• Upupa epops (bird)

    hoopoe, (Upupa epops), strikingly crested bird found from southern Europe and Africa to southeastern Asia, the sole member of the family Upupidae of the roller order, Coraciiformes. About 28 centimetres (11 inches) long, it is pinkish brown on the head and shoulders, with a long, black-tipped,

  • UPWA (American labor union)

    Ralph Helstein: …who was president of the United Packinghouse Workers of America (UPWA) from 1946 to 1968.

  • upward mobility (sociology)

    social mobility: …mobility” and involves either “upward mobility” or “downward mobility.” An industrial worker who becomes a wealthy businessman moves upward in the class system; a landed aristocrat who loses everything in a revolution moves downward in the system.

  • upwarp (geology)

    valley: Cross-axial drainage: …its tributaries cross great structural upwarps. Rather than flowing around domes or plunging folds, the rivers carved canyons into what appears to be paths of greatest resistance. One theory posed by Powell for such relationships is that of antecedence. According to this view, the rivers were already in their present…

  • upwarping (geomorphology)

    epeirogeny, in geology, broad regional upwarp of the cratonic (stable interior) portions of continents. In contrast to orogeny (q.v.), epeirogeny takes place over broad, nonlinear areas, is relatively slow, and results in only mild deformation. Phenomena accompanying epeirogeny include the

  • upwelling (oceanography)

    marine ecosystem: Upwelling: The most productive waters of the world are in regions of upwelling. Upwelling in coastal waters brings nutrients toward the surface. Phytoplankton reproduce rapidly in these conditions, and grazing zooplankton also multiply and provide abundant food supplies for nekton. Some of the world’s richest…

  • ʿUqair (ancient city, Iraq)

    Mesopotamian art and architecture: Architecture: …mythical scenes, such as at ʿUqair.

  • ʿUqaylah, al- (Libya)

    World War II: Egypt and Cyrenaica, 1940–summer 1941: …down the coast road to Agheila (al-ʿUqaylah). Thereupon he boldly ordered the 7th Armoured Division to cross the desert hinterland and intercept the Italian retreat by cutting the coast road well to the east of Agheila. On February 5, after an advance of 170 miles in 33 hours, the British…

  • ʿUqaylid Dynasty (Muslim Arab dynasty)

    ʿUqaylid Dynasty, Muslim Arab dynasty whose various branches ruled Mosul (c. 992–1096) and Takrīt (1036–c. 1057), in what is now Iraq. The ʿUqaylids, descendants of the famous Bedouin tribe of ʿĀmir ibn Ṣaʿṣaʿah, established themselves in Jazīrat ibn ʿUmar, Niṣībīn (modern Nusaybin, Tur.), and

  • ʿUqayr, Conference of Al- (Arabia [1922])

    Kuwait: Early settlers: At the 1922 Conference of Al-ʿUqayr, Britain negotiated the Kuwait-Saudi border, with substantial territorial loss to Kuwait. A memorandum in 1923 set out the border with Iraq on the basis of an unratified 1913 convention.

  • ʿUqbah ibn Nāfiʿ (Arab general)

    North Africa: From the Arab conquest to 1830: ʿUqbah ibn Nāfiʿ (Sīdī ʿUqbah) commanded the Arab army that occupied Tunisia in 670. Before his recall in 674, ʿUqbah founded the town of Kairouan, which became the first centre of Arab administration in the Maghrib.

  • ʿUqbah, Sīdī (Arab general)

    North Africa: From the Arab conquest to 1830: ʿUqbah ibn Nāfiʿ (Sīdī ʿUqbah) commanded the Arab army that occupied Tunisia in 670. Before his recall in 674, ʿUqbah founded the town of Kairouan, which became the first centre of Arab administration in the Maghrib.

