any of a group of techniques used to purify an element or a compound or control its composition by melting a short region (i.e., zone) and causing this liquid zone to travel slowly through a relatively long ingot, or charge, ...
city, capital of Zonguldak il (province), northwestern Turkey, on the Black Sea coast. The well-equipped port is the main outlet for coal extracted from the basin between Zonguldak and Eregli. The city's development and rapid rise in ...
town, administrative headquarters of Zonheboto district, Nagaland state, northeastern India. Formerly in the Mokokchung subdivision, it is situated 41 mi (66 km) northeast of Kohima town. The town has some cottage industries.
the legislative method of controlling land use by regulating such considerations as the type of buildings (e.g., commercial or residential) that may be erected and the population density. Applied primarily to urban areas, it is accomplished by dividing land area ...
place where wild animals and, in some instances, domesticated animals are exhibited in captivity. In such an establishment animals can generally be given more intensive care than is possible in nature reserves or sanctuaries. Most long-established zoos exhibit general collections ...
any small green alga (often Chlorella) or, sometimes, flagellate protozoan (e.g., the chlamydomonad Carteria) that lives within the bodies of various freshwater protozoans and invertebrates. Zoochlorellae often colour their hosts green (e.g., green hydra and green Paramecium bursaria). As symbionts, ...
any flagellate protozoan that is traditionally of the protozoan class Zoomastigophorea (sometimes called Zooflagellata), although recent classifications of this group have questioned the taxonomic usefulness of the term because some zooflagellates have been found to have photosynthetic capabilities and some ...
the branch of the science of biogeography (q.v.) that is concerned with the geographic distribution of animal species. In addition to mapping the present distribution of species, zoogeographers formulate theories to explain the distribution, based on information about geography, physiography, ...
branch of biology that studies the members of the animal kingdom and animal life in general. It includes both the inquiry into individual animals and their constituent parts, even to the molecular level, and the inquiry into animal populations, entire ...
branch of biology concerned with the members of the animal kingdom and with animal life in general. It embraces all conceivable forms of study, not only of the components of the animal body and the vital processes that sustain it ...
any disease shared by humans and other vertebrate animals. The term was originally defined to describe a group of diseases that humans may acquire from domestic animals. This definition has been modified to include all human diseases that are acquired ...
sexual relations between a human being and an animal. Although the practice is illegal in most countries, occasional zoophilic encounters are fairly common, especially in rural areas, where 17 percent of U.S. males in the Kinsey report of 1948 acknowledged ...
small floating or weakly swimming organisms that drift with water currents and, with phytoplankton, make up the planktonic food supply upon which almost all oceanic organisms are ultimately dependent. Many animals, from single-celled Radiolaria to the eggs or larvae of ...
any flagellate protozoan, sometimes classified as a yellow-green alga, with yellow or brown pigments contained in chromatophores. Zooxanthellae live in other protozoa (foraminiferans and radiolarians) and in some invertebrates. They use the carbon dioxide and waste materials of the host, ...
in the Book of Job (2:11, 11:1, 20:1, 42:9), one of the three comforters of Job, a biblical archetype of the good man whose misfortunes are undeserved. Like the other two comforters, Bildad and Eliphaz, Zophar emphasizes an old Hebrew ...
U.S. traditionalist sculptor of simple, figurative subjects who was a leading figure in the early 20th-century revival of direct carving, whereby the sculptor seeks his image directly from the material to be carved, relying on neither the inspiration of models ...
any member of the insect order Zoraptera, consisting of one family and at least 22 described species. They are found on every continent except Europe. They are minute insects, less than 3 millimetres (18 inch) long, with chewing mouthparts and ...
