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  • Zea mays (plant)
    in agriculture, cereal plant of the tribe Maydeae of the grass family Gramineae (Poaceae), originating in the Americas, and its edible grain....
  • Zea mays L. (cereal)
    ...of the hard and soft starch making up the kernel. Flint corn, containing little soft starch, has no depression. Flour corn, composed largely of soft starch, has soft, mealy, easily ground kernels. Sweet corn has wrinkled, translucent seeds; the plant sugar is not converted to starch as in other types. Popcorn, an extreme type of flint corn characterized by small, hard kernels, is devoid of......
  • Zea mexicana (plant)
    any of four species of tall, stout, solitary annual or spreading perennial grasses of the family Poaceae, native to Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Corn, or maize (Z. mays mays), is a worldwide cultigen that was derived from the “Balsas” teosinte (Z. mays parviglumis) of southern Mexico in pre-Columbian times more than 5...
  • Zealand (island, Denmark)
    largest and most populous island of Denmark, between the Kattegat and the Baltic Sea, separated from Sweden by The Sound (Øresund) and from Funen (Fyn) island by the Great Belt. Zealand is divided into seven major administrative units: the municipalities of Copenhagen and Frederiksberg and the ...
  • Zealot (religious order)
    member of an extreme group within the Franciscans, a mendicant religious order founded by St. Francis of Assisi in 1209; the Spirituals firmly espoused the austerity and poverty prescribed in the original Rule of St. Francis. Called the Fraticelli, they were opposed, to some extent, by St. Bonaventure, a leading Franciscan theologian, and some were condemned and executed as here...
  • Zealot (Judaism)
    member of a Jewish sect noted for its uncompromising opposition to pagan Rome and the polytheism it professed. The Zealots were an aggressive political party whose concern for the national and religious life of the Jewish people led them to despise even Jews who sought peace and conciliation with the Roman authorities. A census of Galilee ordered by Rome in ad 6 spurred the Zealots t...
  • Zeami (Japanese dramatist)
    the greatest playwright and theorist of the Japanese nō theatre. He and his father, Kan’ami (1333–84), were the creators of the nō drama in its present form....
  • Zebi, Sabbatai (Jewish heretic)
    a false messiah who developed a mass following and threatened rabbinical authority in Europe and the Middle East....
  • Zebid (Yemen)
    town, western Yemen. It lies on the bank of the Wadi Zabīd and at the eastern fringe of the Tihāmah coastal plain, about 10 miles (16 km) from the Red Sea coast. An ancient Yemeni centre, Zabīd was refounded in ad 820 by the ʿAbbāsids under Muḥammad ibn Ziyād, emissary of the caliph al-Maʾmūn. From ther...
  • Zebo da Firenze (Italian artist)
    ...Museum, Chantilly, Fr.), includes calendar pictures representing each month in terms of the seasonal activities of nobility and peasants. At least one Italian artist—identified tentatively as Zebo da Firenze—was painting in Paris at this period (c. 1405). Manuscripts associated with him are usually sumptuously, if erratically, decorated. Indeed, in the matter of erratic......
  • zebra (mammal)
    any of three species of strikingly black-and-white-striped mammals of the horse family Equidae and genus Equus: Burchell’s zebra, or bonte quagga (E. quagga; see ), found in rich grasslands over much of eastern and southern Africa; Grevy’s zebra (E. grevyi), of arid, sparsely wooded areas in parts of Kenya, Ethiopia, and Soma...
  • zebra bullhead shark
    any of three species of strikingly black-and-white-striped mammals of the horse family Equidae and genus Equus: Burchell’s zebra, or bonte quagga (E. quagga; see ), found in rich grasslands over much of eastern and southern Africa; Grevy’s zebra (E. grevyi), of arid, sparsely wooded areas in parts of Kenya, Ethiopia, and Soma...
  • zebra danio (fish)
    ...family, Cyprinidae. Danios are hardy and swim actively about in schools. They are generally some 4–5 cm (1.5–2 inches) long. Several are often kept in home aquariums. Among these are the zebra danio, or zebra fish (B. rerio), a popular species with lengthwise blue and yellow stripes, and the giant danio (D. malabaricus), a striped blue and yellow fish about 11 cm (4....
