Word: wacker
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...crime of passion, argued the defense. Paul Wacker, 43, a burly Frankfurt garage owner, had wheeled up to a curbside stand one hot summer evening for a glass of chilled Apfelsaft (apple juice). He left his newly acquired sweetheart at the roadside, but kept an admiring eye on her sleek curves while he sipped. Next to Wacker stood Josef Beinert, 35, a balding, bull-necked gas-station attendant, who soon made it clear that he had nothing but contempt for Wacker's beloved. Words led to shoves, shoves to disaster: Wacker whipped out a revolver and shot Beinert dead...
...Wacker reported that the organism--grown either in light or in darkness--develops "profound and complex lesions" when the growth medium is deficient in the trace metal, zinc. Under such conditions, Dr. Walker noted, growth was severely limited and cell division was halted. The cell size increased eight-fold under conditions of extreme zinc deficiency...
...result," Dr. Wacker said, "was a doubling of the DNA [deoxyribonucleic acid] in the nucleus of the cell [a process that precedes normal cell division] although the RNA [ribonucleic acid] content of the cell was markedly reduced along with protein and zinc...
...This indicates," Dr. Wacker pointed out, "that there is mitotic arrest and a block in both RNA and protein synthesis resulting from zinc deficiency--a condition that is not reversed when other trace metals [iron, manganese, copper, magnesium and calcium] metabolic precursors or metabolites, are added to the nutrient solution in which the organism is grown...
...Apparently," Dr. Wacker concluded, "zinc may be required to maintain the functional and structural integrity of euglena...