Posts Tagged ‘DNA Day’

Only Three More Shopping Days Until DNA Day! Save Big!

Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009

Let’s face it: knowing the structure and workings of DNA is part of basic scientific literacy these days, which is why, after all, millions of us celebrate DNA Day. If you’re still doing last-minute DNA Day shopping, do we have a great deal for you! OnScreen DNA, the world’s best three-dimensional computer model of the double helix structure of DNA, complete with on-screen, tutorial-based simulations of how DNA works, is on sale at 50% off.

And what better way could there be to celebrate fifty-six years since the 1953 publication of the Watson and Crick paper elucidating DNA’s double-helix structure than buying OnScreen DNA for only $19.53? It’s perfect for those students, teachers, and science lovers of all ages on your shopping list. And don’t forget to treat yourself.

Don’t worry if you don’t see this until DNA Day itself—the online offer and the ability to get the software immediately by download will still be available right through April 25. Yes, we are celebrating with the “traditional” April 25 instead of moving to April 24, as many national national organizations, evidently wanting to avoid a weekend day, have done this year.

Seriously, there is nothing that I know of that teaches DNA structure and functioning in such a complete and thoroughly three-dimensional way as OnScreen DNA, which I designed and programmed myself. The software runs on Macintosh OS X or Windows XP/Vista. The on-screen tutorials explain everything you’re seeing, and practically no prior knowledge is assumed.

The animations of DNA and RNA chain-construction in OnScreen DNA are a lot of fun. I still enjoy them after having gone through them countless times during programming, debugging, testing, and just playing. You really need to see the three-dimensional structure of DNA, not just the two-dimensional ladders which animations encountered on the internet seem to invariably fall back on. Having programmed the OnScreen DNA animations, I can see why they do that—it’s a pain to do the three-dimensional programming. But it is worth it. Take a look at the results and judge for yourself. Just go to <onscreen-dna.com/buy_dna_online.php> to take advantage of this special offer.

Commercial Break: DNA Day Sale Now Underway

Friday, April 18th, 2008

And now, a word from our sponsor. If you’ve ever wanted to learn or thought that maybe you should learn what the structure of DNA really looks like and how DNA actually works in our cells to make us who we are and keep us going, then you have a chance to do it in a very thorough and enjoyable way for the lowest price ever. OnScreen DNA, the virtual model programmed by the On-Screen Scientist himself, is on sale at a 70% markdown, in honor of DNA Day and the original discovery of the DNA double helix fiftty-five years ago. The price? Just $19.53 (where’d that number come from?), instead of the usual $69, through April 25, 2008.

What’s DNA Day? It’s the day we celebrate both the historic publication of the Watson and Crick paper that elucidated the double helical structure of DNA and the completion of the Human Genome Project. April 25 has been chosen as the day. I may feel moved to say something about the discovery one of these days, maybe even before DNA Day, but for now I wanted to alert my many readers to the sale.

The software runs on Macintosh OS X or Windows XP/Vista. Download the free OnScreen DNA Lite first if you wish to see the quality of the model. But you don’t really get the full how-DNA-works story in the Lite version, just a detailed guided tour of the structure, including the essential molecular components and chemical bonds. The on-screen tutorials explain everything you’re seeing, and practically no prior knowledge is assumed.

Can you spot the many (roughly 50% it seems) inaccurate popular depictions of DNA as a left-handed helix instead of the proper right-handed type? Well, you’ll be able to after a few minutes with OnScreen DNA (or even the Lite edition, for that matter). It would be so easy to tell the artists hired to make all these nifty DNA double helix logos and designs the difference between left-handed and right-handed DNA, but it seems no one does, even scientists. Witness the many backward examples. I think the professor that was maintaining the left-handed-DNA web site finally got tired of it, but I imagine the archives are still up in any case. Just Google it. New examples appear all the time. The Boston Globe had a doozy that occupied about half a page just last week. Left-handed DNA does exist in nature, but it’s a small percentage and is not the genome molecule of our chromosomes.

Anyway, the animations of DNA and RNA chain-construction in OnScreen DNA are a lot of fun. I still enjoy them after having seen them countless times during programming, debugging, testing, and just playing around. You really need to see the three-dimensional structure of DNA, not just the two-dimensional ladders which animations encountered on the internet seem to invariably fall back on. Having programmed the OnScreen DNA animations, I can see why. It’s a pain to do the three-dimensional programming. But it is worth it. Just go to <onscreen-dna.com/buy_dna_online.php> to purchase online and see for yourself. Or get the free version from the link in the upper right. Amaze your friends by pointing out the next picture of left-handed DNA you come across! That’s almost as good as ordering in French at the French restaurant.