  • zebra duiker (mammal)
    ...duiker (C. silvicultor), a dark brown form with an erectile yellow triangle of hair on the lower back; the blue duiker (C. monticola), a blue-tinged, grayish or brown duiker; and the zebra, or banded, duiker (C. zebra), a bright reddish brown animal with vertical black stripes on its body....
  • zebra finch (bird)
    Domesticated zebra finches (Poephila guttata) show marked loss of specificity in their mating interactions and in care of the young, when compared with their wild counterparts. Wild chickens will kill their own chicks that lack specific colour patterns. Domestic chickens, on the other hand, will care for almost any chick regardless of colour and pattern; yet, they retain specific......
  • zebra fish (fish group)
    any member of either of two unrelated groups of fishes, the freshwater species in the genus Brachydanio (family Cyprinidae; order Cypriniformes) and the saltwater species in the genus Pterois (family Scorpaenidae; order Scorpaeniformes). The zebra danio (B. rerio), a popular freshwater aquarium fish originally from Asia, is small (up to a...
  • zebra fish (fish)
    ...family, Cyprinidae. Danios are hardy and swim actively about in schools. They are generally some 4–5 cm (1.5–2 inches) long. Several are often kept in home aquariums. Among these are the zebra danio, or zebra fish (B. rerio), a popular species with lengthwise blue and yellow stripes, and the giant danio (D. malabaricus), a striped blue and yellow fish about 11 cm (4....
  • zebra mussel (mollusk)
    The two species of the tiny zebra mussel (genus Dreissena) are prominent freshwater pests, known to proliferate readily and to adhere in great numbers to virtually any surface. The zebra mussel’s voracious appetite tends to wipe out phytoplankton, disrupting the food chain; and its massive clustering on water-intake valves and pipes, bridge abutments, and other structures can cause.....
  • zebra swallowtail butterfly (insect)
    species of butterfly in the family Papilionidae (order Lepidoptera) that has wing patterns reminiscent of a zebra’s stripes, with a series of longitudinal black bands forming a pattern on a greenish white or white background. There are several generations in a single year, spring broods being rather smaller than summer broods. Adult forms that emerge at different seasons vary considerably i...
  • Zebrasoma flavescens (fish)
    ...They develop from a transparent larva (acronurus) and, with growth, may change considerably in form or colour. Their maximum length usually does not exceed 50 cm (20 inches). Species include the yellow surgeon, or yellow tang (Zebrasoma flavescens), an Indo-Pacific species about 20 cm (8 inches) long and coloured either bright yellow or deep brown; the blue tang (Acanthurus......
  • Zebrina (plant genus)
    genus of trailing herbaceous plants in the spiderwort family (Commelinaceae) native to Mexico and Guatemala but widely grown as indoor foliage plants in baskets....
  • Zebrina pendula (plant)
    ...Intriguing is the slow-growing Hoya, or wax plant, with leathery foliage and waxy, wheel-shaped blooms. By contrast, the inch plants and wandering jew, species of Tradescantia and Zebrina, are rapid growers with watery stems and varicoloured leaves; these long-beloved houseplants are used widely in window shelves or hanging baskets. The spider plants (Chlorophytum,.....
  • Zebrzydowski, Mikołaj (Polish official)
    (1606–07), armed uprising of Polish nobles led by Mikołaj Zebrzydowski against their king Sigismund III (ruled 1587–1632). Despite its failure to overthrow the king, the rebellion firmly established the dominance of the Roman Catholic gentry over the monarch in the Polish political system....
  • Zebrzydowski Rebellion (Polish history)
    (1606–07), armed uprising of Polish nobles led by Mikołaj Zebrzydowski against their king Sigismund III (ruled 1587–1632). Despite its failure to overthrow the king, the rebellion firmly established the dominance of the Roman Catholic gentry over the monarch in the Polish political system....
  • zebu (breed of cattle)
    any of several varieties of cattle originating in India and crossbred in the United States with improved beef breeds, producing the hardy beef animal known as the American Brahman. Similar blending in Latin America resulted in the breed known as Indo-Brazil....
