title: Algae content: any scientific basis or reliable sources, these numbers have no more credibility than the British ones mentioned above. Most estimates also omit microscopic algae, such as phytoplankton. The most recent estimate suggests 72,500 algal species worldwide. The distribution of algal species has been fairly well studied since the founding of phytogeography in the mid-19th century. Algae spread mainly by the dispersal of spores analogously to the dispersal of Plantae by seeds and spores. This dispersal can be accomplished by air, water, or other organisms. Due to this, spores can be found in a variety of environments: fresh and marine waters,


title: Algae content: air, soil, and in or on other organisms. Whether a spore is to grow into an organism depends on the combination of the species and the environmental conditions where the spore lands. The spores of freshwater algae are dispersed mainly by running water and wind, as well as by living carriers. However, not all bodies of water can carry all species of algae, as the chemical composition of certain water bodies limits the algae that can survive within them. Marine spores are often spread by ocean currents. Ocean water presents many vastly different habitats based on temperature and nutrient availability,


title: Algae content: resulting in phytogeographic zones, regions, and provinces. To some degree, the distribution of algae is subject to floristic discontinuities caused by geographical features, such as Antarctica, long distances of ocean or general land masses. It is, therefore, possible to identify species occurring by locality, such as "Pacific algae" or "North Sea algae". When they occur out of their localities, hypothesizing a transport mechanism is usually possible, such as the hulls of ships. For example, "Ulva reticulata" and "U. fasciata" travelled from the mainland to Hawaii in this manner. Mapping is possible for select species only: "there are many valid examples


title: Algae content: of confined distribution patterns." For example, "Clathromorphum" is an arctic genus and is not mapped far south of there. However, scientists regard the overall data as insufficient due to the "difficulties of undertaking such studies." Algae are prominent in bodies of water, common in terrestrial environments, and are found in unusual environments, such as on snow and ice. Seaweeds grow mostly in shallow marine waters, under deep; however, some such as Navicula pennata have been recorded to a depth of . The various sorts of algae play significant roles in aquatic ecology. Microscopic forms that live suspended in the water


title: Algae content: column (phytoplankton) provide the food base for most marine food chains. In very high densities (algal blooms), these algae may discolor the water and outcompete, poison, or asphyxiate other life forms. Algae can be used as indicator organisms to monitor pollution in various aquatic systems. In many cases, algal metabolism is sensitive to various pollutants. Due to this, the species composition of algal populations may shift in the presence of chemical pollutants. To detect these changes, algae can be sampled from the environment and maintained in laboratories with relative ease. On the basis of their habitat, algae can be categorized


title: Algae content: as: aquatic (planktonic, benthic, marine, freshwater, lentic, lotic), terrestrial, aerial (subareial), lithophytic, halophytic (or euryhaline), psammon, thermophilic, cryophilic, epibiont (epiphytic, epizoic), endosymbiont (endophytic, endozoic), parasitic, calcifilic or lichenic (phycobiont). In classical Chinese, the word is used both for "algae" and (in the modest tradition of the imperial scholars) for "literary talent". The third island in Kunming Lake beside the Summer Palace in Beijing is known as the Zaojian Tang Dao, which thus simultaneously means "Island of the Algae-Viewing Hall" and "Island of the Hall for Reflecting on Literary Talent". Agar, a gelatinous substance derived from red algae, has a number


title: Algae content: of commercial uses. It is a good medium on which to grow bacteria and fungi, as most microorganisms cannot digest agar. Alginic acid, or alginate, is extracted from brown algae. Its uses range from gelling agents in food, to medical dressings. Alginic acid also has been used in the field of biotechnology as a biocompatible medium for cell encapsulation and cell immobilization. Molecular cuisine is also a user of the substance for its gelling properties, by which it becomes a delivery vehicle for flavours. Between 100,000 and 170,000 wet tons of "Macrocystis" are harvested annually in New Mexico for alginate


title: Algae content: extraction and abalone feed. To be competitive and independent from fluctuating support from (local) policy on the long run, biofuels should equal or beat the cost level of fossil fuels. Here, algae-based fuels hold great promise, directly related to the potential to produce more biomass per unit area in a year than any other form of biomass. The break-even point for algae-based biofuels is estimated to occur by 2025. For centuries, seaweed has been used as a fertilizer; George Owen of Henllys writing in the 16th century referring to drift weed in South Wales:This kind of ore they often gather


title: Algae content: and lay on great heapes, where it heteth and rotteth, and will have a strong and loathsome smell; when being so rotten they cast on the land, as they do their muck, and thereof springeth good corn, especially barley ... After spring-tydes or great rigs of the sea, they fetch it in sacks on horse backes, and carie the same three, four, or five miles, and cast it on the lande, which doth very much better the ground for corn and grass. Today, algae are used by humans in many ways; for example, as fertilizers, soil conditioners, and livestock feed.


