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life

(Encyclopedia)life, although there is no universal agreement as to a definition of life, its biological manifestations are generally considered to be organization, metabolism, growth, irritability, adaptation, and ...

life insurance

(Encyclopedia)life insurance: see insurance.

life preserver

(Encyclopedia)life preserver, a personal flotation device (PFD) intended to keep the wearer afloat, particularly in case of shipwreck. A Type I PFD will keep even unconscious people afloat in a face–up position; ...

half-life

(Encyclopedia)half-life, measure of the average lifetime of a radioactive substance (see radioactivity) or an unstable subatomic particle. One half-life is the time required for one half of any given quantity of th...

still life

(Encyclopedia)still life, a pictorial representation of inanimate objects. The term derives from the 17th-century Dutch still-leven, meaning a motionless natural object or objects. In East Asia still-life subj...

artificial life support

(Encyclopedia)artificial life support, systems that use medical technology to aid, support, or replace a vital function of the body that has been seriously damaged. Such techniques include artificial pacemakers, in...

life support system

(Encyclopedia)life support system: see artificial life support; Life Support for Human Spaceflight under space science. ...

Census of Marine Life

(Encyclopedia)Census of Marine Life, an international program (2001–2010) to assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of living organisms in the oceans. A project involving more than 2,700 sc...

Life of Adam and Eve

(Encyclopedia)Life of Adam and Eve: see Adam and Eve, Life of. ...

Adam and Eve, Life of

(Encyclopedia)Adam and Eve, Life of, early Jewish work included in the collection known as the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. It was probably written in Hebrew between 100 b.c. and a.d. 100. Based on the Old Testame...