Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

prussic acid

(Encyclopedia)prussic acid: see hydrogen cyanide. ...

pteroylglutamic acid

(Encyclopedia)pteroylglutamic acid tĕrōˌĭlglo͞otămˈĭk [key]: see vitamin. ...

pyroligneous acid

(Encyclopedia)pyroligneous acid pīˌrəlĭgˈnēəs [key], a dark liquid that is essentially a mixture of acetic acid and methanol (wood alcohol) and is obtained in the destructive distillation of wood. It once se...

picric acid

(Encyclopedia)picric acid trīˌnīˌtrōfēˈnōl [key], C6H2(NO2)3OH, a toxic yellow crystalline solid that melts at 122℃ and is soluble in most organic solvents. Picric acid is a derivative of phenol. It react...

racemic acid

(Encyclopedia)racemic acid rāsēˈmĭk [key]: see tartaric acid. ...

oxalic acid

(Encyclopedia)oxalic acid ĕthˌāndīōĭk [key], HO2CCO2H, a colorless, crystalline organic carboxylic acid that melts at 189℃ with sublimation. Oxalic acid and oxalate salts are poisonous. Oxalic acid is found...

acid rain

(Encyclopedia)acid rain or acid deposition, form of precipitation (rain, snow, sleet, or hail) containing high levels of sulfuric or nitric acids (pH below 5.5–5.6). Produced when sulfur dioxide and various nitro...

Human Genome Project

(Encyclopedia)Human Genome Project, international scientific effort to map all of the genes on the 23 pairs of human chromosomes and, to sequence the 3.1 billion DNA base pairs that make up the chromosomes (see nuc...

Sanger, Frederick

(Encyclopedia)Sanger, Frederick săngˈər [key], 1918–2013, British biochemist, grad. Cambridge (B.A., 1939; Ph.D., 1943). He continued his research at Cambridge after 1943. He won the 1958 Nobel Prize in Chemis...

immunosuppressive drug

(Encyclopedia)immunosuppressive drug, any of a variety of substances used to prevent production of antibodies. They are commonly used to prevent rejection by a recipient's body of an organ transplanted from a donor...