(Ictonyx [sometimes Zorilla] striatus), African carnivore of the weasel family (Mustelidae), frequenting diverse habitats. It has a slender body, 29-39 centimetres (12-16 inches) long, and a bushy white tail, 21-31 cm long. Its fur is long and black, white striped ...
statement in the language of set theory, equivalent to the axiom of choice, that is often used to prove the existence of a mathematical object when it cannot be explicitly produced.
the ancient pre-Islamic religion of Iran that survives there in isolated areas and, more prosperously, in India, where the descendants of Zoroastrian Iranian (Persian) immigrants are known as Parsis, or Parsees. In India the religion is called Parsiism.
Uruguayan poet famous for a long historical verse epic, Tabare (1886; final edition after several revisions, 1926), a poem in six cantos, based upon a legend of the love between a Spanish girl and an Indian boy.
poet and dramatist, the major figure of the nationalist wing of the Spanish Romantic movement. His work was enormously popular and is now regarded as quintessentially Spanish in style and tone.
town, northwestern Liberia, West Africa. It is situated along the road from Monrovia to Sierra Leone. A local trade centre for agricultural products (rice, cassava, pineapples, and palm oil and kernels) grown by the Kpelle and Loma peoples of the ...
pope from March 417 to December 418. He was consecrated as Pope St. Innocent I's successor on March 18, 417. His brief but turbulent pontificate was embroiled in conflicts involving Gaul, Africa, and Pelagianism, a heretical doctrine that minimized the ...
English jurist, one of the founders of international law, who became regius professor of civil law at Oxford and later practiced successfully in London.
town, north-central Mauritania. It is the site of iron-mining operations, which account for a sizable portion of Mauritania's export earnings. It is connected by railway to the Atlantic port of Nouadhibou. Pop. (1988 prelim.) 25,892.
genus of creeping grasses of the family Poaceae, containing four or five perennial species native to southeastern Asia and New Zealand. They are excellent cover for flat, sandy, open areas.
Austrian chemist who received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1925 for research on colloids, which consist of submicroscopic particles dispersed throughout another substance. He invented the ultramicroscope in the pursuit of his research.
tsarist colonel of the Russian gendarmes known for his establishment of a system of surveillance to monitor the activities of revolutionary organizations.
town, southeastern Iraq. Located just southeast of Lake al-Hammar at the terminus of a railway line to Baghdad, it has long been important in trade with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to the south. Before the founding of Baghdad in 762, ...
Spanish Christian Existential philosopher who was known for his analysis of reality in terms of the interrelations of philosophy, science, and religion.
Italian painter and art theorist who became the central figure of the Roman Mannerist school and, after the death of Titian, possibly the best known painter in Europe.
small silk skullcap worn by Roman Catholic clergymen. Developed from the pileus (q.v.), a close-fitting, brimless hat commonly worn by the Romans, the zucchetto has probably been worn by ecclesiastics since the 13th century. It was worn under the mitre ...
Italian astronomer who, in approximately 1616, designed one of the earliest reflecting telescopes, antedating those of James Gregory and Sir Isaac Newton. A professor at the Jesuit College in Rome, Zucchi developed an interest in astronomy from a meeting with ...
smallest undivided canton of Switzerland, with an area of 92 sq mi (239 sq km), of which 12 sq mi are occupied by Lakes Zug and Ageri. Bounded by the cantons of Luzern and Aargau on the west, Zurich on ...
capital of Zug canton, north central Switzerland, on the northeastern shore of Lake Zug (Zugersee), at the foot of the Zugerberg (3,409 ft [1,039 m]), just south of Zurich. First mentioned in 1242 as a possession of the counts of ...
mountain, southern Germany, the highest point (9,718 ft [2,962 m]) in the country. Zugspitze is part of the Wettersteingebirge in the Bavarian Alps, lying on the Austrian border. The mountain is approached on the west by an aerial tramway (built ...
(Arabic: "detachment"), in Islam, asceticism. Even though a Muslim is permitted to enjoy fully whatever unforbidden pleasure God bestows on him, Islam nevertheless encourages and praises those who shun luxury in favour of a simple and pious life. The Qur'an ...