title: Algae content: Aquatic and microscopic species are cultured in clear tanks or ponds and are either harvested or used to treat effluents pumped through the ponds. Algaculture on a large scale is an important type of aquaculture in some places. Maerl is commonly used as a soil conditioner. Naturally growing seaweeds are an important source of food, especially in Asia. They provide many vitamins including: A, B, B, B, niacin, and C, and are rich in iodine, potassium, iron, magnesium, and calcium. In addition, commercially cultivated microalgae, including both algae and cyanobacteria, are marketed as nutritional supplements, such as spirulina, "Chlorella" and


title: Algae content: the vitamin-C supplement from "Dunaliella", high in beta-carotene. Algae are national foods of many nations: China consumes more than 70 species, including "fat choy", a cyanobacterium considered a vegetable; Japan, over 20 species such as "nori" and "aonori"; Ireland, dulse; Chile, cochayuyo. Laver is used to make "laver bread" in Wales, where it is known as "bara lawr"; in Korea, "gim". It is also used along the west coast of North America from California to British Columbia, in Hawaii and by the Māori of New Zealand. Sea lettuce and badderlocks are salad ingredients in Scotland, Ireland, Greenland, and Iceland. Algae


title: Algae content: is being considered a potential solution for world hunger problem. The oils from some algae have high levels of unsaturated fatty acids. For example, "Parietochloris incisa" is very high in arachidonic acid, where it reaches up to 47% of the triglyceride pool. Some varieties of algae favored by vegetarianism and veganism contain the long-chain, essential omega-3 fatty acids, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). Fish oil contains the omega-3 fatty acids, but the original source is algae (microalgae in particular), which are eaten by marine life such as copepods and are passed up the food chain. Algae have emerged


title: Algae content: in recent years as a popular source of omega-3 fatty acids for vegetarians who cannot get long-chain EPA and DHA from other vegetarian sources such as flaxseed oil, which only contains the short-chain alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). Agricultural Research Service scientists found that 60–90% of nitrogen runoff and 70–100% of phosphorus runoff can be captured from manure effluents using a horizontal algae scrubber, also called an algal turf scrubber (ATS). Scientists developed the ATS, which consists of shallow, 100-foot raceways of nylon netting where algae colonies can form, and studied its efficacy for three years. They found that algae can readily


title: Algae content: be used to reduce the nutrient runoff from agricultural fields and increase the quality of water flowing into rivers, streams, and oceans. Researchers collected and dried the nutrient-rich algae from the ATS and studied its potential as an organic fertilizer. They found that cucumber and corn seedlings grew just as well using ATS organic fertilizer as they did with commercial fertilizers. Algae scrubbers, using bubbling upflow or vertical waterfall versions, are now also being used to filter aquaria and ponds. Various polymers can be created from algae, which can be especially useful in the creation of bioplastics. These include hybrid


title: Algae content: plastics, cellulose based plastics, poly-lactic acid, and bio-polyethylene. Several companies have begun to produce algae polymers commercially, including for use in flip-flops and in surf boards. The alga "Stichococcus bacillaris" has been seen to colonize silicone resins used at archaeological sites; biodegrading the synthetic substance. The natural pigments (carotenoids and chlorophylls) produced by algae can be used as alternatives to chemical dyes and coloring agents. The presence of some individual algal pigments, together with specific pigment concentration ratios, are taxon-specific: analysis of their concentrations with various analytical methods, particularly high-performance liquid chromatography, can therefore offer deep insight into the taxonomic


