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free energy

(Encyclopedia)free energy or Gibbs free energy, quantity derived from the relationships between heat and work studied in thermodynamics and used as a measure of the relative stability of a physical or chemical syst...

International Maritime Organization

(Encyclopedia)International Maritime Organization (IMO), specialized agency of the United Nations established in 1948, with headquarters in London and 168 member nations and three associate members. IMO is one of t...

dark energy

(Encyclopedia)dark energy, repulsive force that opposes the self-attraction of matter (see gravitation) and causes the expansion of the universe to accelerate. The search for dark energy was triggered by the discov...

thermonuclear energy

(Encyclopedia)thermonuclear energy: see nuclear energy. ...

gram-atomic weight

(Encyclopedia)gram-atomic weight, amount of an atomic substance whose weight, in grams, is numerically equal to the atomic weight of that substance. For example, 1 gram-atomic weight of atomic oxygen, O (atomic wei...

International Labor Organization

(Encyclopedia)International Labor Organization (ILO), specialized agency of the United Nations, with headquarters in Geneva. It was created in 1919 by the Versailles Treaty and affiliated with the League of Nations...

International Telecommunication Union

(Encyclopedia)International Telecommunication Union (ITU), specialized agency of the United Nations, with headquarters at Geneva. It was created in 1934 as a result of the merging of the International Telegraph Uni...

Central Intelligence Agency

(Encyclopedia)Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), independent executive bureau of the U.S. government established by the National Security Act of 1947, replacing the wartime Office of Strategic Services (1942–45),...

National Security Agency

(Encyclopedia)National Security Agency (NSA), an independent agency within the U.S. Dept. of Defense. Founded by presidential order in 1952, its primary functions are to collect and analyze communications intellige...

International

(Encyclopedia)International, any of a succession of international socialist and Communist organizations of the 19th and 20th cent. After World War I, the Second International was revived (1919) by moderate social...