Word: protoplasmic
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Skilled Cell. The idea was not original with Beadle. Every biologist marvels at the chemical virtuosity of living cells. Under the eye of the microscope they seem placid things. The slimy protoplasm inside them sometimes streams slowly, but little other action is visible. This quietude is an illusion. The typical cell, which may be only one twenty-five-thousandth of an inch long, is aboil with chemical action. It is building thousands of complex compounds and tearing other thousands to bits. It selects nutrients that it wants, and in some mysterious way absorbs them selectively through its outer wall. Tiny...
...Cash men admire their capsules but they are quick to point out that nature produced them before their company got into the game. The cells that form the bodies of living organisms have the same basic function as Cash's capsules. Their walls enclose droplets of highly reactive protoplasm and separate it from the surrounding medium. The walls of nature's cells are permeable to specific chemicals and to electric currents. The Cash men see no reason why their synthetic cells (which are about the same size) should not be trained to behave in this way too. They...
...Goal. To find a basis common to body and spirit, Professor Sinnott goes all the way back to protoplasm, the mysterious material in living cells which is much the same in all organisms from bacteria up to man. The biologists have learned a great deal about it ... but so far they have not explained its most striking attribute: its purposefulness...
Even in the simplest organisms, the protoplasm seems to have a goal; it knows what it wants to do. Starting with the single small blob in a fertilized egg cell, it inexorably grows to a special form-frog, pine tree or man. Inert, unorganized matter flows into the growing organism and is at once transformed by the touch of its life. It becomes alive; it creeps or flies or sings or loves. When matter is touched by man's protoplasm, the kind with the highest purpose, it becomes extremely complicated, with thoughts and aspirations that defy scientific pinpointing...
...theme of the season is back to nature. Clothes that cling are quite the thing. If nature gave you nothing to cling to, new girdles and heavy belts that push protoplasm where it belongs are also available. In a burst of remarkable reason, designers have decided to cover this nude look with coats that bellow out from the shoulder in barrel or bell forms and wander vaguely down to a faltering stop somewhere between the hip and knee. A tight skirt carries on from there, giving the overall effect of a candle being snuffed with...