Britannica
Encyclopedias since 1768  
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0-9
Callisto ... Calumet City
Callisto
in Greek mythology, a nymph, or else a daughter of either Lycaon of Arcadia or of Nycteus or Ceteus. Callisto was one of the goddess Artemis' huntress companions and swore to remain unwed. But she was loved by Zeus and, ... [1 Related Articles]
Callisto
outermost of the four large moons (Galilean satellites) discovered around Jupiter by the Italian astronomer Galileo in 1610. It was probably also discovered independently that same year by the German astronomer Simon Marius, who named it after Callisto of Greek ... [3 Related Articles]
Callistus
patriarch of Constantinople, theologian, and hagiographer, an advocate of a Byzantine school of mystical prayer that he upheld by the authority of his office and by his writings.
Callitris
(from the article "cypress pine") any of the ornamental and timber shrubs and trees of two closely related genera (Callitris and Widdringtonia) of the family Cupressaceae.distributiondesertFlora...species commonly belong to the bean family (such genera as ...
Callitroga macellaria
(from the article "blow fly") ...spines. These larvae attack livestock and other animals, including humans. The true screwworm (Cochliomyia hominivorax; formerly, Callitroga americana) and the secondary screwworm (Callitroga macellaria) develop in decaying flesh in surface wounds of domestic animals and occasionally of humans, and the ...
Callixylon
(from the article "Devonian Period") ...branches, is represented by Hyenia and Pseudobornia. Pteropsids also appeared in the Devonian. Primitive gymnosperms are known, and trunks of Archaeopteris up to 1.8 metres (6 feet) in diameter are present ...
Callot, Jacques
French printmaker who was one of the first great artists to practice the graphic arts exclusively. His innovative series of prints documenting the horrors of war greatly influenced the socially conscious artists of the 19th and 20th centuries. [5 Related Articles]
Callovian Stage
uppermost of the four divisions of the Middle Jurassic Series, representing all rocks formed worldwide during the Callovian Age, which occurred between 164.7 million and 161.2 million years ago during the Jurassic Period. (Some researchers have proposed a longer time ...
Calloway, Cab
American bandleader, singer, and all-around entertainer known for his exuberant performing style and for leading one of the most highly regarded big bands of the swing era. [5 Related Articles]
callus
(from the article "Poaceae") ...grass seeds. The backs or tips of glumes and lemmas may develop one or more awns, needlelike structures that may catch on animal fur. The base of the spikelet may be hardened into a pointed, hairy callus. The callus is ...
callus
in osteology, bony and cartilaginous material forming a connecting bridge across a bone fracture during repair. Within one to two weeks after injury, a provisional callus forms, enveloping the fracture site. Osteoblasts, bone-forming cells in the periosteum (the bone layer ... [2 Related Articles]
callus
in dermatology, small area of thickened skin, caused by continued friction, pressure, or other physical or chemical irritants. In response to mild but repeated injury, the cells of the epidermis, the outermost horny layer of the skin, become more active, ...
callus-tissue culture
(from the article "horticulture") Callus-tissue culture-a very specialized technique that involves growth of the callus, followed by procedures to induce organ differentiation-has been successful with a number of plants including carrot, asparagus, and tobacco. Used extensively in research, callus culture has not been considered ...
Callwood, June Rose
Canadian journalist, author, television personality, and activist was a spirited organizer who founded a hostel for homeless youth, a shelter for battered women, and a hospice for AIDS sufferers and was a prominent magazine columnist in the 1950s, notably for ...
calm
(from the article "ocean") Inside the Great Barrier Reef, on the shallow continental shelf of Queensland, the oxygen content of the water is high, exceeding 90 percent saturation most of the time; in deeper water, during the calm periods of the rainy season, the ...
calmecac
(from the article "education") At the calmecac, the school for native learning where apprenticeship started at the age of 10, the history of Mexico and the content of the historical codices were systematically taught. The calmecac played the most vital role in ensuring oral ...
Calmette, Albert
French bacteriologist, pupil of Louis Pasteur, and codeveloper with Camille Guerin of the tuberculosis vaccine Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG). He also described a diagnostic test for tuberculosis, known as Calmette's reaction. [3 Related Articles]
Calmette, Gaston
(from the article "Caillaux, Joseph") ...compromise that brought a massive public attack upon his patriotism. The hostility of a Senate investigating commission proved so embarrassing that he was forced to resign (January 1912). Gaston Calmette, editor of the influential Le Figaro, led a press campaign ...
