Skip this Advertisement

A-Z Browse

  • 4-methylbenzenol (chemical compound)
    any of the three methylphenols with the same molecular formula but having different structures: ortho- (o-) cresol, meta- (m-) cresol, and para- (p-) cresol....
  • 400 Blows, The (film by Truffaut)
    Truffaut was born into a working-class home. His own troubled childhood provided the inspiration for Les Quatre Cents Coups (1959; The 400 Blows), a semiautobiographical study of a working-class delinquent. It is the first of the Antoine Doinel trilogy, tracing its hero’s evolution from an antisocial anguish to a happy and settled domesticit...
  • 400-metre race (running)
    ...racist policy of apartheid. Volleyball and judo were added. (See Sidebar: The Japanese Women’s Volleyball Team: The Hardest Part.) The pentathlon (later enlarged to become the heptathlon) and the 400-metre run were added to the slate of women’s athletics events....
  • 401(k) (finance)
    in the United States, a retirement savings program organized by employers but funded primarily by workers through paycheck deductions. Because employees generally do not make withdrawals from the fund until after they have retired, the 401(k) is considered a deferred compensation plan. As a result, the worker is not taxed on any earnings or gains made in the account until withdrawals begin. Moreov...
  • 40th Annual Academy Awards (awarded 1968)
    Other Nominees...
  • 419 scam (crime)
    Schemes to defraud consumers abound on the Internet. Among the most famous is the Nigerian, or “419,” scam; the number is a reference to the section of Nigerian law that the scam violates. Although this con has been used with both fax and traditional mail, it has been given new life by the Internet. In the scheme, an individual receives an e-mail asserting that the sender requires......
  • 41st Annual Academy Awards (awarded 1969)
    Other Nominees...
  • 42nd Annual Academy Awards (awarded 1970)
    Other Nominees...
  • 42nd Street (American film)
    ...with lyricist Al Dubin that lasted through 1939. Together, they created music for such films as Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933; including “We’re in the Money”) and 42nd Street (1933; including the title song, as well as “You’re Getting to Be a Habit with Me” and “Shuffle Off to Buffalo”). Warren’s music fit the need...
  • 43rd Annual Academy Awards (awarded 1971)
    Other Nominees...
  • 44th Annual Academy Awards (awarded 1972)
    Other Nominees...
  • ’45, Generation of (Brazilian poetry)
    New poetic voices surfaced under the rubric of the Generation of 1945 and later in the 1950s via the internationally known Concretism movement. The poets of the Generation of 1945 provided a new direction, drawing upon Symbolism, Surrealism, and Hermeticism. From this group João Cabral de Melo Neto and Ledo Ivo distinguished themselves, with Melo Neto regarded as being among Brazil’s...
  • 45th Annual Academy Awards (awarded 1973)
    Other Nominees...
  • 46, Letter of the (Soviet history)
    ...democracy, only to have their own words from their period of power quoted against them. The last reasonably serious attempt to reverse the bureaucratic-authoritarian regime within the party was the “Letter of the 46,” in October 1923. In late 1923 it was Trotsky who (though not himself a signatory) spoke in the Politburo for the antibureaucratic faction. The Central Committee bann...
  • 46th Annual Academy Awards (awarded 1974)
    Other Nominees...
  • 47 Tucanae (astronomy)
    ...group, three types of RR Lyrae stars were first distinguished in 1902. Omega Centauri is relatively nearby, at a distance of 16,000 light-years, and it lacks a sharp nucleus. The cluster designated 47 Tucanae (NGC 104), with an absolute visual magnitude of −9.3 at a similar distance of 13,500 light-years, has a different appearance with strong central concentration. It is located near th...
  • 47th Annual Academy Awards (awarded 1975)
    Other Nominees...
  • 47,XXY seminiferous tubule dysgenesis (chromosomal disorder)
    relatively common (one per 500 live male births) human sex-chromosome disorder. It is characterized by the following: small testes, lack of sperm formation, late puberty with reduced secondary sexual characteristics (but with normal-sized penis), usually a delicate and long-limbed physique, occasionally breast enlargement (gynecomastia), and about a 25 percent frequency of ment...
