because I wasn't aware of what was outside, but because it didn't count...
...this brash and noisy generation, a lounge suit and a stately silence will merely sink you in oblivion. The investiture of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales at Caernarvon Castle will mean little to us. We are looking forward to the day when Charles Windsor emerges from the cocoon...
...answers Kafatos found in this project eventually presented him with a tailor-made system in which to pursue his old interest in cell differentiation. Through other scientists' research he found that different species of moths had various means of escaping from their cocoons. He found that, for example, one Australian species has a hard, pointed structure at the front of its head that it uses as a saw and that the caterpillar of one kind of silk moth leaves an exit hole when it builds the cocoon. The species Kafatos chose to work with, the Chinese Oak Silk Moth, however...
...soon found that the moth opens its cocoon by wetting it with some kind of liquid that softens the glue holding the silk threads together. Kafatos discovered that a certain drug made the liquid appear on the moths' face, even when they were not trying to escape from a cocoon, and collected the liquid efficiently by applying the drug. After realizing that the liquid must contain some material in addition to salt and water, Kafatos guessed that an enzyme, a chemical agent that helps break down or "digest" other chemicals, was the liquid's active element...
...soon noticed that there was some white, crystal-like powder on the face of a moth that was ready to emerge from its cocoon. Most of the enzyme crystals were on two cone-shaped structures on the face, called maxillae, which scientists had hither-to believed useless to the silk moth. Kafatos also found concentrated enzyme solution in the maxillae's cells, which squeeze the solution out through fine tubes leading to the surface of the maxillae. The enzyme, mixed with the liquid of the old silk tubes, gets painted over the cocoon's tip, thus dissolving the cocoon...