Word: dna
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...idea that would revolutionize biology flashed into the mind of a hippie- holdout biochemist during a midnight drive in 1983. While winding through the mountains of Northern California, Kary Mullis envisioned a way of easily copying a single fragment of DNA in a chain reaction that so surprised him, he pulled his Honda Civic off the road to admire the view in his mind...
Mullis instantly recognized he had solved a problem that had fettered genetic research for decades: the fact that DNA samples are often too meager to work with. He turned to his girlfriend, also a biochemist, to explain his idea. "I thought this was a really cool invention that would make me famous," he recalls, "but she wasn't terribly thrilled about...
...washing machine into an automatic door opener so that he could let the dog out each morning without leaving his bed. As an adult, he invented a system to dim lights simply by thinking erotic thoughts. Even PCR was an attempt to devise a less laborious way of copying DNA than the method used by living cells. "When I saw how nature does it, I thought, 'That's totally crazy.' " he says...
Imagine an amplifier powerful enough to convert the inaudible whir of butterfly wings into a mighty roar. That's what a new tool called PCR routinely does to the most infinitesimal snippets of DNA, the molecule that carries the genetic blueprint for all living things. Within the space of a few hours, an unprepossessing aluminum box stuffed with test tubes can create a billion copies of what started out as a single strip of DNA. A dividing cancer cell would take at least a month to perform the same stupendous feat. "This technique," marvels Dr. Harley Rotbart, a microbiologist...
...stands for polymerase chain reaction, polymerase being the enzyme that triggers the replication of DNA inside dividing cells. All PCR does is reproduce, in a test tube, this basic biological process, turning it into a chain reaction that can be endlessly repeated by having a machine alternately raise and lower the temperature in the test tube. "The beauty of PCR is that it's technically so simple," observes cell biologist Peter Parham of Stanford University...