  • Uqlīdisī, al- (Islamic mathematician)

    mathematics: Mathematics in the 10th century: …these were adapted by al-Uqlīdisī (c. 950) to pen and paper instead of the traditional dust board, a move that helped to popularize this system. Also, the arithmetic algorithms were completed in two ways: by the extension of root-extraction procedures, known to Hindus and Greeks only for square and…

  • ʿuqqāl (Druze initiate)

    ʿuqqāl, in the Druze religion, an elite of initiates who alone know Druze doctrine (ḥikmah, literally “wisdom”), participate fully in the Druze religious services, and have access to Druze scripture. The religious system of the Druzes is kept secret from the rest of their own numbers, who are known

  • Uqṣur, Al- (Egypt)

    Luxor, city and capital of Al-Uqṣur muḥāfaẓah (governorate), Upper Egypt. Luxor has given its name to the southern half of the ruins of the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes. Area governorate, 1,080 square miles (2,800 square km); city, 160 square miles (415 square km). Pop. (2017) governorate,

  • ur (Hindu assembly)

    India: Society and culture: …the council was called the ur. Eligibility qualifications generally relating to age and ownership of property were indicated, along with procedural rules. The council was divided into various committees in charge of the different aspects of village life and administration. Among the responsibilities of the council was the collection of…

  • Ur (ancient city, Iraq)

    Ur, important city of ancient southern Mesopotamia (Sumer), situated about 140 miles (225 km) southeast of the site of Babylon and about 10 miles (16 km) west of the present bed of the Euphrates River. In antiquity the river ran much closer to the city; the change in its course has left the ruins

  • UR (novella by King)

    Stephen King: On Writing and nontraditional publishing: The novella UR was made available in 2009 only to users of the Kindle electronic reading device. The short story “Drunken Fireworks” was released in 2015 as an audiobook prior to its print publication.

  • UR (physiology)

    conditioning: …its mouth is called the unconditioned response (UR) to food, which is the unconditioned stimulus (US).

  • Ur de älskandes liv (novel by Trotzig)

    Birgitta Trotzig: Her first novel, Ur de älskandes liv (1951; “From the Life of Those Who Love”), examines a group of lonely, artistic young women. One of her finest novels, De utsatta (1957; “The Exposed”), takes place in 17th-century Scania and has a primitive country priest as its main character.…

  • Ur hugskoti (work by Petursson)

    Icelandic literature: Poetry: …as those in the collection Ur hugskoti [1976; “Recollections”]) reveal a movement away from innovative forms to more traditional verse. Other poets contemporary to Pétursson include Þorsteinn frá Hamri and Sigurður Pálsson. The poems in Hamri’s Veðrahjálmur (1972; “Sun Rings”) grapple with questions about lasting values, particularly with the possibility…

  • Ur Kasdim (ancient city, Iraq)

    Ur, important city of ancient southern Mesopotamia (Sumer), situated about 140 miles (225 km) southeast of the site of Babylon and about 10 miles (16 km) west of the present bed of the Euphrates River. In antiquity the river ran much closer to the city; the change in its course has left the ruins

  • Ur of the Chaldeans (ancient city, Iraq)

    Ur, important city of ancient southern Mesopotamia (Sumer), situated about 140 miles (225 km) southeast of the site of Babylon and about 10 miles (16 km) west of the present bed of the Euphrates River. In antiquity the river ran much closer to the city; the change in its course has left the ruins

  • Ur, 3rd Dynasty of (Mesopotamian history)

    ancient Iran: The Old Elamite period: … of the 3rd dynasty of Ur (c. 2094–c. 2047 bc). Eventually the Elamites rose in rebellion and overthrew the 3rd Ur dynasty, an event long remembered in Mesopotamian dirges and omen texts. About the mid 19th century bc, power in Elam passed to a new dynasty, that of Eparti. The…

  • UR-500 (Russian launch vehicle)

    Proton, Russian launch vehicle used for both government and commercial payloads. Since 1965 the Proton launch vehicle has been a workhorse means of access to space, first for the Soviet Union and now Russia. Proton has been used to launch spacecraft to Venus and Mars; elements of the space stations

  • Ur-Hamlet (work by Kyd)

    Hamlet: …usually referred to as the Ur-Hamlet, of which Thomas Kyd is a conjectured author.