  • Zebulun (Hebrew tribe)
    one of the 12 tribes of Israel that in biblical times constituted the people of Israel who later became the Jewish people. The tribe was named for the sixth son born of Jacob and his first wife, Leah. After the Israelites took possession of the Promised Land, Joshua divided the territory among the 12 tribes, assigning to the tribe of Zebulun a fertile section of land roughly no...
  • Zecca, Ferdinand (French director)
    Before World War I European cinema was dominated by France and Italy. At Pathé Frères, director-general Ferdinand Zecca perfected the course comique, a uniquely Gallic version of the chase film, which inspired Mack Sennett’s Keystone Kops, while the immensely popular Max Linder created a comic persona that would deeply influence the work ...
  • zecchino (Venetian coin)
    ...of the Baptist. Regular weight (about 3.50 grams, 54 grains) and fineness won the fiorino universal fame and wide imitation; double florins were introduced in 1504. Venice in 1284 produced its gold ducat, or zecchino (sequin), of the same weight. Venetian ducats rivaled Florentine florins in commercial influence and were widely copied abroad. The series begun under Giovanni Dandolo continued......
  • Zechariah (Hebrew prophet)
    Jewish prophet whose preachings are recorded in one of the shorter prophetical books in the Old Testament, the Book of Zechariah....
  • Zechariah, Book of (Old Testament)
    the 11th of 12 Old Testament books that bear the names of the Minor Prophets, collected in the Jewish canon in one book, The Twelve. Only chapters 1–8 contain the prophecies of Zechariah; chapters 9–14 must be attributed to at least two other, unknown authors. Scholars thus refer to a “second” and “third” Zechariah: Deutero-Zechariah (ch...
  • Zechariah, Song of (biblical canticle)
    hymn of praise and thanksgiving sung by Zechariah, a Jewish priest of the line of Aaron, on the occasion of the circumcision and naming of his son, John the Baptist. Found in Luke 1:68–79, the canticle received its name from its first words in Latin (Benedictus Dominus Deus Israhel, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel”)....
  • Zechsingen (music)
    ...church, a wide range of religious subjects was versified; after the Reformation the text of Luther’s Bible was rigidly adhered to. From the 15th century, secular subjects also were used. At the Zechsingen, held afterward at a tavern (perhaps not an official part of the Singschule), subjects were humorous, sometimes obscene....
  • Zechstein (geochronological stage)
    ...the current Roadian Stage and the remainder of the Wordian Stage) in between Murchison’s upper and lower parts of the Permian System was considered to be a close lithologic and age equivalent of the Zechstein of northwestern Europe....
  • Zechstein Basin (geological feature, Europe)
    ...increase in eolian (wind-transported) sands, red beds, and evaporites. Many intracratonic basins—such as the Anadarko, Delaware, and Midland basins in the western United States; the Zechstein Basin of northwestern Europe; and the Kazan Basin of eastern Europe—show similar general changes. In most basins the inner parts became sites of red bed deposition during the Early......
  • Zede, Gustave (French inventor)
    ...or 1.85 kilometres per hour). But the battery had to be recharged and overhauled at short intervals, and the craft was never able to travel more than 80 miles without a battery recharge. In France, Gustave Zédé launched the Gymnote in 1888; it, too, was propelled by an electric motor and was extremely maneuverable but tended to go out of control when it dived....
  • Zedekiah (king of Judah)
    king of Judah (597–587/586 bc) whose reign ended in the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem and the deportation of most of the Jews to Babylon....
  • Zedhor (king of Egypt)
    second king (reigned 365–360 bc) of the 30th dynasty of Egypt; he led an unsuccessful attack on the Persians in Phoenicia. Tachos was aided in the undertaking by the aged Spartan king Agesilaus II, who led a body of Greek mercenaries, and by the Athenian fleet commander Chabrias. Tachos, however, insisted on leading the Egyptian army himself, and Agesilaus, ...
  • Zedī (religious sect)
    religious sect, found primarily in the districts of Mosul, Iraq; Diyarbakır, Tur.; Aleppo, Syria; Armenia and the Caucasus region; and in parts of Iran. The Yazīdī religion is a syncretic combination of Zoroastrian, Manichaean, Jewish, Nestorian Christian, and Islāmic elements. The Yazīdī themselves are thought to be descended from supporters of the Umayya...
