Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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accused, rights of ... acid and basic rocks

accused, rights of: in law, the rights and privileges of a person accused of a crime, guaranteeing him a fair trial. These rights were initially (generally from the 18th century on) confined primarily to the actual trial itself, but in the second half ...
Ace, Goodman: American radio writer and performer and producer-writer for television, whose literate writing, wry humour, and relaxed style influenced numerous radio and television writers from the 1930s on.
Aceh: semiautonomous province of Indonesia, forming the northern extremity of the island of Sumatra. Aceh is surrounded by water on three sides: the Indian Ocean to the west and north and the Strait of Malacca to the east. Its boundary with ...
Aceraceae: the maple family of flowering plants, in the order Sapindales, comprising about 200 species of trees and shrubs in two genera, Dipteronia (two species) of central and southern China, and Acer, the maples, widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere, crossing ...
acervulus: an open, saucer-shaped asexual fruiting body found in fungi (division Mycota). Always developed below the epidermis of the host tissue, it bears conidiophores (specialized filaments, or hyphae) that form conidia (spores).
Acestes: in Greek mythology, legendary king of Segesta (Greek Egesta) in Sicily. His mother, Egesta, had been sent from Troy by her parents to save her from being devoured by a sea serpent. Going to Sicily she met the river god ...
Acetabularia: genus of one-celled, umbrella-like green algae found in subtropical seas and sometimes called the "mermaid's wine glass." At the top of the tall, slender stalk, 0.5 to 10 cm (0.2 to 3.9 inches) long, is a ring of branches that ...
acetaldehyde: an aldehyde used as a starting material in the synthesis of acetic acid, n-butyl alcohol, ethyl acetate, and other chemical compounds. It is manufactured by the oxidation of ethyl alcohol and by the hydration of acetylene. Pure acetaldehyde is a ...
acetaminophen: drug used in the treatment of mild pain, such as headache and pain in joints and muscles, and to reduce fever. It is formed in the body as a metabolite of acetanilid or phenacetin, which were once commonly used drugs, ...
acetanilide: synthetic organic compound introduced in therapy in 1886 as a fever-reducing drug. Its effectiveness in relieving pain was discovered soon thereafter, and it was used as an alternative to aspirin for many years in treating such common complaints as headache, ...
acetic acid: the most important of the carboxylic acids. A dilute solution of acetic acid produced by fermentation and oxidation of natural carbohydrates is called vinegar (q.v.); a salt, ester, or acylal of acetic acid is called acetate. Industrially, acetic acid is ...
acetone: organic solvent of industrial and chemical significance, the simplest and most important of the aliphatic (fat-derived) ketones. Pure acetone is a colourless, somewhat aromatic, flammable, mobile liquid that boils at 56.2° C (133° F).
acetophenone: (C₆H₅COCH₃), an organic compound used as an ingredient in perfumes and as a chemical intermediate in the manufacture of pharmaceuticals, resins, flavouring agents, and a form of tear gas. It also has been used as a drug to induce sleep.
acetylcholine: (ACh), an ester of choline and acetic acid that is the transmitter substance at many neural, or nerve, synapses and at the motor end plate of vertebrate muscles (see end-plate potential). When a nerve impulse arrives at the nerve ending, ...
acetylene: the simplest and best-known member of the hydrocarbon series containing one or more pairs of carbon atoms linked by triple bonds, called the acetylenic series, or alkynes. It is a colourless, inflammable gas widely used as a fuel in oxyacetylene ...
Acevedo Diaz, Eduardo: writer and politician, considered Uruguay's first novelist.
Achaea: nomos (department) and historic region of Greece on the north coast of the Peloponnese, south of the Gulf of Corinth. In ancient times it was bounded on the west by Elis (modern Ilia), on the south by ...
Achaean: any of the ancient Greek people, identified in Homer, along with the Danaoi and the Argeioi, as the Greeks who besieged Troy. Their area as described by Homer-the mainland and western isles of Greece, Crete, Rhodes, and adjacent isles, except ...
Achaean League: 3rd-century-BC confederation of the towns of Achaea in ancient Greece. The 12 Achaean cities of the northern Peloponnese had organized a league by the 4th century BC to protect themselves against piratical raids from across the Corinthian Gulf, but this ...
Achaemenes: eponymous ancestor of the Persian Achaemenid dynasty; he was the father of Teispes (Chishpish) and an ancestor of Cyrus II the Great and Darius I the Great. Although Achaemenes probably ruled only Parsumash, a vassal state of the kingdom of ...
Achaemenes: son of the Achaemenid king Darius I of Persia.
Achaemenian Dynasty: (559-330 BC), ancient Iranian dynasty whose kings founded and ruled the Achaemenian Empire. Achaemenes (Persian Hakhamanish), the Achaemenians' eponymous ancestor, is presumed to have lived early in the 7th century BC, but little is known of his life. From his ...
Achaemenid Dynasty: the Persian 27th dynasty of Egypt (525-404 BC), founded by Cambyses II of Persia and named after his family of the Achaemenids.
Achagua: South American Indian people of Venezuela and eastern Colombia. They speak a language of the Maipurean Arawakan group. Traditionally, the Achagua had typical tropical-forest economies, living in large villages and growing bitter cassava and other crops. The Achagua were warlike; ...
Ache: nomadic South American Indian people living in eastern Paraguay. The Ache speak a Tupian dialect of the Tupi-Guaranian language family. They live in the densely forested, hilly region between the Paraguay and Parana rivers. In pre-Spanish times, the Ache lived ...