  • Ur-Melanesian language

    Austronesian languages: Major subgroups: …which is known today as Proto-Oceanic. The Oceanic hypothesis maintains that all Austronesian languages east of a line that runs through Indonesian New Guinea at approximately 138° E longitude—except for Palauan and Chamorro of western Micronesia—are descended from a single protolanguage spoken many generations after the initial breakup of Proto-Austronesian…

  • Ur-Nammu (king of Ur)

    Erech: …of many powerful kings, including Ur-Nammu (reigned 2112–2095 bce), first king of the 3rd dynasty of Ur. Ur-Nammu also did much for the layout of the city, which then benefited from a Neo-Sumerian revival. Various architectural developments were associated with the Isin-Larsa period (c. 2017–1763) and with the Kassite period…

  • Ur-Nammu, Code of (Ur history)

    cuneiform law: His code, dating from the middle of the 21st century bc, dealt with witchcraft, the flight of slaves, and bodily injuries. A more ample vestige of Sumerian law is the so-called Code of Lipit–Ishtar (c. 1934–24 bc), which contains the typical prologue, articles, and epilogue and…

  • Ur-Nanshe (king of Lagash)

    history of Mesopotamia: The Sumerians to the end of the Early Dynastic period: With Ur-Nanshe (c. 2520 bce), the first king of the 1st dynasty of Lagash, there is a possible variation of 70 to 80 years, and earlier dates are a matter of mere guesswork: they depend upon factors of only limited relevance, such as the computation of…

  • Ura me tri harqe (novel by Kadare)

    Ismail Kadare: …Ura me tri harqe (1978; The Three-Arched Bridge), set in medieval Albania, received wide critical acclaim. Muzgu i perëndive të stepës (1978; Twilight of the Eastern Gods) is a roman à clef about Kadare’s time at the Gorky Institute. His subsequent works of fiction included Nëpunësi i pallatit të ëndrrave…

  • Ura-Tyube (Tajikistan)

    Istaravshan, city, Tajikistan, in the northern foothills of the Turkistan Range. One of the most ancient cities of the republic, it may date from the 6th century ce, but it bore its former name only from the 17th to the early 21st century. It was famous in the past for its handicrafts, particularly

  • URAA (United States [1994])

    public domain: …1994, when Congress passed the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA) in order to bring U.S. copyright laws into accord with the Berne Convention. Prior to that year, the law stipulated that a creative work fell into the public domain if its rights holder did not renew the claim with the…

  • Urabá, Gulf of (gulf, Caribbean Sea)

    Atrato River: …northward to empty into the Gulf of Urabá of the Caribbean Sea. The river is only 416 miles (670 km) long, but its large discharge of no less than 175,000 cubic feet (5,000 cubic m) of water per second transports a very large quantity of sediment that is rapidly filling…

  • Urabe Kaneyoshi (Japanese poet)

    Yoshida Kenkō was a Japanese poet and essayist, the outstanding literary figure of his time. His collection of essays, Tsurezuregusa (c. 1330; Essays in Idleness, 1967), became, especially after the 17th century, a basic part of Japanese education, and his views have had a prominent place in

  • ʿUrābī Pasha (Egyptian nationalist)

    ʿUrābī Pasha was an Egyptian nationalist who led a social-political movement that expressed the discontent of the Egyptian educated classes, army officials, and peasantry with foreign control. ʿUrābī, the son of a village sheikh, studied in Cairo at al-Azhar, the preeminent institution of Arabic

  • Urabon (Japanese festival)

