Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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reserpine ... retaining wall

reserpine: drug derived from the roots of certain species of the tropical plant Rauwolfia. The powdered whole root of the Indian shrub Rauwolfia serpentina historically had been used to treat snakebites, insomnia, hypertension (high blood ...
reservoir: an open-air storage area (usually formed by masonry or earthwork) where water is collected and kept in quantity so that it may be drawn off for use.
Resheph: ancient West Semitic god of the plague and of the underworld, the companion of Anath, and the equivalent of the Babylonian god Nergal. He was also a war god and was thus represented as a bearded man brandishing an ax, ...
Resia Pass: pass south of the Austrian-Italian border and just east of the Swiss frontier. It is 4,934 feet (1,504 m) high and about 1 mile (1.6 km) long and separates the Unterengadin section of the Inn River valley, Austria, from the ...
Resid Pasa, Mustafa: Ottoman statesman and diplomat who was grand vizier (chief minister) on six occasions. He took a leading part in initiating, drafting, and promulgating the first of the reform edicts known as the Tanzimat ("Reorganization").
residence: in anthropology, location chosen by a couple as their postnuptial domicile. In primitive societies, such residence choices frequently follow rules; and, in social systems of wide kinship ties, a new place of residence after marriage signifies the potential severance of ...
residencia: in colonial Spanish America, judicial review of an official's acts, conducted at the conclusion of his term of office. Originating in Castile in the early 15th century, it was extended to the government of Spain's colonial empire from the early ...
residual landform: landform that was produced as the remains of an ancient landscape, escaping burial or destruction to remain as part of the present landscape. Residual landforms are often the result of changed climatic conditions, but they may be due to volcanism ...
resin: any natural or synthetic organic compound consisting of a noncrystalline or viscous liquid substance. Natural resins are typically fusible and flammable organic substances that are transparent or translucent and are yellowish to brown in colour. They are formed in plant ...
resist printing: any of various methods of colouring cloth in a pattern by pretreating designed areas to resist penetration by the dye. To obtain a two-colour pattern on goods already dyed in one colour, a dye paste is applied in the desired ...
resistance: in European history, any of various secret and clandestine groups that sprang up throughout German-occupied Europe during World War II to oppose Nazi rule. The exact number of those who took part is unknown, but they included civilians who worked ...
resistance: in electricity, property of an electric circuit or part of a circuit that transforms electric energy into heat energy in opposing electric current. Resistance involves collisions of the current-carrying charged particles with fixed particles that make up the structure of ...
Resistencia: city, capital of Chaco provincia (province), northeastern Argentina, on a stream that flows into the Parana River at the river port of Barranqueras, 4 miles (6 km) southeast. Originally founded in the mid-18th century as San Fernando ...
resistivity: electrical resistance of a conductor of unit cross-sectional area and unit length. A characteristic property of each material, resistivity is useful in comparing various materials on the basis of their ability to conduct electric currents. High resistivity designates poor conductors.
resistor: electrical component that opposes the flow of either direct or alternating current, employed to protect, operate, or control the circuit. Voltages can be divided with the use of resistors, and in combination with other components resistors can be used to ...
Resita: city, capital of Caras-Severin judet (county), southwestern Romania, near the Yugoslavian border. In a coal- and metal-mining region, it is a long-established metalworking centre. After World War II the ironworks and steelworks of Resita were modernized, and there are several ...
Resnais, Alain: French motion-picture director, a leader of the Nouvelle Vague (New Wave) of unorthodox, influential film directors appearing in France in the late 1950s. His major works include Hiroshima mon amour (1959) and L'Annee derniere ...
resolution: in chemistry, any process by which a mixture called a racemate (q.v.) is separated into its two constituent enantiomorphs. (Enantiomorphs are pairs of substances that have dissymmetric arrangements of atoms and structures that are nonsuperposable mirror images of one another.) ...
resonance: in particle physics, an extremely short-lived phenomenon associated with subatomic particles called hadrons that decay via the strong nuclear force. This force is so powerful that it allows resonances to exist only for the amount of time it takes light ...
resonance: in physics, relatively large selective response of an object or a system that vibrates in step or phase, with an externally applied oscillatory force. Resonance was first investigated in acoustical systems such as musical instruments and the human voice. An ...
resonance, theory of: in chemistry, theory by which the actual normal state of a molecule is represented not by a single valence-bond structure but by a combination of several alternative distinct structures. The molecule is then said to resonate among the several valence-bond ...
resonator: acoustical device for reinforcing sound, as the sounding board of a piano, the "belly" of a stringed instrument, the air mass of an organ pipe, and the throat, nose, and mouth cavities of a vocal animal. In addition to augmenting ...
resorcinol: phenolic compound used in the manufacture of resins, plastics, dyes, medicine, and numerous other organic chemical compounds. It is produced in large quantities by sulfonating benzene with fuming sulfuric acid and fusing the resulting benzenedisulfonic acid with caustic soda. Reaction ...
