IT WILL not come with garden parties, A large hats or eager bookies. And the contestants will be too small to see with the naked eye. But the World Cell Race, due to begin at the end of this month, will be the sporting event of the year for cell biologists. The idea of the race is simple. Labs from around the world send the runners-whatever sort of mammalian cell they think will do well—to one of six testing sites. There, the cells will be injected onto plates striped with tracks of a chemical they like to adhere to. Progress will be watched through a microscope, by time-lapse photography. And whichever cell covers a tenth of a millimetre fastest (probably taking about an hour to do so) will be declared the winner.
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