…of or denoting a scale of temperature on which water freezes at 32° and boils at 212° under standard conditions…
…the SI unit of electrical capacitance, equal to the capacitance of a capacitor in which one coulomb of charge causes a potential difference of one volt…
…a unit of electric charge equal to Faraday’s constant…
…the chemical element of atomic number 9, a poisonous pale yellow gas of the halogen series. It is the most reactive of all the elements, causing very severe burns on contact with skin…
…the rate per second of a vibration constituting a wave, either in a material (as in sound waves), or in an electromagnetic field (as in radio waves and light)…
…used as a euphemism for the word ‘fuck’, with reference to the latter’s taboo status and potential to shock or offend…
…either of a pair of soundholes resembling an ∫ and a reversed ∫ in shape, cut in the front of musical instruments of the violin family, and some other stringed instruments such as semi-acoustic electric guitars or mandolins…
…a taxonomic category, especially of fungi, below that of species and defined by physiological characteristics, especially as they affect pathogenicity. The abbreviation is used in binomial names, between the species name and a special qualifier…
…used as a euphemism for the word ‘fuck’ because of the latter’s taboo status…
…the ratio of the focal length of a camera lens to the diameter of the aperture being used for a particular shot (e.g. f8, indicating that the focal length is eight times the diameter)…
…(1895–1978), English literary critic; full name Frank Raymond Leavis. Founder and editor of the quarterly Scrutiny (1932–53), he emphasized the value of critical study of English literature to preserving cultural continuity. Notable works: The Great Tradition (1948)…
…(1888–1931), German film director; born Frederick Wilhelm Plumpe. His revolutionary use of cinematic techniques to record and interpret human emotion paralleled the expressionist movement in art and drama. Notable films: Nosferatu (1922), Der letzte Mann (1924), and Sunrise (1927), which won three Oscars…
…(b.1936), South African statesman, State President 1989–94; full name Frederik Willem de Klerk. As State President he freed Nelson Mandela in 1990, lifted the ban on membership of the ANC, and opened the negotiations that led to the first democratic elections in 1994. Nobel Peace Prize with Nelson Mandela (1993)…
…(1911–77), German economist and conservationist; full name Ernst Friedrich Schumacher. His most famous work is Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered (1973), which argues that mass production needs to be replaced by smaller, more energy-efficient enterprises…
…(1941-), US journalist, columnist, and television commentator. His conservative syndicated newspaper column first appeared in The Washington Post. He also wrote a column for Newsweek magazine from 1976, and appeared on television’s This Week…
…(1902–79), American film producer; full name Darryl Francis Zanuck. He was the controlling executive of Twentieth Century Fox, and its president from 1965 until his retirement in 1971…
…(1925–2008), US journalist and writer; full name William Frank Buckley, Jr. Founder of the conservative magazine National Review (1955), he hosted the television discussion program Firing Line 1966–99…
…(1896–1940), American novelist; full name Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald. His novels, in particular The Great Gatsby (1925), provide a vivid portrait of the US during the jazz era of the 1920s…
…an aquatic bird of the rail family, with blackish plumage, lobed feet, and a bill that extends back on to the forehead as a horny shield…
…John F. (1917–63), 35th President of the US 1961-3; in full John Fitzgerald Kennedy; known as JFK. The youngest man ever to be elected US President (at 43), he was a popular advocate of civil rights. In foreign affairs he recovered from the Bay of Pigs fiasco to demand successfully the withdrawal of Soviet missiles from Cuba (the Cuban Missile Crisis). Kennedy was assassinated while riding in a motorcade through Dallas, Texas…
…a wild cat with yellowish-brown fur (sometimes spotted), a short tail, and tufted ears, found chiefly in the northern latitudes of North America and Eurasia…
…a small forest-dwelling cat found in Africa and Asia…
…a tree with compound leaves, winged fruits, and hard pale timber, widely distributed throughout north temperate regions…
…a Eurasian and North African finch, typically with a bluish top to the head and dark wings and tail…
…a gull-sized grey and white seabird of the petrel family, with a stocky body and tubular nostrils…
…a small forest-dwelling cat found in Africa and Asia…
…a migratory Old World falcon with long, narrow wings, catching dragonflies and birds on the wing…
…an Old World squirrel that frequents palm trees, especially a tree squirrel with a striped back and a shrill bird-like call…
…an auk (seabird) of northern and Arctic waters which nests in holes, with a large head and a massive brightly coloured triangular bill…
…the low-growing plant which produces the strawberry, having white flowers, lobed leaves, and runners, and found throughout north temperate regions…
…(1770–1831), German philosopher. In his Science of Logic (1812–16) Hegel described the three-stage process of dialectical reasoning, on which Marx based his theory of dialectical materialism. He believed that history, the evolution of ideas, and human consciousness all develop through idealist dialectical processes as part of the Absolute or God coming to know itself…
…John F. (1917–63), 35th President of the US 1961-3; in full John Fitzgerald Kennedy; known as JFK. The youngest man ever to be elected US President (at 43), he was a popular advocate of civil rights. In foreign affairs he recovered from the Bay of Pigs fiasco to demand successfully the withdrawal of Soviet missiles from Cuba (the Cuban Missile Crisis). Kennedy was assassinated while riding in a motorcade through Dallas, Texas…
…a small falcon that hovers with rapidly beating wings while searching for prey on the ground…
…a wild cat with yellowish-brown fur (sometimes spotted), a short tail, and tufted ears, found chiefly in the northern latitudes of North America and Eurasia…
…(1858–1933), English lexicographer and grammarian; full name Henry Watson Fowler. He compiled the first Concise Oxford Dictionary (1911) with his brother F. G. Fowler, and wrote the moderately prescriptive guide to style and idiom, Modern English Usage, first published in 1926…
…a small falcon that hovers with rapidly beating wings while searching for prey on the ground…
…(b.1939), English chemist; full name Harold Walter Kroto. He discovered the spherical carbon molecule known as the fullerene, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1996; shared with Robert F. Curl (b.1933) and Richard E. Smalley (b.1943))…
…the state capital of Texas; population 757,688 (est. 2008). First settled in 1835, it was named in 1839 after Stephen F. Austin, son of Moses Austin, leader of the first Texas colony…
