Word: whirly
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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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...
Stolid houses and spacious yards. The whir of hand-powered lawn mowers in the summer, the scrape of snow shovels in the winter. Romberg on the radio, dinner at the country club once a week, a trip to Paris once a lifetime. Dad wears vests, Mom wears funny hats, the maid nips at the cooking sherry (must speak to her about that). If their son makes eagle scout and one of his sisters pledges Kappa, does it really matter that the other daughter decamps for Greenwich Village and a scattershot involvement with "the arts" that her parents will never understand...
...embraces 174,000 sq. mi. In some places the water level has fallen 200 ft., leaving the balance between use and recharge from rainfall in precarious condition. Given a little hot dry weather and good farm prices that encourage increased grain planting, the irrigation pumps will begin to whir, in all likelihood sucking up more water than will be replaced...