title: Algae content: composition and relative abundance of natural algae populations in sea water samples. Carrageenan, from the red alga "Chondrus crispus", is used as a stabilizer in milk products. Algae Algae (; singular alga ) is an informal term for a large, diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms that are not necessarily closely related, and is thus polyphyletic. Included organisms range from unicellular microalgae genera, such as "Chlorella" and the diatoms, to multicellular forms, such as the giant kelp, a large brown alga which may grow up to 50 m in length. Most are aquatic and autotrophic and lack many of the


title: Alkane content: in energy between the two conformations, known as the torsion energy, is low compared to the thermal energy of an ethane molecule at ambient temperature. There is constant rotation about the C–C bond. The time taken for an ethane molecule to pass from one staggered conformation to the next, equivalent to the rotation of one CH group by 120° relative to the other, is of the order of 10 seconds. The case of higher alkanes is more complex but based on similar principles, with the antiperiplanar conformation always being the most favored around each carbon–carbon bond. For this reason, alkanes


title: Astronaut content: Astronaut An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft. Although generally reserved for professional space travelers, the terms are sometimes applied to anyone who travels into space, including scientists, politicians, journalists, and tourists. Until 2002, astronauts were sponsored and trained exclusively by governments, either by the military or by civilian space agencies. With the suborbital flight of the privately funded SpaceShipOne in 2004, a new category of astronaut was created: the commercial astronaut. The criteria for what constitutes human spaceflight vary. The Fédération


title: Astronaut content: Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) Sporting Code for astronautics recognizes only flights that exceed an altitude of. In the United States, professional, military, and commercial astronauts who travel above an altitude of are awarded astronaut wings. , a total of 552 people from 36 countries have reached or more in altitude, of which 549 reached low Earth orbit or beyond. Of these, 24 people have traveled beyond low Earth orbit, either to lunar orbit, the lunar surface, or, in one case, a loop around the Moon. Three of the 24–Jim Lovell, John Young and Eugene Cernan–did so twice. The three current astronauts


title: Astronaut content: who have flown without reaching low Earth orbit are spaceplane pilots Joe Walker, Mike Melvill, and Brian Binnie, who participated in suborbital missions. , under the U.S. definition, 558 people qualify as having reached space, above altitude. Of eight X-15 pilots who exceeded in altitude, only one exceeded 100 kilometers (about 62 miles). Space travelers have spent over 41,790 man-days (114.5 man-years) in space, including over 100 astronaut-days of spacewalks. , the man with the longest cumulative time in space is Gennady Padalka, who has spent 879 days in space. Peggy A. Whitson holds the record for the most time


title: Astronaut content: in space by a woman, 377 days. In 1959, when both the United States and Soviet Union were planning, but had yet to launch humans into space, NASA Administrator T. Keith Glennan and his Deputy Administrator, Dr. Hugh Dryden, discussed whether spacecraft crew members should be called "astronauts" or "cosmonauts". Dryden preferred "cosmonaut", on the grounds that flights would occur in the "cosmos" (near space), while the "astro" prefix suggested flight to the stars. Most NASA Space Task Group members preferred "astronaut", which survived by common usage as the preferred American term. When the Soviet Union launched the first man


title: Astronaut content: into space, Yuri Gagarin in 1961, they chose a term which anglicizes to "cosmonaut". In English-speaking nations, a professional space traveler is called an "astronaut". The term derives from the Greek words "ástron" (ἄστρον), meaning "star", and "nautes" (ναύτης), meaning "sailor". The first known use of the term "astronaut" in the modern sense was by Neil R. Jones in his 1930 short story "The Death's Head Meteor". The word itself had been known earlier; for example, in Percy Greg's 1880 book "Across the Zodiac", "astronaut" referred to a spacecraft. In "Les Navigateurs de l'Infini" (1925) by J.-H. Rosny aîné, the


title: Astronaut content: word "astronautique" (astronautic) was used. The word may have been inspired by "aeronaut", an older term for an air traveler first applied in 1784 to balloonists. An early use of "astronaut" in a non-fiction publication is Eric Frank Russell's poem "The Astronaut", appearing in the November 1934 "Bulletin of the British Interplanetary Society". The first known formal use of the term astronautics in the scientific community was the establishment of the annual International Astronautical Congress in 1950, and the subsequent founding of the International Astronautical Federation the following year. NASA applies the term astronaut to any crew member aboard NASA


