Word: shells
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...invader is tiny, about one sixteen-thousandth the size of the head of a pin. It consists basically of a double-layered shell or envelope full of proteins, surrounding a bit of ribonucleic acid (RNA), the single-stranded genetic molecule, and often enters the bloodstream of its victim after sexual contact. It is an AIDS virus, and its intrusion does not go unnoticed. Scouts of the body's immune system, large cells called macrophages, sense the presence of the diminutive foreigner and promptly alert the immune system. It begins to mobilize an array of cells that, among other things, produce...
...immune system, a helper T cell. On the surface of that cell, it finds a receptor into which one of its envelope proteins fits perfectly, like a key into a lock. Docking with the cell, the virus penetrates the cell membrane and is stripped of its protective shell in the process. Within half an hour, the strand of RNA and an enzyme the virus carries with it are floating in the cytoplasm, the fluid interior of the cell...
...their shape, all viruses have something in common. They are models of biological minimalism, consisting simply of a core of genetic material -- either a DNA or RNA molecule -- and a protective envelope made of proteins (most varieties have a double coat, the outer one consisting either of another protein shell, or of proteins and lipids, fatty substances similar to those in a cell membrane). "There's no waste in a virus," says Dr. Stephen Straus of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). "Every piece is there for a reason. It's a magnificent little structure...
Dahl has seen more than his share of that, as Going Solo makes vividly plain. There is the aforementioned shooting, the climax of a bizarre episode in Tanganyika, where the author had gone in 1938 to work for the Shell Oil Co. When, a year later, World War II began in Europe, he was pressed into service by the British colonial government. His first job was to intern resident German civilians (Tanganyika was a German territory until the end of World War I). Dahl was supported by a handful of African militiamen, one of whom fired into...
...Billboard singles chart, while the album has reached No. 8. The flamboyant singer, who recently posed for a saucy array of promotional shots, is in Italy working on a new video to keep the record rolling. Good as Lauper is at grabbing the eye on a half shell, her artistic rival Madonna found a way to reach the video generation without shelling out anything. She held a "Make My Video" contest on MTV, and more than 1,000 entries poured in. Last week a black-and-white amateur production set to her song True Blue won a $25,000 cash...