  • 48th Annual Academy Awards (awarded 1976)
    Other Nominees...
  • 49th Annual Academy Awards (awarded 1977)
    Other Nominees...
  • 4n series (physics)
    set of unstable heavy nuclei comprising one of the four radioactive series....
  • 4th Annual Academy Awards (awarded November 10, 1931)
    Other Nominees...
  • 4th Viscount Howe (British admiral)
    British admiral who commanded the Channel fleet at the Battle of the First of June (1794) during the French Revolutionary Wars....
  • 5 (number)
    The sum of the first even and odd numbers (2 + 3) is 5. (To the Pythagoreans 1 was not a number and was not odd.) It therefore symbolizes human life and—in the Platonic and Pythagorean traditions—marriage, as the sum of the female 2 and the male 3. The Pythagoreans discovered the five regular solids (tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, dodecahedron, and icosahedron; now known as the......
  • 5-cholesten-3β-ol (chemical compound)
    a waxy substance that is present in the blood plasma and in all animal tissues. Chemically, cholesterol is an organic compound belonging to the steroid family; its molecular formula is C27H46O. In its pure state it is a white, crystalline substance that is odourless and tasteless. Cholesterol is essential to life; it is a primary component of the membrane that surrounds each...
  • 5′-deoxyadenosylcobalamin (chemical compound)
    ...with their detailed structural and chemical characterization and their application as synthetic intermediates and catalysts in industrial processes. Two organometallics encountered in nature are the vitamin B12 coenzyme, which contains a cobalt-carbon (Co−C) bond, and dimethylmercury, H3C−Hg−CH3, which is produced by......
  • 5-HT (biochemistry)
    a chemical substance that is derived from the amino acid tryptophan. It occurs in the brain, intestinal tissue, blood platelets, and mast cells and is a constituent of many venoms, including wasp venom and toad venom. Serotonin is a potent vasoconstrictor and functions as a neurotransmitter. It is concentrated in certain areas of the brain, especially the midbrain and the hypoth...
  • 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (biochemistry)
    a chemical substance that is derived from the amino acid tryptophan. It occurs in the brain, intestinal tissue, blood platelets, and mast cells and is a constituent of many venoms, including wasp venom and toad venom. Serotonin is a potent vasoconstrictor and functions as a neurotransmitter. It is concentrated in certain areas of the brain, especially the midbrain and the hypoth...
  • 5-hydroxytryptamine (biochemistry)
    a chemical substance that is derived from the amino acid tryptophan. It occurs in the brain, intestinal tissue, blood platelets, and mast cells and is a constituent of many venoms, including wasp venom and toad venom. Serotonin is a potent vasoconstrictor and functions as a neurotransmitter. It is concentrated in certain areas of the brain, especially the midbrain and the hypoth...
  • 5-methyl-2-isopropylphenol (essential oil)
    Thyme contains about 1 percent essential oil, the principal component of which is thymol, or thyme camphor. Thymol is used in the manufacture of perfumes and dentifrices. It has antiseptic and anesthetic properties and is used as an internal medicine. ...
  • 5-phosphoribose 1-pyrophosphate (chemical compound)
    The orotate accepts a pentose phosphate moiety [73] from 5-phosphoribose 1-pyrophosphate (PRPP); PRPP, which is formed from ribose 5-phosphate and ATP, also initiates the pathways for biosynthesis of purine nucleotides (Figure 11) and of histidine (Figure 10). The product loses carbon dioxide to yield the parent pyrimidine nucleotide, uridylic acid (UMP; see [73])....
  • 50-percent-effective dose (pharmacology)
    ...with the concentration that is present at its site of action and usually approaches a maximum value beyond which a further increase in concentration is no more effective. A useful measure is the median effective dose, ED50, which is defined as the dose producing a response that is 50 percent of the maximum obtainable. ED50 values provide a useful way of comparing the......