  • Zedillo, Ernesto (president of Mexico)
    president of Mexico from 1994 to 2000....
  • Zedillo Ponce de León, Ernesto (president of Mexico)
    president of Mexico from 1994 to 2000....
  • Zedler, Johann Heinrich (German encyclopaedist)
    ...been one of the first to enlist the aid of experts, such as the naturalist John Ray and Sir Isaac Newton, in compiling his Lexicon Technicum (1704; “Technical Lexicon”). Johann Heinrich Zedler, in his Universal-Lexicon (1732–50), went further by enlisting the help of two general editors, supported by nine specialist editors, the result being a......
  • Zeebrugge (Belgium)
    port, West Flanders province, northwestern Belgium. It lies along the North Sea, 10 miles (16 km) north of Brugge (Bruges), for which it is the port. It is an artificial port that was built because the marine channel to Brugge had silted up. The 1.5-mile- (2.5-kilometre-) long mole that creates and protects Zeebrugge’s harbour was constructed between 1895 and 1907. A 7-mile- (12-kilometre-)...
  • Zeeland (province, The Netherlands)
    maritime provincie, southwestern Netherlands. It occupies the delta lands of the Scheldt (Schelde) and Maas (Meuse) rivers. The provincie comprises Zeeuwsch-Vlaanderen, a strip of the Flanders mainland between the Westerschelde (Western Scheldt) and Belgium, plus six former islands: Schouwen en Duiveland, Tholen, Noord-Beveland, Walcheren, Zuid-Beveland, and Sint P...
  • Zeeland Bridge (bridge, The Netherlands)
    The Zeelandbrug (Zeeland Bridge), which crosses the Eastern Schelde and extends 16,472 feet (5,022 metres) between Schouwen and Duiveland and Noord-Beveland, was opened in 1965....
  • Zeeland, Paul van (prime minister of Belgium)
    ...of Léon Degrelle. The latter party won 21 seats, more than 10 percent of the chamber, in the elections of 1936. Strikes broke out in the same year and led the tripartite government of Paul van Zeeland to establish paid holidays for workers and a 40-hour workweek for miners. Also in 1936, the first National Labour Convention marked the starting point of an institutionalized......
  • Zeelandbrug (bridge, The Netherlands)
    The Zeelandbrug (Zeeland Bridge), which crosses the Eastern Schelde and extends 16,472 feet (5,022 metres) between Schouwen and Duiveland and Noord-Beveland, was opened in 1965....
  • Zeeman effect (physics)
    in physics and astronomy, the splitting of a spectral line into two or more components of slightly different frequency when the light source is placed in a magnetic field. It was first observed in 1896 by the Dutch physicist Pieter Zeeman as a broadening of the yellow D-lines of sodium in a flame held between strong magne...
  • Zeeman, Pieter (Dutch physicist)
    Dutch physicist who shared with Hendrik A. Lorentz the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1902 for his discovery of the Zeeman effect....
  • ZEEP (nuclear reactor)
    ...is now Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Shortly after the end of World War II, the Canadian project succeeded in building a zero-power, natural uranium-fueled research reactor, the so-called ZEEP (Zero-Energy Experimental Pile). The first enriched-fuel research reactor was completed at Los Alamos, N.M., at about this time as enriched uranium-235 became available for research purposes (see....
  • Zeeuwsch-Vlaanderen (region, The Netherlands)
    maritime provincie, southwestern Netherlands. It occupies the delta lands of the Scheldt (Schelde) and Maas (Meuse) rivers. The provincie comprises Zeeuwsch-Vlaanderen, a strip of the Flanders mainland between the Westerschelde (Western Scheldt) and Belgium, plus six former islands: Schouwen en Duiveland, Tholen, Noord-Beveland, Walcheren, Zuid-Beveland, and Sint Philipsland. None......
  • Ze’evi, Rechavam (Israeli soldier and politician)
    Israeli soldier and politician (b. Aug. 20, 1926, Jerusalem, Palestine—d. Oct. 17, 2001, Jerusalem, Israel), pursued hard-line ultranationalist policies, most notably in support of his outspoken belief that all Palestinians should be removed from the Israel-occupied territories in Gaza and the West Bank and transferred to Arab countries and his claim that the kingdom of Jordan should belong...
