A New Way to Think About Earth's First Cells

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Above is a three-dimensional view of a model protocell approximately 100 nanometers in diameter. The protocells fatty acid membrane allows nutrients and DNA building blocks to enter the cell and participate in non-enzymatic copying of the cells DNA. ...
Above is a three-dimensional view of a model protocell approximately 100 nanometers in diameter. The protocell's fatty acid membrane allows nutrients and DNA building blocks to enter the cell and participate in non-enzymatic copying of the cell's DNA. The newly formed strands of DNA remain in the protocell. Credit: Janet Iwasa, Szostak Laboratory, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital

A team of researchers at Harvard University have modeled in the laboratory a primitive cell, or protocell, that is capable of building, copying and containing DNA.


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Sep 05, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
Tooth cavities are usually closed with plastic fillings. However, the initially soft plastic shrinks as it hardens. The tension can cause gaps to appear between the tooth and the filling, encouraging more ...

Tracking the reasons many girls avoid science and math

Sep 05, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
Most parents and many teachers believe that if middle-school and high-school girls show no interest in science or math, there's little anyone can do about it. New research by a team that includes vocational ...
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