FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Free Taste of OnScreen DNA for Macintosh Now a Universal Binary
SOMERVILLE, MA—March 8, 2006—OnScreen Science, Inc.® today announced that its free preview version of OnScreen DNA™, the Macintosh software for learning about DNA structure and function, is now a Universal Binary running natively on both PowerPC and Intel architectures of Macintosh OS X. OnScreen DNA has been designed to give science teachers and learners a fully three-dimensional and dynamic tool for visualizing and understanding DNA and its essential role in life on Earth.
The preview version, which is called A Taste of OnScreen DNA™, can be downloaded from the web site www.onscreen-dna.com. It has been made available so that teachers (including self-teachers) can judge for themselves the merits of the way OnScreen DNA reveals in visual simulations how DNA's "works" and how its 3D structure is crucial for its biological functions. Now those with the new Intel-based Macs can make a realistic evaluation of the software's potential.
A Taste of OnScreen DNA™, has many features of the full version enabled. Users can rotate the virtual double helix in 3D, identify all DNA components with a mouse click, and zoom in and out to obtain different perspectives. Users will also get a taste of how the on-screen guides serve as tutorials in both the use of the software and the biology and chemistry of DNA and how the two independent views (3D model and linear sequence) of the software complement each other to make it clear what is happening.
A Taste of OnScreen DNA™ allows the user to go through the beginning of the gene transcription learning activity, which is one of six learning activities in the full version, each of which has a corresponding on-screen testing activity in the full version. OnScreen DNA™ for Macintosh, now in the final testing stages, will be also be a Universal Binary.
OnScreen DNA Lite™, which consists of a detailed walkthrough of DNA's structure and the phenomena of denaturation and renaturation, is currently offered in a PowerPC version requiring Macintosh OS 10.3.9 or greater. The Universal Binary version of OnScreen DNA Lite™ will be released along with the full version. Anyone purchasing DNA Lite™ can apply the purchase price to an upgrade to the full version at a later time. The Universal Binary of OnScreen DNA Lite™ will be a free upgrade. OnScreen DNA Lite™is now available from OnScreen Science, Inc.®, 46 Wallace St. Somerville, MA 02144 or online at www.onscreen-dna.com for a price of $49 (USD). Ten-computer site licenses are available for $174.
OnScreen Science, Inc.® publishes Ph.D.-scientist-designed software for science education tasks particularly benefiting from computer simulations. In addition to OnScreen DNA Lite™, the company also offers OnScreen Particle Physics™, a highly regarded simulation of a particle detection chamber for both the Windows and Macintosh platforms.