    Bon, one of the most popular annual festivals in Japan, observed July 13–15 (August 13–15 in some places), honoring the spirits of deceased ancestors and of the dead generally. It is, along with the New Year festival, one of the two main occasions during the year when the dead are believed to

  • uracil (chemical compound)

    uracil, a colourless, crystalline organic compound of the pyrimidine family that occurs as a component of ribonucleic acid (RNA), a molecule involved in the transmission of hereditary characteristics. The RNA molecule consists of a sequence of nucleotides, each containing a five-carbon sugar

  • Uraeginthus (bird)

    cordon bleu, any of three species of birds belonging to the genus (or subgenus) Uraeginthus of the waxbill family Estrildidae (order Passeriformes). The birds, including some popular cage birds, are native to Africa, where they frequent villages and farms. A widespread species is the 13-centimetre

  • Uraeginthus angolensis (bird)

    cordon bleu: cyanocephalus) and the Angola cordon bleu (U. angolensis), also called the Angola waxbill, or blue-breasted waxbill.

  • Uraeginthus bengalus (bird)

    cordon bleu: …species is the 13-centimetre (5-inch) red-cheeked cordon bleu (U. bengalus), occurring from Senegal and Congo (Kinshasa) to Somalia and Zimbabwe. It is brown and pale blue, with red cheek spot (in the male only) and longish pointed tail. The two other species are the blue-capped cordon bleu (U. cyanocephalus) and…

  • Uraeginthus cyanocephalus (bird)

    cordon bleu: …two other species are the blue-capped cordon bleu (U. cyanocephalus) and the Angola cordon bleu (U. angolensis), also called the Angola waxbill, or blue-breasted waxbill.

  • Uragami Gyokudō (Japanese artist)

    Uragami Gyokudō was a Japanese painter and musician who excelled in depicting scenes of nature realistically and in the art of playing the seven-stringed zither. The son of a retainer of Lord Ikeda of Okayama, Uragami took zither lessons early in life and continued his musical training after he

  • Uraguai, O (work by Gama)

    Basílio da Gama: …of the Brazilian epic poem O Uraguai (1769), an account of the Portuguese-Spanish expedition against the Jesuit-controlled reservation Indians of the Uruguay River basin.

  • Uraha Hill (anthropological and archaeological site, Malawi)

    Uraha Hill, a paleoanthropological site in northern Malawi known for the discovery of a jawbone of an ancient human (genus Homo) dating to 2.4 million years ago (mya). It is similar to specimens dating to between 1.9 and 1.8 mya from Koobi Fora, Kenya. The Uraha Hill specimen is one of the oldest

  • Ural Cossack (people)

    Cossack: …the Greben (in Caucasia), the Yaik (on the middle Ural River), the Volga, the Dnieper, and the Zaporozhian (mainly west of the Dnieper).

  • Ural Mountains (mountains, Eurasia)

    Ural Mountains, mountain range forming a rugged spine in west-central Russia and the major part of the traditional physiographic boundary between Europe and Asia. Extending some 1,550 miles (2,500 km) from the bend of the Ural River in the south to the low, severely eroded Pay-Khoy Ridge, which

  • Ural River (river, Central Asia)

    Ural River, river in Russia and Kazakhstan. The Ural is 1,509 miles (2,428 km) long and drains an area of 91,500 square miles (237,000 square km). It rises in the Ural Mountains near Mount Kruglaya and flows south along their eastern flank past Magnitogorsk. At Orsk it cuts westward across the

  • Ural Tatar language

    Tatar language: Tepter (Teptyar), and Astrakhan and Ural Tatar. Kazan Tatar is the literary language.

