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Blackburn, Elizabeth Helen

(Encyclopedia)Blackburn, Elizabeth Helen, 1948–, Australian-American molecular biologist, b. Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, Ph.D. Cambridge, 1975. Blackburn was a professor at the Univ. of California, Berkeley, fro...

Christopher, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Christopher, Saint krĭsˈtəfər [key] [Gr.,=Christ bearer], 3d cent.?, martyr of Asia Minor. His characteristic legend is that one day when he was carrying a little child over a river, he felt the c...

ambergris

(Encyclopedia)ambergris ămˈbərgrēs [key], waxlike substance originating as a morbid concretion in the intestine of the sperm whale. Lighter than water, it is found floating on tropical seas or cast up on the sh...

polypropylene

(Encyclopedia)polypropylene pŏlˌēprōˈpəlēn [key], plastic noted for its light weight, being less dense than water; it is a polymer of propylene. It resists moisture, oils, and solvents. Since its melting poi...

baluchitherium

(Encyclopedia)baluchitherium bəlo͞ochĭthērˈēəm [key], extinct primitive rhinoceros, belonging to the genus Baluchitherium, of the Oligocene epoch, fossilized bones of which were found in central Asia. It had...

Achilles' tendon

(Encyclopedia)Achilles' tendon (tendo calcaneus) tĕnˈdō kălkāˈnēəs [key], sinew prominent at the back of the ankle, connecting the tendons of the calf muscles to the heelbone. When the musculature contracts...

Benedetti, Giovanni Battista

(Encyclopedia)Benedetti, Giovanni Battista jōvänˈnē bät-tēsˈtä bānādĕtˈtē [key], 1530–90, Italian mathematician and physicist. An important forerunner of Galileo, Benedetti had diverse interests, inc...

polonium

(Encyclopedia)polonium pəlōˈnēəm [key], radioactive chemical element; symbol Po; at. no. 84; mass no. of most stable isotope 209; m.p. 254℃; b.p. 962℃; sp. gr. about 9.4; valence +2 or +4. Polonium is an e...

solid

(Encyclopedia)solid, one of the three commonly recognized states in which matter occurs, i.e., that state, as distinguished from liquid and gas, in which a substance has both a definite shape and a definite volume....

meranti

(Encyclopedia)meranti, any of several species of Shorea, the most important timber genus in tropical Asia, of the family Dipterocarpaceae. Meranti is an important emergent tree of the tropical forests of Asia. The ...