Calmo, Andrea
(from the article "Italian literature") ...Paduan dialect, treat the problems of the oppressed peasant with realism and profound seriousness. Another dialect playwright of the same century, now also more widely appreciated, is the Venetian Andrea Calmo, who showed a nice gift for characterization in his ...
Calmy-Rey, Micheline
(from the article "Switzerland") Area: 41,284 sq km (15,940 sq mi) | Population (2007 est.): 7,607,000 | Capital: Bern | Head of state and government: President Micheline Calmy-Rey |
Calobryales
(from the article "bryophyte") ...usually opening by longitudinal lines; sporangium releasing all spores and elaters at the time it opens; calyptra remaining at base when seta elongates.Leaves flattened and in three rows on an erect shoot arising from a colourless, subterranean, rootlike system ...
Calocedrus
(from the article "conifer") ...about 20; leaves vary in shape from scales to clawlike or needlelike and are spirally arranged or in opposite pairs or whorls of 3; several genera, usually referred to as cedars (such as Calocedrus,
Calogero, Lorenzo
(from the article "Italian literature") ...Sicilian aristocrat Lucio Piccolo, cousin of novelist Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, who in 1954 forwarded Piccolo's then unpublished poems to an appreciative Eugenio Montale; the Calabrian Symbolist Lorenzo Calogero, who has been compared to Stephane Mallarme, Rainer Marie Rilke, Dino ...
calomel
a very heavy, soft, white, sweetish-tasting halide mineral, formed by the alteration of other mercury minerals, such as cinnabar or amalgams. Calomel is found together with native mercury, cinnabar, calcite, limonite, and clay, at Moschellandsberg, Ger.; Zimapan, Mexico; and Brewster ... [2 Related Articles]
calomel electrode
(from the article "acid-base reaction") ...&rlarr2; B + H3O+. For example, a hydrogen electrode (or more commonly a glass electrode, which responds in the same way) together with a reference electrode, commonly the calomel electrode, serves to measure the actual hydrogen ion concentration, or the ...
Calonne, Charles-Alexandre de
French statesman whose efforts to reform the structure of his nation's finance and administration precipitated the governmental crisis that led to the French Revolution of 1789. [3 Related Articles]
Caloocan
city on Dagatdagatan Lagoon (Manila Bay), central Luzon, Philippines, adjacent to northern Manila. Founded in 1762, it became a municipality in 1815. Caloocan suffered much damage during World War II. Now part of Greater Manila, it is a growing centre ...
Calopogon
genus of about four species of terrestrial orchids, family Orchidaceae, found in bogs and swamps of North America and the West Indies. The lip of the grass-pink, or swamp-pink (Calopogon pulchellus), flower is covered with many yellow hairs. The flowers ...
caloric theory
explanation, widely accepted in the 18th century, of the phenomena of heat and combustion in terms of the flow of a hypothetical weightless fluid known as caloric. The idea of an imaginary fluid to represent heat helped explain many but ... [3 Related Articles]
calorie
a unit of energy or heat variously defined. The calorie was originally defined as the amount of heat required at a pressure of 1 standard atmosphere to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water 1° Celsius. Since 1925 this ... [4 Related Articles]
calorific value
(from the article "coal utilization") Calorific value, measured in British thermal units or megajoules per kilogram, is the amount of chemical energy stored in a coal that is released as thermal energy upon combustion. It is directly related to rank; in fact, the ASTM method ...
calorigen
(from the article "pollination") ...the smelly, receptive stage, and cross-pollination again ensues. Superb timing mechanisms underlie these events. The heat-generating metabolic process in the inflorescence is triggered by a hormone, calorigen, originating in the male flower buds only under the right conditions. The giant ...
calorimeter
device for measuring the heat developed during a mechanical, electrical, or chemical reaction, and for calculating the heat capacity of materials. [1 Related Articles]
calorimetry
(from the article "physiology") ...and the work performed during muscle contraction must originate in similar processes, and that fuel in the equation above is a source of potential energy. Early in the 20th century studies of animal calorimetry verified these concepts in man and ...