Acheampong, Ignatius Kutu: Ghanaian army officer, who, after leading a military revolt that overthrew the government of Kofi Busia, became Ghana's chief of state in 1972. In July 1978 he was forced to resign, and the following June he and his successor, Lieut. ...
Achebe, Chinua: prominent Igbo (Ibo) novelist acclaimed for his unsentimental depictions of the social and psychological disorientation accompanying the imposition of Western customs and values upon traditional African society. His particular concern was with emergent Africa at its moments of crisis; his ...
Achelous River: one of the longest rivers in Greece, rising in the Pindus Mountains of central Epirus (Ipiros) and dividing Aetolia from Acarnania. It debouches into the Ionian Sea after a course of 140 mi (220 km), mostly through gorges. Well above ...
Achenbach, Andreas: landscape painter, a pioneer of the German realist school. He studied at the Dusseldorf academy under Johann Wilhelm Schirmer, but emancipated himself from the contemporary school of landscapists that delighted in the representation of romantic scenery. He was the first ...
achene: dry, one-seeded fruit lacking special seams that split to release the seed. The seed coat is attached to the thin, dry ovary wall (husk) by a short stalk, so that the seed is easily freed from the husk, as in ...
Achernar: brightest star in the southern constellation Eridanus and one of the 10 brightest stars in the sky, with an apparent visual magnitude of 0.47. It lies about 60 or 70 light-years from the Earth. The name probably derives from an ...
Acheron: river in Thesprotia in Epirus, Greece, that was thought in ancient times to go to Hades because it flowed through dark gorges and went underground in several places; an oracle of the dead was located on its bank. In Greek ...
Acheson, Dean: U.S. secretary of state (1949-53) and adviser to four presidents, who became the principal creator of U.S. foreign policy in the Cold War period following World War II; he helped to create the Western alliance in opposition to the Soviet ...
Acheson, Edward Goodrich: American inventor who discovered the abrasive Carborundum and perfected a method for making graphite.
Acheulean industry: first standardized tradition of toolmaking of Homo erectus and early Homo sapiens. Named for the type site, Saint-Acheul, in Somme departement, in northern France, Acheulean tools were made of stone with good fracture characteristics, including chalcedony, jasper, and flint; in ...
Achill Island: mountainous island off the west coast of Ireland. It is part of County Mayo, joined to the mainland by a bridge across Achill Sound. The island is Ireland's largest, with an area of 56 square miles (145 square km), and ...
Achilles: in Greek mythology, son of the mortal Peleus, king of the Myrmidons, and the Nereid, or sea nymph, Thetis. He was the bravest, handsomest, and greatest warrior of the army of Agamemnon in the Trojan War. According to Homer, Achilles ...
Achilles Painter: Athenian vase painter known by and named for an amphora attributed to him with a painting of "Achilles and Briseis." The amphora is now in the Vatican Museums. His period of activity coincides with the Parthenon sculptures and with the ...
Achilles paradox: in logic, an argument attributed to the 5th-century BC Greek philosopher Zeno, and one of his four paradoxes described by Aristotle in the treatise Physics. The paradox concerns a race between the fleet-footed Achilles and a slow-moving tortoise. The two ...
Achilles Tatius: teacher of rhetoric and author of Leucippe and Cleitophon, one of the Greek prose romances that influenced the development of the novel centuries later.
Achilles tendon: strong tendon at the back of the heel that connects the calf muscles to the heel. The tendon is formed from the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles (the calf muscles) and is inserted into the heel bone. The contracting calf muscles ...
Achillini, Alessandro: Italian philosopher and physician, an advocate of the teachings of William of Ockham.
Achinese: one of the main ethnic groups on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. They were estimated to number roughly 2,100,000 in the late 20th century. They speak a language of the Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) family.
Achinese War: (1873-1904), an armed conflict between The Netherlands and the Muslim sultanate of Acheh (now Aceh) in northern Sumatra that resulted in Dutch conquest of the Achinese and, ultimately, in Dutch domination of the entire region. In 1871 The Netherlands and ...
Achinsk: city, Krasnoyarsk kray (region), south-central Russia. It lies along the Chulym River, which is a tributary of the Ob. It was founded in 1621 and chartered in 1782. Important as a river-road transfer point until rail lines were constructed, it ...
Acholi: ethnolinguistic group of northern Uganda and southernmost Sudan. Numbering more than one million at the turn of the 21st century, they speak a Western Nilotic language of the Eastern Sudanic branch of the Nilo-Saharan family and are culturally and historically ...
achondrite: any stony meteorite containing no chondrules (rounded granules of cosmic origin). Achondrites, constituting about 4 percent of the known meteorites, are similar in appearance to terrestrial igneous rocks low in silica content, such as basalts, peridotites, and pyroxenites. They may ...
achondroplasia: genetic disorder characterized by a lack of cartilage cells. As a consequence, bones that depend on cartilage models for development cannot grow. Achondroplasia is the most common cause of dwarfism. In those afflicted with the disorder, the limbs are very ...
Achterberg, Gerrit: Dutch poet whose use of surreal language and imagery influenced a generation of post-World War II poets known as the Experimentalists. His verse, traditional in form, is characterized as romantic and metaphysical. He was a linguistic innovator, often coining new ...
acid: any substance that in water solution tastes sour, changes the colour of certain indicators (e.g., reddens blue litmus paper), reacts with some metals (e.g., iron) to liberate hydrogen, reacts with bases to form salts, and promotes certain chemical reactions (acid ...
acid and basic rocks: division of igneous rocks on the basis of their silica content. Chemical analyses of the most abundant components in rocks usually are presented as oxides of the elements; igneous rocks typically consist of approximately 12 major oxides totaling over 99 ...