title: Astronaut content: spacecraft bound for Earth orbit or beyond. NASA also uses the term as a title for those selected to join its Astronaut Corps. The European Space Agency similarly uses the term astronaut for members of its Astronaut Corps. By convention, an astronaut employed by the Russian Federal Space Agency (or its Soviet predecessor) is called a "cosmonaut" in English texts. The word is an anglicisation of the Russian word "kosmonavt" (, ), one who works in space outside the Earth's atmosphere, a space traveler, which derives from the Greek words "kosmos" (κόσμος), meaning "universe", and "nautes" (ναύτης), meaning "sailor". Other


title: Astronaut content: countries of the former Eastern Bloc use variations of the Russian word "kosmonavt", such as the Polish "kosmonauta". Coinage of the term "kosmonavt" has been credited to Soviet aeronautics pioneer Mikhail Tikhonravov (1900–1974). The first cosmonaut was Soviet Air Force pilot Yuri Gagarin, also the first person in space. Valentina Tereshkova, a Russian factory worker, was the first woman in space, as well as the first civilian among the Soviet cosmonaut or NASA astronaut corps to make a spaceflight. On March 14, 1995, Norman Thagard became the first American to ride to space on board a Russian launch vehicle, and


title: Astronaut content: thus became the first "American cosmonaut". "Yǔ háng yuán" (, "Space-universe navigating personnel") is used for astronauts and cosmonauts in general, while "Hángtiān yuán" (, "navigating outer space personnel") is used for Chinese astronauts. Here, "Hángtiān" () is strictly defined as the navigation of outer space within the local star system, i.e. Solar system. The phrase "tài kōng rén" (, "spaceman") is often used in Hong Kong and Taiwan. The term "taikonaut" is used by some English-language news media organizations for professional space travelers from China. The word has featured in the Longman and Oxford English dictionaries, the latter of


title: Astronaut content: which describes it as "a hybrid of the Chinese term "taikong" (space) and the Greek "naut" (sailor)"; the term became more common in 2003 when China sent its first astronaut Yang Liwei into space aboard the "Shenzhou 5" spacecraft. This is the term used by Xinhua News Agency in the English version of the Chinese "People's Daily" since the advent of the Chinese space program. The origin of the term is unclear; as early as May 1998, Chiew Lee Yih () from Malaysia, used it in newsgroups. With the rise of space tourism, NASA and the Russian Federal Space Agency


title: Astronaut content: agreed to use the term "spaceflight participant" to distinguish those space travelers from professional astronauts on missions coordinated by those two agencies. While no nation other than the Russian Federation (and previously the former Soviet Union), the United States, and China have launched a manned spacecraft, several other nations have sent people into space in cooperation with one of these countries. Inspired partly by these missions, other synonyms for astronaut have entered occasional English usage. For example, the term "spationaut" (French spelling: "spationaute") is sometimes used to describe French space travelers, from the Latin word "spatium" for "space", the Malay


title: Astronaut content: term "angkasawan" was used to describe participants in the Angkasawan program, and the Indian Space Research Organisation hope to launch a spacecraft in 2022 that would carry "vyomanauts", coined from the Sanskrit word for space. In Finland, the NASA astronaut Timothy Kopra, a Finnish American, has sometimes been referred to as "sisunautti", from the Finnish word "sisu". The first human in space was Soviet Yuri Gagarin, who was launched on April 12, 1961, aboard Vostok 1 and orbited around the Earth for 108 minutes. The first woman in space was Soviet Valentina Tereshkova, who launched on June 16, 1963, aboard


title: Astronaut content: Vostok 6 and orbited Earth for almost three days. Alan Shepard became the first American and second person in space on May 5, 1961, on a 15-minute sub-orbital flight. The first American to orbit the Earth was John Glenn, aboard Friendship 7 on February 20, 1962. The first American woman in space was Sally Ride, during Space Shuttle Challenger's mission STS-7, on June 18, 1983. In 1992 Mae Jemison became the first African American woman to travel in space aboard STS-47. Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov was the first person to conduct an extravehicular activity (EVA), (commonly called a "spacewalk"), on March


title: Astronaut content: 18, 1965, on the Soviet Union's Voskhod 2 mission. This was followed two and a half months later by astronaut Ed White who made the first American EVA on NASA's Gemini 4 mission. The first manned mission to orbit the Moon, "Apollo 8", included American William Anders who was born in Hong Kong, making him the first Asian-born astronaut in 1968. The Soviet Union, through its Intercosmos program, allowed people from other "socialist" (i.e. Warsaw Pact and other Soviet-allied) countries to fly on its missions, with the notable exception of France participating in Soyuz TM-7. An example is Czechoslovak Vladimír