  • Ural Trough (ancient seaway)

    Tertiary Period: Paleogeography: …the Eurasian continent itself, the Ural Trough (or Turgai Strait), a marine seaway that linked the Tethys with the Arctic region but also constituted a barrier to the east-west migration of terrestrial faunas, was terminated by regional uplift some 29 million years ago during the Oligocene. The resulting immigration of…

  • Ural’sk (Kazakhstan)

    Oral, city, western Kazakhstan, along the Ural (Zhayyq) River. Founded in 1613 or 1622 by Cossacks fleeing a tsarist punitive campaign, it was known as Yaitsky Gorodok until 1775, when its name was changed following the Pugachov Rebellion. The town was a centre of both the Stenka Razin (1667) and

  • Ural-Altaic languages

    Ural-Altaic languages, hypothetical language grouping that includes all the languages of the Uralic and Altaic language families. Most of the evidence for including the Uralic and Altaic languages in one language family is based on similarities of language structure rather than on a common core of

  • Ural-Tau Anticlinorium (rock formation, Central Asia)

    Ural Mountains: Geology: …the watershed region lies the Ural-Tau Anticlinorium (a rock formation of arches and troughs, itself forming an arch), the largest in the Urals, and in the Southern Urals, west of it, is the Bashkir Anticlinorium. Both are composed of layers (sometimes four miles thick) of ancient metamorphic (heat-altered) rocks—gneisses (metamorphic…

  • Ural-type glacier

    glacier: Mass balance of mountain glaciers: …are often referred to as Ural-type glaciers. Superimposed ice and soaked zones are found in the accumulation area; in higher areas the percolation zone is found, and in some local extreme areas the dry-snow zone occurs. Because of the decrease in melt rates, continental glaciers in high latitudes occur at…

  • Uralian emerald (gem)

    Uralian emerald, yellowish green or emerald-green andradite, a variety of garnet, not emerald. See

  • Uralian orogenic belt (geological formation)

    Uralian orogenic belt, a 3,500-kilometre- (2,175-mile-) long elongate mountain system that extends from the Aral Sea to the islands of Novaya Zemlya. It is 500 km wide in the south but only 100–150 km wide in the north. The belt formed as a result of the closure of the Uralian Sea by eastward

  • Uralic languages

    Uralic languages, family of more than 20 related languages, all descended from a Proto-Uralic language that existed 7,000 to 10,000 years ago. At its earliest stages, Uralic most probably included the ancestors of the Yukaghir language. The Uralic languages are spoken by more than 25 million people

  • Urals, The (mountains, Eurasia)

    Ural Mountains, mountain range forming a rugged spine in west-central Russia and the major part of the traditional physiographic boundary between Europe and Asia. Extending some 1,550 miles (2,500 km) from the bend of the Ural River in the south to the low, severely eroded Pay-Khoy Ridge, which

  • Uralsk (Kazakhstan)

    Oral, city, western Kazakhstan, along the Ural (Zhayyq) River. Founded in 1613 or 1622 by Cossacks fleeing a tsarist punitive campaign, it was known as Yaitsky Gorodok until 1775, when its name was changed following the Pugachov Rebellion. The town was a centre of both the Stenka Razin (1667) and

  • Uralskie Gory (mountains, Eurasia)

    Ural Mountains, mountain range forming a rugged spine in west-central Russia and the major part of the traditional physiographic boundary between Europe and Asia. Extending some 1,550 miles (2,500 km) from the bend of the Ural River in the south to the low, severely eroded Pay-Khoy Ridge, which

  • Uralskie Mountains (mountains, Eurasia)

    Ural Mountains, mountain range forming a rugged spine in west-central Russia and the major part of the traditional physiographic boundary between Europe and Asia. Extending some 1,550 miles (2,500 km) from the bend of the Ural River in the south to the low, severely eroded Pay-Khoy Ridge, which

  • Urang Padang (people)

    Minangkabau, largest ethnic group on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia, whose traditional homeland is the west-central highlands. The Minangkabau have extensive terraced fields and garden plots in which they raise irrigated rice, tobacco, and cinnamon, as well as fruits and vegetables. Their crafts

  • Urania (Greek mythology)

