FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OnScreen DNA Lite™ Visualization Software Price Reduced by 80% Until DNA Day
SOMERVILLE, MA—March 2, 2007—In a "DNA Day" promotion, OnScreen Science, Inc.® today announced a time-limited price reduction of almost 80% on OnScreen DNA Lite™, the entry level edition of its suite of DNA visualization software for Macintosh OS X and Windows XP. The software, which OnScreen Science describes as a "DNA model on steroids," is an interactive computer model of the DNA double helix designed to give students a thorough understanding of the three-dimensional structure of DNA. It will be priced at $10 instead of its normal $49 until April 25, the date on which scientists celebrate the breakthrough discovery of the double helix structure of DNA. While aimed primarily at high school and college biology teachers for use in computer labs or classroom demonstrations, the software can benefit anyone with an interest in science.
The power that OnScreen DNA Lite™ gives students to rotate the model in virtual space on the screen and to identify constituent molecules and chemical bonds with a mouse click is meant to foster an intuitive understanding of the structure and how its pieces fit together, while promoting the learning of technical names in their proper structural context. The virtual model consists of thirty-five base pairs (substantially more than most hardware models), color-coded and correlated with a separate on-screen linear representation of the sequence of nucleotide bases, thus providing an economical alternative or supplement to a hardware model, with the additional power of being able to simulate processes that involve separation and reconnection of DNA strands.
OnScreen DNA Lite™ has on-screen tutorial guides designed to lead students through an exploration of the essential structural details of DNA. Concepts that can be difficult to grasp, such as the polarity and handedness of the DNA strands and the location and physical basis of the major and minor grooves in DNA, are clearly explained by the on-screen guides, which are correlated with student observations and virtual manipulations of the model. Simulations of two processes important in biotechnologyÑdenaturing or separation of DNA strands and renaturing or reconstitution of the double helix are also part of the program.
In addition to the on-screen activity guides, OnScreen DNA Lite™ includes on-screen tests, the results of which can be saved to disk, to provide feedback to teacher and student, as well as to aid in student evaluation if the teacher desires to use them so.
OnScreen Science also offers two other editions of OnScreen DNA: OnScreen DNA Standard Edition, which adds detailed 3D simulations of the critical DNA processes of gene transcription and replication, and OnScreen DNA Pro (currently for Macintosh only), which empowers the user to control those simulations by enzyme activation and nucleotide selection in nucleic acid chain-building activities.
OnScreen DNA Lite™ is available from OnScreen Science, Inc.®, 46 Wallace St. Somerville, MA 02144 or online at www.onscreen-dna.com. The promotional price will be $15 for the software on a CD. Also during the period of the specal promotion, ten-computer site licenses are available for $74, which is $100 below the usual price. Anyone purchasing OnScreen DNA Lite™ will be able to apply the purchase price to the higher-level editions.
OnScreen Science, Inc.® publishes Ph.D.-scientist-designed software for science education tasks particularly benefiting from computer simulations. In addition to OnScreen DNA™, the company also offers OnScreen Particle Physics™, a highly regarded simulation of a particle detection chamber for both the Windows and Macintosh platforms.