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cautery

(Encyclopedia)cautery, searing or destruction of living animal tissue by use of heat or caustic chemicals. In the past, cauterization of open wounds, even those following amputation of a limb, was performed with ho...

compression

(Encyclopedia)compression, external stress applied to an object or substance, tending to cause a decrease in volume (see pressure). Gases can be compressed easily, solids and liquids to a very small degree if at al...

Porter, George, Baron Porter of Luddenham

(Encyclopedia)Porter, George, Baron Porter of Luddenham, 1920–2002, British chemist, b. Stainforth, England, grad. Leeds Univ., Ph.D. Cambridge, 1949. After serving as a radar officer during World War II, he did ...

truck

(Encyclopedia)truck, automotive vehicle designed primarily for the transportation of goods. A truck is constructed on the general lines of the automobile but uses larger and heavier parts. It may be powered by a ga...

Boyle, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Boyle, Robert, 1627–91, Anglo-Irish physicist and chemist. The seventh son of the 1st earl of Cork, he was educated at Eton and on the Continent and conducted most of his researches at his own labor...

leaven

(Encyclopedia)leaven lĕvˈən [key], agent used to raise bread or other flour foods. Physical leavens include water vapor, which is released as steam at high temperatures (as in popovers), and air, which is incorp...

Great Southern Reef

(Encyclopedia)Great Southern Reef, rocky reef complex, c. 27,000 sq mi (70,000 sq km), extending almost 5,000 mi (8,100 km) along S and SW Australia coast, from Brisbane to Perth. The reef's temperate marine ecosys...

fulminate

(Encyclopedia)fulminate fŭlˈmĭnāt [key], any salt of fulminic acid, HONC, a highly unstable compound known only in solution. The term is most commonly applied to the explosive mercury (II) fulminate, also calle...

Debye, Peter Joseph Wilhelm

(Encyclopedia)Debye, Peter Joseph Wilhelm dēbīˈ [key], 1884–1966, American physicist, b. the Netherlands. He was professor at the universities of Zürich, Utrecht, Göttingen, Leipzig, and Berlin. In 1940 he c...

tortoiseshell

(Encyclopedia)tortoiseshell, horny, translucent, mottled plates covering the carapace of the tropical hawksbill turtle. The plates, too thin for most purposes in their original form, are usually built up in layers ...