    Aphrodite, ancient Greek goddess of sexual love and beauty, identified with Venus by the Romans. The Greek word aphros means “foam,” and Hesiod relates in his Theogony that Aphrodite was born from the white foam produced by the severed genitals of Uranus (Heaven), after his son Cronus threw them

  • urania (chemical compound)

    ceramic composition and properties: Crystal structure: …material shown is urania (uranium dioxide, UO2). In this structure the oxygen anions are bonded to only four cations. Oxides with this structure are well known for the ease with which oxygen vacancies can be formed. In zirconia (zirconium dioxide, ZrO2), which also possesses this structure, a great number…

  • Urania (Greek Muse)

    Urania, in Greek religion, one of the nine Muses, patron of astronomy. In some accounts she was the mother of Linus the musician (in other versions, his mother is the Muse Calliope); the father was either Hermes or Amphimarus, son of Poseidon. Urania was also occasionally used as a byname for

  • Uraniborg (observatory, Denmark)

    Uraniborg, observatory established in 1576 by the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. It was the last of the primitive observatories in that it antedated the invention of the telescope (c. 1608); and it was the first of the modern observatories in that it was completely supported by the state and

  • Uranie, l’  (ship)

    Louis-Claude de Saulces de Freycinet: …1817 he took command of l’Uranie to conduct magnetic and oceanographic researches in the Pacific. His wife, Rose, disguised as a sailor, was smuggled aboard and accompanied the voyage, which she described in a journal published in 1827. After a stop at Rio de Janeiro, l’Uranie rounded the Cape of…

  • uraniid moth (insect)

    Lepidoptera: Annotated classification: Family Uraniidae (swallowtail moths) Approximately 700 chiefly tropical species; some adults are large, brilliantly iridescent diurnal moths; the Asian Epicopeia (family Epicopeiidae) mimic swallowtail butterflies. Superfamily Drepanoidea Approximately 700 species worldwide in 2 families. Family Drepanidae

  • Uraniidae (insect)

    Lepidoptera: Annotated classification: Family Uraniidae (swallowtail moths) Approximately 700 chiefly tropical species; some adults are large, brilliantly iridescent diurnal moths; the Asian Epicopeia (family Epicopeiidae) mimic swallowtail butterflies. Superfamily Drepanoidea Approximately 700 species worldwide in 2 families. Family Drepanidae

  • uraninite (mineral)

    uraninite, a major ore mineral of uranium, uranium dioxide (UO2). Uraninite usually forms black, gray, or brown crystals that are moderately hard and generally opaque. A variety of uraninite ore that is dense and found in granular masses with a greasy lustre is called pitchblende. Uraninite is

  • uranium (chemical element)

    uranium (U), radioactive chemical element of the actinoid series of the periodic table, atomic number 92. It is an important nuclear fuel. Uranium constitutes about two parts per million of Earth’s crust. Some important uranium minerals are pitchblende (impure U3O8), uraninite (UO2), carnotite (a

  • Uranium City (Saskatchewan, Canada)

    Uranium City, municipal corporation, centre of the Beaverlodge Lake mining region in extreme northwestern Saskatchewan, Canada. It lies near the north shore of Lake Athabasca. The discovery in the early 1950s and the subsequent mining of uranium ore there by the Eldorado Mining and Refining Company

  • uranium dioxide (chemical compound)

    ceramic composition and properties: Crystal structure: …material shown is urania (uranium dioxide, UO2). In this structure the oxygen anions are bonded to only four cations. Oxides with this structure are well known for the ease with which oxygen vacancies can be formed. In zirconia (zirconium dioxide, ZrO2), which also possesses this structure, a great number…

  • uranium enrichment

    Iran: Nuclear deal falters: …November 2020 its stockpile of enriched uranium had reached 12 times the level that had been permitted under the JCPOA. In January 2021 it began enriching uranium up to 20 percent purity; under the JCPOA it had been capped at 3.67 percent.