  • 500 Criminal Careers (work by E. and S. Glueck)
    ...Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, the Gluecks undertook a detailed study of former inmates of the Massachusetts Reformatory, publishing their thoroughly documented findings as 500 Criminal Careers (1930), a pioneering work in the field. Follow-up studies of the same men were published as Later Criminal Careers (1937) and Criminal Careers in Retrospect......
  • 50th Annual Academy Awards (awarded 1978)
    Other Nominees...
  • 51 Pegasi (star)
    fifth-magnitude star located 50 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Pegasus, the first sunlike star confirmed to possess a planet. 51 Pegasi, which has physical properties (luminosity and temperature, for example) very similar to those of the Sun, became the focus of attention in 1995 when astronomers announced the detection of a planet...
  • 51st Annual Academy Awards (awarded 1979)
    Other Nominees...
  • 52nd Annual Academy Awards (awarded 1980)
    Other Nominees...
  • 53rd Annual Academy Awards (awarded 1981)
    Other Nominees...
  • 54th Annual Academy Awards (awarded 1982)
    Other Nominees...
  • 55th Annual Academy Awards (awarded 1983)
    Other Nominees...
  • 56th Annual Academy Awards (awarded 1984)
    Other Nominees...
  • 57th Annual Academy Awards (awarded 1985)
    Other Nominees...
  • 5,8,11,14-eicosatetraenoic acid (chemical compound)
    Arachidonic acid is important because the human body uses it as a starting material in the synthesis of two kinds of essential substances, the prostaglandins and the leukotrienes, both of which are also unsaturated carboxylic acids. Examples are PGE2 (a prostaglandin) and LTB4 (a leukotriene). The symbol PG represents......
  • 588 Achilles (asteroid)
    ...to use the stereocomparator (a type of stereoscopic viewer), which greatly helps in the discovery and identification of variable or moving objects in celestial photographs. In 1906 he discovered Achilles, the first of the Trojan Planets, two groups of asteroids that move around the Sun in Jupiter’s orbit: one group 60° ahead of Jupiter, the other 60° behind....
  • 58th Annual Academy Awards (awarded 1986)
    Other Nominees...
  • 59th Annual Academy Awards (awarded 1987)
    Other Nominees...
  • 5HT (biochemistry)
    a chemical substance that is derived from the amino acid tryptophan. It occurs in the brain, intestinal tissue, blood platelets, and mast cells and is a constituent of many venoms, including wasp venom and toad venom. Serotonin is a potent vasoconstrictor and functions as a neurotransmitter. It is concentrated in certain areas of the brain, especially the midbrain and the hypoth...
  • 5HT receptor (biology)
    Serotonin receptors, or 5HT receptors, activate calcium and potassium channels through linking proteins and the cAMP second-messenger systems. After acting on the postsynaptic receptors, the neurotransmitter is taken up by the presynaptic terminal and enzymatically degraded....
  • 5th Annual Academy Awards (awarded November 18, 1932)
    Other Nominees...
  • 6 (number)
    By a wonderful conjunction of mathematical coincidences, 6 is both the sum (1 + 2 + 3) and the product (1 × 2 × 3) of the first three numbers. It is therefore considered “perfect.” In mathematics, a perfect number is one that equals the sum of its divisors (excluding itself), and 6 is the first perfect number in th...
  • 6-mercaptopurine (chemical compound)
    ...is a thiol that finds use as an accelerator in the vulcanization of rubber (see below Disulfides and polysulfides and their oxidized products) and as a corrosion inhibitor, whereas 6-mercaptopurine has been employed in cancer therapy....
  • 6-phosphogluconate (chemical compound)
    ...[12], hydrogen atoms or electrons are removed from the carbon atom at position 1 of glucose 6-phosphate in a reaction catalyzed by glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase. The product of the reaction is 6-phosphogluconate. ... ...
  • 60 Minutes (American television program)
    prime-time American television news show. Since its debut in 1968 on the Columbia Broadcast System (now CBS Corporation), the show has become one of the most successful programs in broadcast history....