  • Ẕefat (Israel)
    city of Upper Galilee, Israel; one of the four holy cities of Judaism (Jerusalem, Hebron, Tiberias, Ẕefat)....
  • Zeffirelli, Franco (Italian director and producer)
    Italian director, designer, and producer of opera, theatre, motion pictures, and television, particularly noted for the authentic details and grand scale of his opera productions and for his film adaptations of Shakespeare....
  • Zefirah, ha- (Hebrew magazine)
    ...Polish rabbinical family, Sokolow became well known for his contributions to the Jewish press in Hebrew and other languages. At 24 he became assistant editor of the Hebrew scientific weekly ha-Zefirah in Warsaw; later, as its editor, he transformed it into a modern daily newspaper with wide circulation. He also edited in Warsaw the literary and historical periodicals ha-Asif and.....
  • Zegers, Hercules Pieterszoon (Dutch artist)
    Dutch painter and etcher of stark, fantastic landscapes....
  • Zegota (Polish organization)
    ...last Jews. Elsewhere, Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, a French Huguenot village, became a haven for 5,000 Jews. In Poland, where it was illegal to aid Jews and where such action was punishable by death, the Zegota (Council for Aid to Jews) rescued a similar number of Jewish men, women, and children. Financed by the Polish government in exile and involving a wide range of clandestine political......
  • Zeguxizhai suanxue (work by Li Shanlan)
    ...mathematics was not held in high esteem, and he had to find various other employments, such as tutoring. Almost all the treatises that he wrote in this period were later collected into his Zeguxizhai suanxue (1867; “Mathematics from the Zeguxi Studio”). These treatises are characterized by extensive use of infinite series expansions for trigonometric and logarithmic.....
  • Zegzeg (historical kingdom and province, Nigeria)
    historic kingdom, traditional emirate, and local government council in Kaduna State, northern Nigeria, with its headquarters at Zaria city. The kingdom is traditionally said to date from the 11th century, when King Gunguma founded it as one of the original Hausa Bakwai (Seven True Hausa States). As the southernmost state of the seven, it had the function of capturing slaves for ...
  • Zehetbauer, Rolf (German production designer)
    ...Larner for The CandidateAdapted Screenplay: Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola for The GodfatherCinematography: Geoffrey Unsworth for CabaretArt Direction: Jurgen Kiebach and Rolf Zehetbauer for CabaretOriginal Dramatic Score: Charles Chaplin, Raymond Rasch, Larry Russell for LimelightScoring—Adaptation and Original Song Score:......
  • Zehngerichtenbund (Swiss history)
    ...from the homespun gray cloth worn by the men and gave rise to the name of the Grisons, or Graubünden (“Gray Leagues”), for the whole canton. A third Raetian league, called the Zehngerichtenbund (“League of the Ten Jurisdictions,” or “Courts”), was founded in 1436 by the inhabitants of 10 bailiwicks of the former countship of Toggenburg, whose......
  • “Zeichen der Zeit, Die” (work by Bunsen)
    Bunsen published a number of important scientific and religious works. His best-known work, Die Zeichen der Zeit, 2 vol. (1855; Signs of the Times), defended religious and personal freedom at a time when reaction was triumphant in Europe....
  • Zeidae (fish)
    any of several marine fishes of the family Zeidae (order Zeiformes), found worldwide in moderately deep waters. The members of the family are large-mouthed fish, deep-bodied but thin from side to side....
  • Zeidler, Othmar (German chemist)
    ...its manufacture would be economical. Four years later Müller tested a substance known as dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and found that it satisfied these requirements. The German chemist Othmar Zeidler had first synthesized the compound in 1874 but had failed to realize its value as an insecticide....
  • Zeiformes (fish order)
    ...family that includes the guppies, mollies, swordtails, and many other aquarium fishes. In addition to the Atheriniformes, this article treats the three smaller related orders Beryciformes, Zeiformes, and Lampridiformes, the most primitive groups of the superorder Acanthopterygii, or spiny-finned fishes....
