Word: shell
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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...
Carrying the shell down to the water...
...WERE WAITING at a stoplight in Central Square when I noticed two women in long formal gowns waving at me from inside a Shell station. "Pull up," I told the cabbie, and we picked up these women and their dates, crowding six into the legally-mandated space for five. As we careened down Mass. Ave. the cabbie turned to me and asked, "What are all these tuxedos in the Square...
...reader that the unreal is actually occurring. Critic Jacques Barzun once analyzed the technique of the effective horror novelist: "Since terror descriptions must perpetually make the reader accept yet question the strange amid the familiar, the writer pursues the muse of ambiguity. He begins by establishing a solid outer shell of comfort -- the clergyman's study, the lawyer's book-lined room, the well-placed camping tent, or the cozy room at the inn or club, with fortifying drinks at hand. But soon a vague unease, a chill in the air, or else a strong shock undermines or shatters composure...