Two scientists, George and Mary, meet. Base your answer to the question on their conversation, below, and your knowledge of the
scientific method.

George: Here are pictures of my three children.
Mary: How nice; how old are they?
George: You're a scientist, you figure it out.
Mary: OK, give me a hint.
George: If you multiply their ages, the result is 36.
Mary: I need more information.
George: If you add their ages, the sum is the age of your
oldest child.
Mary: I almost have it, I need one more clue.
George: The blue eyed child is the oldest.
Mary: I figured it out using the scientific method.

After Mary made her hypotheses about the ages of the children,
she added the ages and looked at the sum. What part of the
scientific method is this?

a. problem
b. hypothesis
c. observation
d. conclusion

step 1: initiation

initiation is the beginning of transcription. it occurs when the enzyme rna polymerase binds to a region of a gene called the promoter. this signals the dna to unwind so the enzyme can ‘‘read’’ the bases in one of the dna strands. the enzyme is now ready to make a strand of mrna with a complementary sequence of bases.

step 2: elongation

elongation is the addition of nucleotides to the mrna strand. rna polymerase reads the unwound dna strand and builds the mrna molecule, using complementary base pairs. there is a brief time during this process when the newly formed rna is bound to the unwound dna. during this process, an adenine (a) in the dna binds to an uracil (u) in the rna.

step 3: termination

termination is the ending of transcription, and occurs when rna polymerase crosses a stop (termination) sequence in the gene. the mrna strand is complete, and it detaches from dna.

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