  • Zeil, Mount (mountain, Australia)
    ...metres]) of ancient Precambrian rock that extends south and west into the neighbouring states. Farther south, Alice Springs is situated on an alluvial plain in the MacDonnell Ranges, where Mount Zeil reaches 4,957 feet (1,511 metres) above sea level, the highest point in the territory. There are remarkable tors (prominent rocky hills) 200 miles (320 km) southwest of Alice Springs,......
  • Zeila (Somalia)
    town and port, extreme northwest Somalia, on the Gulf of Aden; Seylac also falls under the jurisdiction of the Republic of Somaliland (a self-declared independent state without international recognition that falls within the recognized borders of Somalia). From the 9th century to the end of the 19th, it was the most important Arab settlement on the Somali coast, serving as the c...
  • zein (protein)
    ...embryo content, and corn oil extracted from the germ is commercially valuable. The microscopic appearance of the starch is distinctive, and the principal protein in ordinary corn is the prolamin zein, constituting half of the total protein. On hydrolysis zein yields only very small amounts of tryptophan or lysine, making it low in biological value. The proteins of corn, like those of most......
  • Zeise, William C. (Danish chemist)
    The first synthetic organometallic compound, K[PtCl3(C2H4)], was prepared by the Danish pharmacist William C. Zeise in 1827 and is often referred to as Zeise’s salt. At that time, Zeise had no way of determining the structure of his new compound, but today it is known that the structure contains an ethylene molecule (H2C=CH2)......
  • Zeise’s salt (chemical compound)
    The first synthetic organometallic compound, K[PtCl3(C2H4)], was prepared by the Danish pharmacist William C. Zeise in 1827 and is often referred to as Zeise’s salt. At that time, Zeise had no way of determining the structure of his new compound, but today it is known that the structure contains an ethylene molecule (H2C=CH2)......
  • zeisian sty (medicine)
    The external sty is an infection, usually with Staphylococcus bacteria, of a sebaceous gland in the margin of the eyelid. The eye becomes sensitive to light, tears flow copiously, and there is a sensation of a foreign body in the eye. The area of infection is first reddened and then swollen like a pimple or small boil. The breaking of the sty and the discharge of......
  • Zeisler, Fannie Bloomfield (American pianist)
    Austrian-born American pianist noted for her formidable technique and extensive repertoire....
  • Zeiss, Carl (German industrialist)
    German industrialist who gained a worldwide reputation as a manufacturer of fine optical instruments....
  • Zeiss planetarium projector (astronomy)
    At the heart of every planetarium theatre is the projection instrument. The first modern electromechanical planetarium projector was built by the German optical firm Carl Zeiss in 1923 for the new Deutsches Museum in Munich. Current descendants of these instruments are technically complex, computer-controlled combinations of lamps, lenses, fibre optics, and motor drives designed to place the......
  • Zeist (The Netherlands)
    gemeente (municipality), central Netherlands. Since 1746 it has been the headquarters of the Dutch Province of the Moravian Church, a Protestant group, which bought the 17th-century Zeist castle. Zeist is mainly a residential and resort town in a wooded region; it has some light industry. Pop. (2007 est.) 60,326....
  • Zeit, Die (German newspaper)
    (German: “The Times”), weekly newspaper published in Hamburg, a review of the week in politics and public affairs as they affect Europe and especially Germany. Die Zeit includes a weekly newsmagazine that gives extended treatment to major economic, political, and cultural topics beyond the coverage of related subjects in the newspaper itself. The paper’s editorial posit...
  • “Zeit Konstantins des Grossen, Die” (work by Burckhardt)
    ...sites and art treasures of Europe. His first important work, however, like the last, attested to his deep interest in ancient civilization. In Die Zeit Konstantins des Grossen (1853; The Age of Constantine the Great, 1949) Burckhardt presented a picture of a transitional age, unhealthy and immoral but teeming with religious and cultural activity. While he recognized that the......
  • Zeitart (grammar)
    ...of Greek Grammar”), which went into its 23rd edition in 1902. Comparing the Greek use of the verb tenses with the Slavic system, he introduced the term Zeitart—as distinct from Zeitstufe—which eventually led to the modern notion of verbal aspect (indicating whether or not an action has......
