Instead, they scanned the sky and brush for any danger while we were in this vulnerable phase of our mission.

In this respect they resemble many other plants whose leaves pass through vulnerable phases as they mature, though not all strategies are based on felt.

New varieties of cotton grow more rapidly and quickly pass through their most vulnerable phase (when the carpal surrounding the cotton is thin).

Smith identified the state's worst biters, and focused on the biology of each in the quest for a vulnerable phase, Dr. Crans said.

This time, at a much more vulnerable phase in her career, Williams saved three more match points against the 17-year-old Sharapova before closing out one of the most emotional and remarkable victories of her career with a backhand winner.

Above all, one was premised on the rejection of a consensual pattern of post-war politics and of the role of organized labour in policy-making, while the other grew out of consensual politics in a vulnerable phase of political development.

At one extreme, there could be a continuous process in which a sort of chain reaction of biochemical processes in a particular ensemble of cells led inevitably from the early, vulnerable phase through to a final fixed form, like the hardening of glue or the developing of a photograph.