Support for long-term classroom planning and professional development. Information covering important topics for today's educators and parents. The series is designed to introduce young readers and interested adults to the invisible world of cells. Each book begins in Professor Gene's laboratory, where a group of children board his MicroMachine, which shrinks until its passengers are small enough to enter the body and encounter the cells. In this book, the MicroMachine's first stop is in the blood, where Gene points out the activity of red blood cells and thrombocytes.
Colorful diagrams depict the fibrin mesh as it forms and entraps blood cells.
Readers then learn that hemophiliacs lack functional clotting proteins. The text describes how proteins are encoded in DNA, the steps of protein synthesis, and how faulty genes lead to faulty proteins. Additional topics include gene therapy, cloning, and the tools of genetic engineering. Each topic is represented by a two page spread with narrative text and large scale diagrams and cartoons. The illustrations show the DNA double helix, ribosomes travelling along a segment of messenger RNA, and a virus as it shuttles a beneficial gene into the cell.