  • Zeiten, H. E. K. von (Prussian officer)
    ...7:00 pm, with his flank secured, did he release several battalions of the Imperial Guard to Ney; but by then Wellington had reorganized his defenses, aided by the arrival of a Prussian corps under H.E.K. von Zieten. Ney led part of the guard and other units in the final assault on the Allies. The firepower of the Allied infantry shattered the tightly packed guard infantry. The rep...
  • zeitgeber
    ...deviates slightly from the Earth’s 24-hour cycle; a bird’s endogenous cycle is 23 hours, and the human cycle is 25 hours. In both cases the cycle is corrected by features of the environment called zeitgebers (“time givers”). One zeitgeber is the Earth’s magnetic field, which changes on a 24-hour cycle as the Earth turns on its axis. More obvious and important ...
  • Zeitgeist (philosophy)
    ...by philosophy, in which the spirit achieves final articulation as Idea. The stages of art were identified by Hegel with various stages of historical development. In each art form a particular Zeitgeist (i.e., spirit of the time) finds expression, and the necessary transition from one art form to its successor is part of a larger historical transformation in which all......
  • Zeitgeist (album by Smashing Pumpkins)
    ...who had played together briefly in another band, Zwan, announced that the Smashing Pumpkins were reuniting; however, they were the only original members who performed on the subsequent release, Zeitgeist (2007)....
  • Zeitglockenturm (tower, Bern, Switzerland)
    ...Nydegg Church (1494). The Federal Palace (Bundeshaus; 1851–1902) houses the Swiss federal parliament, as well as the administrative and executive offices of the federal government. The famous Clock Tower (Zeitglockenturm), with a 16th-century clock and mechanical puppets that perform four minutes before every hour, and the Cage Tower (Käfigturm) are the two remaining towers of the...
  • Zeitlin, Aaron (Israeli writer)
    ...transmuted by the pride of martyrdom into the historical impulse of messianic redemption. In a long dramatic poem, Bein ha-Esh ve-ha-Yesha (1957; Between the Fire and Salvation), Aaron Zeitlin envisioned the annihilation of European Jewry in mystical terms, examining the relationship of catastrophe and redemption....
  • “Zeitschrift für geschichtliche Rechtswissenschaft” (work by Savigny)
    In 1815, shortly after the appearance of this epochal pamphlet, he founded, together with K.F. Eichorn and J.F.L. Göschen, the Zeitschrift für geschichtliche Rechtswissenschaft (“Journal of Historical Jurisprudence”), which became the organ of the new historical school of jurisprudence. In the same year, he began publishing his Geschichte des römischen....
  • Zeitschrift für physikalische Chemie (German publication)
    ...but also as an extremely fruitful approach to classical issues. He particularly revolutionized analytical chemistry through solution theory and his theory of indicators. His Zeitschrift für physikalische Chemie (“Journal for Physical Chemistry”), founded in 1887, rapidly established itself as the standard journal in the field. Furthermore, the......
  • Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung (German periodical)
    ...(1900–54)—who (along with Horkheimer) came to be known collectively as the Frankfurt School. Horkheimer also served as editor of the institute’s literary organ, Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung (“Journal for Social Research”), which published pathbreaking studies in political philosophy and cultural analysis from 1932 to 19...
  • Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie (Austrian journal)
    In 1936 the German Society for Animal Psychology was founded. The following year Lorenz became coeditor in chief of the new Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie, which became a leading journal for ethology. Also in 1937, he was appointed lecturer in comparative anatomy and animal psychology at the University of Vienna. From 1940 to 1942 he was professor and head of the department of......
  • Zeitschrift für Völkerpsychologie und Sprachwissenschaft (German journal)
    ...tendencies of its evolution. To further this Völkerpsychologie (German: “folk,” or comparative, psychology), he founded, with the philologist H. Steinthal, the journal Zeitschrift für Völkerpsychologie und Sprachwissenschaft (1859). His chief philosophical work is Das Leben der Seele, 3 vol. (1855–57; “The Life of the Soul...