  • 60-carbon (carbon cluster)
    In the 1985 paper describing their work, the discoverers chose the whimsical name buckminsterfullerene for C60, after the American architect R. Buckminster Fuller, whose geodesic dome designs have a structure similar to that atom. The discovery of the unique structure of fullerenes, or buckyballs, as this class of carbon compounds came to be known, opened up an entirely new branch of......
  • 60th Annual Academy Awards (awarded 1988)
    Other Nominees...
  • 61 Cygni (astronomy)
    first star whose distance from Earth (about 11 light-years) was measured (by Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel in 1838). The star is a visual binary the components of which revolve around each other in a period of about 650 years. They are of fifth and sixth magnitudes....
  • 616 (New Testament)
    The best-known instance of numerology is the “number of the beast,” 666, from the biblical Revelation to John (13:18). Curiously, Revelation is the 66th book in the Bible, and the number of the beast occurs in verse 18, which is 6 + 6 + 6. But who is the beast? Carlyle Hynes, a Seventh-day Adventist, added up the Roman numerals in the phrase ......
  • 617 Patroclus (asteroid)
    In 1906 the first of the predicted objects, (588) Achilles, was discovered near the Lagrangian point preceding Jupiter in its orbit. Within a year two more were found: (617) Patroclus, located near the trailing Lagrangian point, and (624) Hektor, near the leading Lagrangian point. It was later decided to continue naming such asteroids after participants in the Trojan War as recounted in Homer...
  • 61st Annual Academy Awards (awarded 1989)
    Other Nominees...
  • 624 Hector (asteroid)
    ...(588) Achilles, was discovered near the Lagrangian point preceding Jupiter in its orbit. Within a year two more were found: (617) Patroclus, located near the trailing Lagrangian point, and (624) Hektor, near the leading Lagrangian point. It was later decided to continue naming such asteroids after participants in the Trojan War as recounted in Homer’s epic work the ......
  • 62nd Annual Academy Awards (awarded 1990)
    Other Nominees...
  • 63rd Annual Academy Awards (awarded 1991)
    Other Nominees...
  • 643, Edict of (law history)
    ...applied to Visigoths and Romans alike, the two peoples by then having substantially fused. The Lex Burgundiorum and the Lex Romana Burgundiorum of the same period had similar functions, while the Edictum Rothari (643) applied to Lombards only....
  • 64th Annual Academy Awards (awarded 1992)
    Other Nominees...
  • 65th Annual Academy Awards (awarded 1993)
    Other Nominees...
  • 6,6′-dibromoindigo (chemical compound)
    naturally occurring dye highly valued in antiquity. It is closely related to indigo....
  • 666 (New Testament)
    The best-known instance of numerology is the “number of the beast,” 666, from the biblical Revelation to John (13:18). Curiously, Revelation is the 66th book in the Bible, and the number of the beast occurs in verse 18, which is 6 + 6 + 6. But who is the beast? Carlyle Hynes, a Seventh-day Adventist, added up the Roman numerals in the phrase ......
  • 66th Annual Academy Awards (awarded 1994)
    Other Nominees...
  • 67th Annual Academy Awards (awarded 1995)
    Other Nominees...
  • 6,8-dithio-n-octanoate (chemical compound)
    The hydroxyethyl moiety formed in [34] is immediately transferred to one of the two sulfur atoms (S) of the coenzyme (6,8-dithio-n-octanoate or lipS2) of the second enzyme in the complex, dihydrolipoyl transacetylase (enzyme 2). The hydroxyethyl group attaches to lipS2 at one of its sulfur atoms, as shown in [35]; the result is that coenzyme lipS2 is......
  • 68th Annual Academy Awards (awarded 1996)
    Other Nominees...
  • 69th Annual Academy Awards (awarded 1997)
    Other Nominees...
  • 6th Annual Academy Awards (awarded 1934)
    Other Nominees...
  • 6th Army Group (United States-French military unit)
    U.S. general during World War II, whose 6th Army Group successfully penetrated German-held positions in central Europe and helped wrest the mainland from Nazi control....
  • 7 (number)
    ninth month of the Gregorian calendar. Its name is derived from septem, Latin for “seven,” an indication of its position in the early Roman calendar....
