- Industry: Biology
- Number of terms: 15386
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Terrapsychology is a word coined by Craig Chalquist to describe deep, systematic, trans-empirical approaches to encountering the presence, soul, or "voice" of places and things: what the ancients knew as their resident genius loci or indwelling spirit. This perspective emerged from sustained ...
The brief conversion of saturated soil into a structureless mass that flows like fluid. When earthquakes trigger it, walls, dams, buildings, and foundations are liable to collapse. Frequent near coastal developments and areas of poor drainage.
Industry:Biology
An element variant in which the number of neutrons does not equal the number of protons. U-235 has the same number of protons, but not neutrons, as U-238, but U-238 will not fission itself into an atomic chain reaction when lumped together.
Industry:Biology
Species that survive through low death rate, relatively little colonization or expansion, moderately frequent reproduction cycles, and other steady-state patterns of adaptation. Tends to be the larger animals. See Opportunistic Success Strategy.
Industry:Biology
A site where seawater is boiled to separate steam from salt; the steam condenses into fresh water. Because this requires a large amount of energy--normally provided by burning coal or oil--desalinization is normally used only in very dry areas.
Industry:Biology
Gross domestic product is a measure of the total production and consumption of goods and services in the United States. Because it does not take resource depletion or pollution into account, the GDP gives a false picture of the wealth of nations.
Industry:Biology
The Earth's magnetic field, generated by the planet's nickel-iron core and extending thousands of kilometers into space. It shields the Earth from the highly charged plasma (mostly hydrogen particles) of the solar wind that emanates from the sun.
Industry:Biology
A gaseous compound of nitrogen and hydrogen (NH3) formed as a byproduct when bacteria decompose substances high in nitrogen. Compost piles thick with manure often emit ammonia when hot. Synthetic ammonia is a key component of artificial fertilizers.
Industry:Biology
Plant species that bears and seeds more than once. Perennials tend to take longer to produce a food yield than the quick-growing annuals so heavily exploited by traditional agriculture, but they last longer and do better in marginal soils. See Annual.
Industry:Biology
A microorganism that makes its host sick. Certain viruses, bacteria, and authoritarian flag-waving fanatics are common examples of pathogens. They tend to be parasites that weaken the organisms they feed upon until self-protective systems get rid of them.
Industry:Biology
A north-south measurement of position on the Earth, from the equator at 0° to the North Pole or South Pole at 90°. An east-west line connecting places of the same latitude is a parallel. Latitude is measured in degrees, minutes, and seconds. See Longitude.
Industry:Biology