  • uranium hexafluoride (chemical compound)

    coordination compound: Characteristics of coordination compounds: …molecules is uranium(+6) fluoride, or uranium hexafluoride (UF6). The structural formula of the compound represents the actual arrangement of atoms in the molecules:

  • uranium hydride (chemical compound)

    hydride: Metallic hydrides: Uranium hydride (UH3) is the most important hydride of the actinoid metals. This pyrophoric black powder is prepared by reaction with hydrogen at 300 °C (570 °F). 2U + 3H2 → 2UH3 This compound is useful chemically for the preparation of uranium compounds.

  • uranium processing

    uranium processing, preparation of the ore for use in various products. Uranium (U), although very dense (19.1 grams per cubic centimetre), is a relatively weak, nonrefractory metal. Indeed, the metallic properties of uranium appear to be intermediate between those of silver and other true metals

  • uranium series (chemical series)

    uranium series, set of unstable heavy nuclei constituting one of the four radioactive

  • uranium tetrafluoride (chemical compound)

    uranium processing: Conversion and isotopic enrichment: …550° C (1,025° F) produces uranium tetrafluoride (UF4) and water vapour, as in the following reaction:

  • uranium X2 (isotope)

    Kasimir Fajans: …with Otto Gohring, he discovered uranium X2, which is now called protactinium-234m. In 1917 he joined the Institute of Physical Chemistry, Munich, where he rose from associate professor to director. From 1936 to 1957, when he retired, Fajans was a professor at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He became…

  • uranium-233 (chemical isotope)

    fissile material: …naturally occurring uranium), plutonium-239, and uranium-233, the last two being artificially produced from the fertile materials uranium-238 and thorium-232, respectively. A fertile material, not itself capable of undergoing fission with low-energy neutrons, is one that decays into fissile material after neutron absorption within a reactor. Thorium-232 and uranium-238 are the…

  • uranium-234–uranium-238 dating

    uranium-234–uranium-238 dating, method of age determination that makes use of the radioactive decay of uranium-238 to uranium-234; the method can be used for dating of sediments from either a marine or a playa lake environment. Because this method is useful for the period of time from about 100,000

  • uranium-235 (chemical isotope)

    uranium-235 (U-235), radioactive isotope of the element uranium with a nucleus containing 92 protons and 143 neutrons. Uranium-235 is the only naturally occurring fissile material; that is, the uranium-235 nucleus undergoes nuclear fission when it collides with a slow neutron (a neutron with a

  • uranium-238 (chemical isotope)

    breeder reactor: …a breeder reactor employs either uranium-238 or thorium, of which sizable quantities are available. Uranium-238, for example, accounts for more than 99 percent of all naturally occurring uranium. In breeders, approximately 70 percent of this isotope can be utilized for power production. Conventional reactors, in contrast, can extract less than…

  • uranium-239 (chemical isotope)

    uranium processing: …upon absorbing a neutron, forms uranium-239, and this latter isotope eventually decays into plutonium-239—a fissile material of great importance in nuclear power and nuclear weapons. Another fissile isotope, uranium-233, can be formed by neutron irradiation of thorium-232.

  • uranium–lead dating

    dating: Uranium–lead method: As each dating method was developed, tested, and improved, mainly since 1950, a vast body of knowledge about the behaviour of different isotopic systems under different geologic conditions has evolved. It is now clear that with recent advances the uranium–lead method is superior…

  • uranium-series disequilibrium dating

    dating: Uranium-series disequilibrium dating: The isotopic dating methods discussed so far are all based on long-lived radioactive isotopes that have survived since the elements were created or on short-lived isotopes that were recently produced by cosmic-ray bombardment. The long-lived isotopes are difficult to use on young…

  • uranium-thorium-lead dating

    uranium-thorium-lead dating, method of establishing the time of origin of a rock by means of the amount of common lead it contains; common lead is any lead from a rock or mineral that contains a large amount of lead and a small amount of the radioactive progenitors of lead—i.e., the uranium