Respighi, Ottorino: Italian composer who introduced Russian orchestral colour and some of the violence of Richard Strauss's harmonic techniques into Italian music. He studied at the Liceo of Bologna and later with Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov in St. Petersburg, where he was first violist ...
respiration: the process by which animal organisms take up oxygen and discharge carbon dioxide in order to satisfy their energy requirements. In the living organism, energy is liberated, along with carbon dioxide, through the oxidation of molecules containing carbon. The term ...
respiration, human: the process by which oxygen is taken up and carbon dioxide discharged.
respiratory disease: any of the diseases and disorders that affect human respiration.
respiratory distress syndrome: a common complication in infants, especially in premature newborns, characterized by extremely laboured breathing, cyanosis (a bluish tinge to the skin or mucous membranes), and abnormally low levels of oxygen in the arterial blood. Before the advent of effective treatment, ...
respiratory therapy: medical specialty primarily concerned with administering oxygen or other substances and providing assistance in order to maintain the breathing capacity of individuals with impaired lung function.
responsa: ("questions and answers"), replies made by rabbinic scholars in answer to submitted questions about Jewish law. These replies began to be written in the 6th century after final redaction of the Talmud and are still being formulated. Estimates of the ...
responsorial singing: style of singing in which a leader alternates with a chorus. Responsorial singing is found in the folk music of many cultures-e.g., American Indian, African, and African American. One example from the rural United States is the lining out of ...
responsory: plainchant melody and text originally sung responsorially-i.e., by alternating choir and soloist or soloists. Responsorial singing of the psalms was adopted into early Christian worship from Jewish liturgical practice. Most frequently the congregation sang a short refrain, such as Amen ...
Resserella: extinct genus of brachiopods (lamp shells) that occurs as fossils in marine rocks of Middle Ordovician to Lower Silurian age (421 to 478 million years old).Resserella has a dorsal shell whose margin is horizontal, and a distal, or upper, shell ...
restaurant: establishment where refreshments or meals may be procured by the public. The public dining room that came ultimately to be known as the restaurant originated in France, and the French have continued to make major contributions to the restaurant's development.
Restell, Madame: infamous British-born abortionist and purveyor of contraceptives.
Restif, Nicolas-Edme: French novelist whose works provide lively, detailed accounts of the sordid aspects of French life and society in the 18th century.
resting potential: the imbalance of electrical charge that exists between the interior of electrically excitable nerve cells and their surroundings. The resting potential of electrically excitable cells lies in the range of −60 to 95 millivolts (1 millivolt = 0.001 volt), with ...
Restionales: order of grasslike monocotyledonous flowering plants comprising four families, distributed mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, especially in southern Africa and Australia.
Reston: urban community, in Fairfax county, northeastern Virginia, U.S. It lies adjacent to Herndon, 22 miles (35 km) west-northwest of Washington, D.C. The community was developed after 1962 by Robert E. Simon, whose initials form the first syllable of its name; ...
Reston, James: Scottish-born American columnist and editor for The New York Times who was one of the most influential American journalists.
Restoration literature: English literature written after the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 following the period of the Commonwealth. Some literary historians speak of the period as bounded by the reign of Charles II (1660-85), while others prefer to include within its ...
Restormel: borough (district), administrative and historic county of Cornwall, extreme southwestern England, in the central part of the county. Restormel borough spans the peninsular county and is thus bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the northwest and St. Austell Bay and ...
restriction enzyme: a protein produced by bacteria that cleaves DNA at specific sites along the molecule. In the bacterial cell, restriction enzymes cleave foreign DNA, thus eliminating infecting organisms. Restriction enzymes can be isolated from bacterial cells and used in the laboratory ...
restrictive covenant: in Anglo-American property law, an agreement limiting the use of property. Known to Roman law but little used in England or the United States until the 19th century, restrictive covenants are now widely used. To protect property values and provide ...
reststrahlen: (German: "residual radiation"), light that is selectively reflected from the surface of a transparent solid when the frequency of the light is nearly equal to the frequency of vibration of the electrically charged atoms, or ions, constituting the crystalline solid. ...
Resumption Act of 1875: in U.S. history, culmination of the struggle between "soft money" forces, who advocated continued use of Civil War greenbacks, and their "hard money" opponents, who wished to redeem the paper money and resume a specie currency.
resurrection: the rising from the dead of a divine or human being who still retains his own personhood, or individuality, though the body may or may not be changed. The belief in the resurrection of the body is usually associated with ...
Reszke, Jean de: Polish operatic tenor, celebrated for his beautiful voice, phrasing, and enunciation as well as his charm and striking presence.
retable: ornamental panel behind an altar and, in the more limited sense, the shelf behind an altar on which are placed the crucifix, candlesticks, and other liturgical objects. The panel is usually made of wood or stone, though sometimes of metal, ...
retailing: the selling of merchandise and certain services to the consumer. It ordinarily involves the selling of individual units or small lots to large numbers of customers by a business set up for that specific purpose. In the broadest sense, retailing ...
retaining wall: freestanding wall that either resists some weight on one side or prevents the erosion of an embankment. It may also be "battered," that is, inclined toward the load it is bearing.