  • 7 1⁄2 Cents (work by Bissell)
    ...on the River (1950) and The Monongahela (1952). His first really successful novel was 71⁄2 Cents (1953; British title A Gross of Pyjamas), based on his experiences as a supervisor in a pajama factory in Dubuque. In collaboration with George Abbott, he turned......
  • 7, Group of (international organization)
    ...Beginning in 1994, Russia joined the discussions, and the group became known as the Group of 8 (G8), or the “Political Eight”; Russia officially became the eighth member in 1997. The Group of 7 (G7) still functions when the agenda is limited to economic and financial issues....
  • 7-dehydrocholesterol (provitamin)
    Windaus discovered 7-dehydrocholesterol, which is the chemical precursor of vitamin D, and he showed that it is a steroid. He discovered that it is converted into the vitamin when one of its chemical bonds is broken by the action of sunlight. This explained why exposure to sunlight can prevent vitamin D deficiency (rickets) in humans. Windaus’ research also helped establish the chemistry of...
  • 7-isopropyl-1-methylnaphthalene (chemical compound)
    ...complexity of structure than the monoterpenes, and oxygenated sesquiterpenes are commonly encountered. Two arrangements of isoprene units are found in bicyclic sesquiterpenes, the cadalene and the eudalene types, and the carbon skeleton of a sesquiterpene may frequently be determined by heating it with sulfur or selenium to effect dehydrogenation to the corresponding naphthalenic hydrocarbons:....
  • ’70, Generation of (Portuguese literature)
    By 1871 he had become closely associated with a group of rebellious Portuguese intellectuals committed to social and artistic reform and known as the Generation of ’70. Eça de Queirós denounced contemporary Portuguese literature as unoriginal and hypocritical....
  • 70 Ophiuchi (binary star)
    ...km [92,955,808 miles].) In symbols, (m1 + m2) = a3/P2 in units of the Sun’s mass. For example, for the binary system 70 Ophiuchi, P is 87.8 years, and the distance is 5.0 parsecs; thus, a is 22.8 astronomical units, and m1 + m2 = 1.56 solar masses. From a......
  • 707 (jetliner)
    ...propeller-driven airliners from rival firms), but buttressed by sales to the U.S. Air Force in the form of an aerial tanker (the KC-135 Stratotanker), the four-engine plane, designated the 707, went into commercial service in 1958 on a Pan American transatlantic route. The aircraft quickly won over passengers with its shorter flight time and smoother ride and subsequently helped to......
  • 70th Annual Academy Awards (awarded 1998)
    Other Nominees...
  • 727 (jetliner)
    ...American transatlantic route. The aircraft quickly won over passengers with its shorter flight time and smoother ride and subsequently helped to revolutionize air travel. The 707 was followed by the 727 trijet and 737 twinjet, which entered service in 1964 and 1968, respectively. The 737 was developed into a modern family of planes, and by the end of the 20th century it had become the world...
  • 737 (jetliner)
    ...jets for nearly the full range of commercial flying. The Boeing 727 became an intermediate-range jet carrying more than 100 passengers, rivaling in size the largest piston planes. Later, the Boeing 737 became the workhorse of North American airlines. When it was discovered that the cost of operating jets was considerably less per passenger mile than the cost of operating even the best......
  • 73rd Annual Academy Awards (awarded 2001)
    Other Nominees...
  • 747 (jetliner)
    ...respectively. The 737 was developed into a modern family of planes, and by the end of the 20th century it had become the world’s best-selling commercial aircraft. The high development costs of the 747 “Jumbo Jet,” the world’s first wide-body jetliner, almost forced Boeing into bankruptcy, but, when the 400-seat aircraft went into service in 1970, it allowed airlines ...
  • 74th Annual Academy Awards (awarded 2002)
    Other Nominees...
  • 757 (jetliner)
    ...transit systems, energy production, and agriculture but later refocused on aerospace. In 1981 the company first flew its twin-engine, wide-body Boeing 767, followed by its twin-engine, single-aisle 757 the next year. By featuring a common flight deck for the two aircraft, pilots who trained and qualified on one plane could also fly the other, thus reducing cost and increasing productivity for.....