Caloris
(from the article "Mercury") Caloris is one of the youngest of the large multiring basins, at least on the observed portion of Mercury. It probably was formed at the same time as the last giant basins on the Moon, about 3.9 billion years ago. ...
Calosphaeriales
(from the article "fungus") ...black and shiny; some with irregular stromata; included in subclass Sordariomycetidae; examples of genera include Camarops and Apiocamarops.Saprobic; ascospores small; included in subclass Sordariomycetidae; examples of genera include Calosphaeria, Togniniella, and...
Calotes
genus of arboreal (tree-dwelling) lizards of the family Agamidae, remarkable for their extreme colour changes when excited. It is found in gardens and forests of India, Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, and some Pacific islands. The taxonomy is uncertain, however, and ...
Calotropis gigantea
(from the article "akund floss") downy seed fibre obtained from Calotropis procera and C. gigantea, plants of the Apocynaceae family. The plants are native to southern Asia and Africa and were introduced to South America and the islands of the Caribbean. The yellowish material is ...
Calotropis procera
(from the article "akund floss") downy seed fibre obtained from Calotropis procera and C. gigantea, plants of the Apocynaceae family. The plants are native to southern Asia and Africa and were introduced to South America and the islands of the Caribbean. The yellowish material is ...
calotype
early photographic technique invented by William Henry Fox Talbot of Great Britain in the 1830s. In this technique, a sheet of paper coated with silver chloride was exposed to light in a camera obscura; those areas hit by light became ... [4 Related Articles]
Calow, Peter
(from the article "The Environment") Peter Calow, a British scientist, was appointed director of Denmark's Environmental Assessment Institute in November 2004. The post was formerly held by Bjorn Lomborg, who had generated controversy in his criticism of views held by many environmentalists. Calow, former professor ...
calpulli
(from the article "pre-Columbian civilizations") A number of households, varying from a few score to several hundred, were organized into an internally complex corporate group referred to as a calpulli by the Aztec and translated as barrio ("ward") by the Spaniards. Questions about the structure ...
Calpurnia
(from the article "Julius Caesar") ...He persuades the reluctant Brutus-Caesar's trusted friend-to join them. Brutus, troubled and sleepless, finds comfort in the companionship of his noble wife, Portia. Caesar's wife, Calpurnia, alarmed by prophetic dreams, warns her husband not to go to the Capitol the ...
Calpurnius Siculus
Roman poet, author of seven pastoral eclogues, probably written when Nero was emperor (AD 54-68).
Caltabellotta, Peace of
(from the article "Charles II") ...Nicholas IV as intermediaries. Charles promised to give up his claim to Sicily, but, once released, the Pope absolved him from his promise and the war for Sicily continued. It was resolved by the Peace of Caltabellotta (1302), under which ...
Caltanissetta
city, central Sicily, Italy. The city lies in the mountains west of the Salso River at an elevation of 1,929 feet (588 m). It is sometimes identified with the ancient cities of Gibil-Habib or Sabucino, but its recorded history does ...
Caltex
(from the article "Chevron Corporation") Company geologists discovered vast quantities of oil in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia in the early 1930s, and in 1936 a marketing enterprise was formed-the Caltex group of companies, owned jointly by Standard Oil of California and Texaco. In 1939 the ...
Calton Hill
(from the article "Edinburgh") At the east end of Princes Street, Calton Hill rises above the central government office of St. Andrew's House (1939) and the adjacent Royal High School (1825-29), considered for a time in the 1990s as the site for the new ...
Calukya Dynasty
either of two ancient Indian dynasties. The Western Calukyas ruled as emperors in the Deccan (i.e., peninsular India) from AD 543 to 757 and again from about 975 to about 1189. The Eastern Calukyas ruled in Vengi (in eastern Andhra ... [6 Related Articles]
Calukya dynasty, Eastern
(from the article "India") ...who are associated with Vatapi in the 6th century. The Calukyas controlled large parts of the Deccan for two centuries. There were many branches of the family, the most important of which were the Eastern Calukyas, ruling at Pishtapura (modern ...
Calumet City
city, Cook county, northeastern Illinois, U.S. A southern suburb of Chicago, Calumet City lies on the Illinois-Indiana state border and along the Little Calumet River, southeast of Lake Calumet. The area was first settled in the 1860s by Hans Johann ...
© 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica Australia Ltd
Encyclopedia Home | World Atlas