  • Zeitung für Einsiedler (German journal)
    ...at Heidelberg (1806–07), where he became acquainted with the leaders of the second phase of German Romanticism, particularly Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano. With them he edited the Zeitung für Einsiedler (“Journal for Hermits,” renamed Tröst Einsamkeit; “Consolation Solitude”), which became the organ for the Heidelberg Romanti...
  • Zeke (Japanese aircraft)
    fighter aircraft, a single-seat, low-wing monoplane used with great effect by the Japanese during World War II. Designed by Horikoshi Jiro, it was the first carrier-based fighter capable of besting its land-based opponents. It was designed to specifications written in 1937, was first tested in 1939, and was placed in production and in operation in China in 1940. Although Allied ...
  • Zeki, Semir (British neurobiologist)
    ...that V2 provides a major input to the third dimension in the perceived world. Two other visual areas that have received attention are V4 and MT (middle temporal area, or V5). British neurobiologist Semir Zeki showed that V4 has a high proportion of cells that respond to colour in a manner that is independent of the type of illumination (colour constancy). This is in contrast to the cells of V1,...
  • Zela (Turkey)
    town, Tokat il (province), east-central Turkey. Lying in a fertile plain crossed by the Yeşil River, the town is at the foot of a hill crowned by a ruined citadel. Zela, the ancient temple state of Pontus, was famous as the site where in 47 bc the Roman general Julius Caesar defeated Pharnaces II, so...
  • Zelaya, José Santos (president of Nicaragua)
    Nicaraguan politician and dictator from 1893 to 1910, noted for his hostility toward the United States and for his effort to unify Central America in 1907. During his rule he all but monopolized his country’s economic resources....
  • Zelazny, Roger (American writer)
    U.S. science-fiction writer (b. May 13, 1937, Cleveland, Ohio--d. June 14, 1995, Santa Fe, N.M.), first became prominent in the 1960s as one of the best of the "new wave." Rather than optimistically celebrating new technologies as the earlier generation of science-fiction writers had, his works explored the implications for humanity of the changes that technology had brought to the 20th century. T...
  • Zeldovich, Yakov B. (Russian physicist)
    Khariton and his colleague Yakov B. Zeldovich were quick to respond to the discovery of fission with a series of papers published in 1939–41. In February 1943, Laboratory No. 2 was established by decree of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, with Igor V. Kurchatov as its head. Kurchatov recruited Khariton to work with him. While the project remained relatively small for the duration of World......
  • Zeledonia coronata (bird)
    (Zeledonia coronata), bird of the rain forests of Costa Rica and Panama. It resembles the wren in size (11 cm, or 4.5 inches), in being brownish and short-tailed, and in its habit of skulking in undergrowth. It is thrushlike in beak and leg structure. The wrenthrush has been classified as a chat-thrush (family Turdidae, order Passeriformes) but is now considered to belon...
  • Zelenodolsk (Russia)
    city, Tatarstan, western Russia. It is a port on the Volga River. The milling of grain from the surrounding agricultural area and woodworking based on the forests to the north are the city’s main economic activities. Food processing and the manufacture of agricultural machinery are also important. Two technical colleges are located in the city, which was incorporated in 1932. Pop. (1993 es...
  • Zelenogorsk (Russia)
    ...a horseshoe shape around the head of the Gulf of Finland and includes the island of Kotlin in the gulf. On the north it stretches westward along the shore for nearly 50 miles (80 km) to include Zelenogorsk. This northern extension is an area of dormitory towns, resorts, sanatoriums, and children’s camps set among extensive coniferous forests and fringed by fine beaches and sand dunes. So...
  • Żeleński, Tadeusz (Polish critic)
    Tadeusz Żeleński (pseudonym Boy), witty, irreverent, and widely read, was a leading literary critic and one of Poland’s best interpreters of French literature. The essay form was represented by Jan Parandowski, whose main theme was the classical culture of Greece and Rome. A subversive attack on intellectual and social conventions was launched in the novel Ferdydurke...
  • Zeleny Svit (political organization, Ukraine)
    ...a widespread ecological movement. On the initiative of scientists and writers, environmental groups were formed in virtually every region, and in December 1987 they joined in a national association, Zeleny Svit (“Green World”). In the course of 1989, Zeleny Svit evolved into a potent political force led by the writer Yury Shcherbak. (See also environmentalism.)...
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