That began to change with the growing use of zinc fingers, a set of molecular tools that, like CRISPR clusters, were discovered by accident.
When he is with Iraqis, he often fingers a set of green stone prayer beads, though in a more absent-minded way than religious Muslims, who use each bead as a mental prayer-stop; for Khalilzad, the beads serve as a sort of prop, a convenient visual reminder of his Muslim identity.
"My best years as a young man have been wasted," said Mr. Uzel, 32, fingering a set of worry beads.
A big man with a beard, Shahabuddin wore a red-and-white kaffiyeh and fingered a set of dark-red prayer beads.
"Chinese tourists just barge in when we're studying," a middle-aged monk said as he fingered a set of prayer beads.
In Experiment 1 we tested this hypothesis by asking subjects to press their fingers onto a set of flat surfaces and raised lines in order to determine the number of fingers touching a raised line.
With that transformative stroke of his fingers — yielding a set of literal lines in the sand — Mr. Woodland, who died on Sunday at 91, conceived the modern bar code.
Eddie Jackson, 64, known as the "musical mayor of Staten Island," whipped his fingers along a set of bongos, and John Dunne, a k a J. D., 59, who has been playing the drums since he was 11, effortlessly tapped out a clever rhythm.
Then there was the citrus grater meant to slip over your index and middle fingers, like a set of brass knuckles, with a little compartment to catch the zest, and the "4 'n 1 Avocado Tool," which scoops, slices, mashes, and . . .
What is it you ask? Plick (as in Programmable by clicking your fingers) is a set of connectable, interactive components that can be attached to ordinary objects and transform them into interactive gadgets.
Each natural zinc finger recognizes a set of three letters, or bases, on the DNA molecule.