  • Uranographia (work by Hevelius)

    astronomical map: New constellations: 16th–20th century: In his Uranographia of 1687, the German astronomer Johannes Hevelius devised seven new constellations visible from mid-northern latitudes that are still accepted, including Sextans (the sextant), named for one of his own astronomical instruments. Fourteen additional southern constellations were formed by Nicolas Louis de Lacaille after his…

  • Uranographia (work by Bode)

    Johann Elert Bode: Among his other publications was Uranographia (1801), a collection of 20 star maps accompanied by a catalog of 17,240 stars and nebulae. In 1776 he propounded a theory of the solar constitution similar to that developed in 1795 by Sir William Herschel. He gave currency to the empirical rule known…

  • uranography (Judaism)

    Judaism: Early stages to the 6th century ce: …about devils); mythical geography and uranography (description of the heavens); contemplation of the divine manifestations, whose background was the Jerusalem Temple worship and the visions of the moving “throne” (merkava, “chariot”) in the prophecy of Ezekiel; reflection on the double origin of human beings, who are formed of the earth…

  • Uranometria (work by Bayer)

    Johann Bayer: …a German astronomer whose book Uranometria promulgated a system of identifying all stars visible to the naked eye.

  • Uranometria Argentina (work by Gould)

    astronomical map: New constellations: 16th–20th century: Gould’s Uranometria Argentina (1877–79) standardized the list of constellations as they are known today. They divided Ptolemy’s largest constellation, Argo Navis (the ship), into four parts: Vela (the sail), Pyxis (the compass), Puppis (the stern), and Carina (the keel).

  • Uranometria Nova (work by Argelander)

    astronomical map: New constellations: 16th–20th century: Argelander’s Uranometria Nova (1843) and Benjamin A. Gould’s Uranometria Argentina (1877–79) standardized the list of constellations as they are known today. They divided Ptolemy’s largest constellation, Argo Navis (the ship), into four parts: Vela (the sail), Pyxis (the compass), Puppis (the stern), and Carina (the keel).

  • Uranomys ruddi (mammal)

    African spiny mouse: …in this subfamily; these are Rudd’s mouse (Uranomys ruddi), the Congo forest mouse (Deomys ferrugineus), and brush-furred rats (genus Lophuromys).

  • Uranoscopidae (fish)

    perciform: Danger to human life: Especially well-armed are the electric stargazers (Astroscopus; Uranoscopidae), which are capable of discharging up to 50 volts of electricity from the modified muscle tissue just posterior to the eyes; in addition, they possess a venom spine just above the pectoral fins. The venom from uranoscopids has been known to…

  • Uranotheria (mammal)

    mammal: Classification: Uranotherians The following three ungulate orders (Sirenia, Proboscidea, and Hyracoidea) are sometimes grouped together as the order Uranotheria, for they are more closely related to one another than to other ungulates. Order Hyracoidea (hyraxes) 4 species in 1 family. Order

  • uranotherian (mammal)

    mammal: Classification: Uranotherians The following three ungulate orders (Sirenia, Proboscidea, and Hyracoidea) are sometimes grouped together as the order Uranotheria, for they are more closely related to one another than to other ungulates. Order Hyracoidea (hyraxes) 4 species in 1 family. Order

  • Uranus (Greek mythology)

    Uranus, in Greek mythology, the personification of heaven. According to Hesiod’s Theogony, Gaea (Earth), emerging from primeval Chaos, produced Uranus, the Mountains, and the Sea. From Gaea’s subsequent union with Uranus were born the Titans, the Cyclopes, and the Hecatoncheires. Uranus hated his

  • Uranus (planet)

    Uranus, seventh planet in distance from the Sun and the least massive of the solar system’s four giant, or Jovian, planets, which also include Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune. At its brightest, Uranus is just visible to the unaided eye as a blue-green point of light. It is designated by the symbol ♅.