  • 75th Annual Academy Awards (awarded 2003)
    Other Nominees...
  • 76 flag (historical United States flag)
    ...made the first Stars and Stripes and that she used the ring pattern are unsubstantiated (see Betsy Ross). Rows of stars (4-5-4 or 3-2-3-2-3) were common, but other variations also existed. The new Stars and Stripes formed part of the military colours carried on September 11, 1777, at the Battle of the Brandywine, perhaps its first such use....
  • 767 (jetliner)
    ...into areas such as marine craft (hydrofoils), transit systems, energy production, and agriculture but later refocused on aerospace. In 1981 the company first flew its twin-engine, wide-body Boeing 767, followed by its twin-engine, single-aisle 757 the next year. By featuring a common flight deck for the two aircraft, pilots who trained and qualified on one plane could also fly the......
  • 76th Annual Academy Awards (awarded 2004)
    Other Nominees...
  • 77, Group of (international organization)
    loose alliance of developing countries established on June 15, 1964. The name of the group derives from the 77 original signatories to the Joint Declaration of the Seventy-Seven Countries at the conclusion of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva. The primary goals of the G-77 are to maintain the independence and sovereignty of all developing ...
  • 7×7 structure (physics)
    ...surface reconstruction. The reconstruction of the silicon surface designated (111) has been studied in minute detail. Such a surface reconstructs into an intricate and complex pattern known as the Takayanagi 7 × 7 structure. The position, the chemical reactivity, and the electronic configuration of each atomic site on the 7 × 7 surface has been measured with the STM. The......
  • 777 (jetliner)
    ...thus reducing cost and increasing productivity for carriers. This concept of commonality also applied to more than 40 percent of all 757-767 parts. For its next jetliner, the twin-engine, wide-body 777, Boeing involved several key airlines in the development process in order to ensure that market needs and customer preferences were satisfied. Advances in computers and computer-aided design and....
  • 7777, patent No. (patent by Marconi)
    ...International Marine Communication Company, Ltd., was established for the purpose of installing and operating services between ships and land stations. In 1900 also, Marconi filed his now-famous patent No. 7777 for Improvements in Apparatus for Wireless Telegraphy. The patent, based in part on earlier work in wireless telegraphy by Sir Oliver Lodge, enabled several stations to operate on......
  • 77th Annual Academy Awards (awarded 2005)
    Other Nominees...
  • 780 Third Avenue Office Building (building, New York City, New York, United States)
    ...the system was further developed by Khan in the 221-metre (725-foot) Shell Oil Building (1967) in Houston. Another new structural form in concrete was introduced by Khan in the 174-metre (570-foot) 780 Third Avenue Office Building (1983) in New York City. This is a framed tube with diagonal bracing achieved by filling in diagonal rows of window openings to create exterior bracing members; this....
  • 787 Dreamliner (jetliner)
    In 2003 Boeing began taking orders for the 787 Dreamliner. Scheduled to begin commercial service in 2008, the 787s are mid-range jets with speeds (Mach 0.85) that will match the fastest wide-body long-range planes but with vastly improved fuel efficiency. Roughly half of the primary structure of a 787 is made from composite materials, with the one-piece composite fuselage section especially......
Skip this Advertisement

Link to this article and share the full text with the readers of your Web site or blog-post.

If you think a reference to this article on "" will enhance your Web site, blog-post, or any other web-content, then feel free to link to this article, and your readers will gain full access to the full article, even if they do not subscribe to our service.

You may want to use the HTML code fragment provided below.

copy link

We welcome your comments. Any revisions or updates suggested for this article will be reviewed by our editorial staff. Contact us here.

Regular users of Britannica may notice that this comments feature is less robust than in the past. This is only temporary, while we make the transition to a dramatically new and richer site. The functionality of the system will be restored soon.

The Britannica Store
A-Z Browse

Image preview