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furnace

(Encyclopedia)furnace, enclosed space for the burning of fuel. There are many kinds of furnaces, the type depending upon the fuel and the use to which the heat produced within it is put. Most familiar are the furna...

radiometer

(Encyclopedia)radiometer rāˌdēŏmˈətər [key], instrument for detection or measurement of electromagnetic radiation; the term is applied in particular to devices used to measure infrared radiation. One of the ...

cryotron

(Encyclopedia)cryotron krīˈōtrŏnˌ [key], magnetically controlled electronic switching device that operates at extremely low temperatures; it is designed to supplant, in part, the transistor in special electron...

classical swine fever

(Encyclopedia)classical swine fever or hog cholera, acute, highly infectious viral disease of swine, historically perhaps the most serious disease of swine in North America. It is characterized by dullness and list...

fish curing

(Encyclopedia)fish curing. Methods of curing fish by drying, salting, smoking, and pickling, or by combinations of these processes have been employed since ancient times. On sailing vessels fish were usually salted...

weathering

(Encyclopedia)weathering, collective term for the processes by which rock at or near the earth's surface is disintegrated and decomposed by the action of atmospheric agents, water, and living things. Some of these ...

Smoot, George Fitzgerald, 3d

(Encyclopedia)Smoot, George Fitzgerald, 3d smo͞ot [key], 1945–, American astrophysicist, b. Jacksonville, Fl., Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1970. Smoot has been a professor at the Univ. of Califor...

Bergström, Sune Karl

(Encyclopedia)Bergström, Sune Karl so͞oˈnə, bĕrˈyəström [key], 1916–2004, Swedish biochemist, grad. Karolinska Institute (Ph.D., M.D., 1944). With his former pupil B. I. Samuelsson and John R. Vane, he wa...

sake

(Encyclopedia)sake, alcoholic beverage made from rice by fermentation. Although sake is sometimes called rice wine, and can have a smooth body and be quite aromatic, it has a higher alcohol content and is produced ...

sarin

(Encyclopedia)sarin zärēnˈ [key], volatile liquid used as a nerve gas. It boils at 147℃ but evaporates quickly at room temperature; its vapor is colorless and odorless. Chemically, sarin is fluoroisopropoxymet...