Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Abesse
For a very brief period in the early eighteenth century, the word abesse was used as a name for any thin sheet of rolled-out pastry. The English word developed from the French name for thin pastry, abaisse, which in turn derived from the French verb abaisser, meaning to reduce. However, whereas the French term abaisse…
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Abattoir
An abattoir is the same as a slaughterhouse, a place where livestock are killed and turned into carcasses for the butcher. Both words, abattoir and slaughterhouse, have origins that reflect the brutal but effective method by which livestock were originally made into “dead-stock”: they were beaten over the head with a club. With abattoir that…
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Abat-faim
This French term literally means hunger beater, and refers to the first dish served to guests to allay the grumblings of their stomachs. The word is now obsolete, having been supplanted by hors-d’oeuvre in French and appetizer in English. Abat-faim and appetizer possess slightly different connotations, however, in that the former suggests beating the hunger…
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Abalone
Although pronounced the same, abalone and a baloney—as in “a baloney sandwich”—are completely different foods: far from being a congealed paste of ground-up livestock, an abalone is an edible mollusc found off the coast of California. English borrowed the name of this mollusc in the mid nineteenth century from Spanish Americans, who in turn had…
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Zyme systems
Chemical reactions characterized by the presence of an inactive precursor of an enzyme. The enzyme is activated via another enzyme that normally removes an extra piece of peptide chain at a physiologically appropriate time and place.
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Zygote
A fertilized egg form as a result of the union of the male (sperm) and female (egg) sex cells. The fertilized egg. The moment a sperm enters the egg. A fertilised ovum, the first stage of development of an embryo. The medical name for the fertilized egg (ovum) up to the time it is implanted…
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Zoonoses
Diseases that are communicable from animals to humans. Those diseases and infections which are naturally transmitted between vertebrate animals and man. Diseases found in animals that are transmissible to humans. Animal diseases which can be transmitted to humans. There are more than 150 infections of domestic and wild vertebrates which can be transmitted in this…
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Z-DNA
A left-handed helix (molecular structure) of DNA, in contrast to A-DNA and B-DNA which are right-handed helix structures. The difference is in the direction of the double-helix twist. Z-DNA has the most base pairs per turn (in the helix), and so has the least twisted structure; it is very “skinny” and its name is taken…
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Yeast episomal plasmid (YEP)
A cloning vehicle used for introduction of constructions (i.e., genes and pieces of genetic material) into certain yeast strains at high copy number. YEP can replicate in both Escherichia coli and certain yeast strains.
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Yeast artificial chromosomes (YAC)
Pieces of DNA (usually human DNA) that have been cloned (made) inside living yeast cells. While most bacterial vectors cannot carry DNA pieces that are larger than 50 base pairs, YACs can typically carry DNA pieces that are as large as several hundred base pairs.
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