title: Astronaut content: Remek, the first cosmonaut from a country other than the Soviet Union or the United States, who flew to space in 1978 on a Soyuz-U rocket. Rakesh Sharma became the first Indian citizen to travel to space. He was launched aboard Soyuz T-11, on 2 April 1984. On July 23, 1980, Pham Tuan of Vietnam became the first Asian in space when he flew aboard Soyuz 37. Also in 1980, Cuban Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez became the first person of Hispanic and black African descent to fly in space, and in 1983, Guion Bluford became the first African American to fly


title: Astronaut content: into space. In April 1985, Taylor Wang became the first ethnic Chinese person in space. The first person born in Africa to fly in space was Patrick Baudry (France), in 1985. In 1985, Saudi Arabian Prince Sultan Bin Salman Bin AbdulAziz Al-Saud became the first Arab Muslim astronaut in space. In 1988, Abdul Ahad Mohmand became the first Afghan to reach space, spending nine days aboard the Mir space station. With the increase of seats on the Space Shuttle, the U.S. began taking international astronauts. In 1983, Ulf Merbold of West Germany became the first non-US citizen to fly in


title: Astronaut content: a US spacecraft. In 1984, Marc Garneau became the first of 8 Canadian astronauts to fly in space (through 2010). In 1985, Rodolfo Neri Vela became the first Mexican-born person in space. In 1991, Helen Sharman became the first Briton to fly in space. In 2002, Mark Shuttleworth became the first citizen of an African country to fly in space, as a paying spaceflight participant. In 2003, Ilan Ramon became the first Israeli to fly in space, although he died during a re-entry accident. On October 15, 2003, Yang Liwei became China's first astronaut on the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft. The


title: Astronaut content: youngest person to fly in space is Gherman Titov, who was 25 years old when he flew Vostok 2. (Titov was also the first person to suffer space sickness). The oldest person who has flown in space is John Glenn, who was 77 when he flew on STS-95. 438 days is the longest time spent in space, by Russian Valeri Polyakov. As of 2006, the most spaceflights by an individual astronaut is seven, a record held by both Jerry L. Ross and Franklin Chang-Diaz. The farthest distance from Earth an astronaut has traveled was , when Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert,


title: Astronaut content: and Fred Haise went around the Moon during the Apollo 13 emergency. The first civilian in space was Valentina Tereshkova aboard Vostok 6 (she also became the first woman in space on that mission). Tereshkova was only honorarily inducted into the USSR's Air Force, which did not accept female pilots at that time. A month later, Joseph Albert Walker became the first American civilian in space when his X-15 Flight 90 crossed the line, qualifying him by the international definition of spaceflight. Walker had joined the US Army Air Force but was not a member during his flight. The first


title: Astronaut content: people in space who had never been a member of any country's armed forces were both Konstantin Feoktistov and Boris Yegorov aboard Voskhod 1. The first non-governmental space traveler was Byron K. Lichtenberg, a researcher from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who flew on STS-9 in 1983. In December 1990, Toyohiro Akiyama became the first paying space traveler as a reporter for Tokyo Broadcasting System, a visit to Mir as part of an estimated $12 million (USD) deal with a Japanese TV station, although at the time, the term used to refer to Akiyama was "Research Cosmonaut". Akiyama suffered severe


title: Astronaut content: space sickness during his mission, which affected his productivity. The first self-funded space tourist was Dennis Tito on board the Russian spacecraft Soyuz TM-3 on April 28, 2001. The first person to fly on an entirely privately funded mission was Mike Melvill, piloting SpaceShipOne flight 15P on a suborbital journey, although he was a test pilot employed by Scaled Composites and not an actual paying space tourist. Seven others have paid the Russian Space Agency to fly into space: The first NASA astronauts were selected for training in 1959. Early in the space program, military jet test piloting and engineering


title: Astronaut content: training were often cited as prerequisites for selection as an astronaut at NASA, although neither John Glenn nor Scott Carpenter (of the Mercury Seven) had any university degree, in engineering or any other discipline at the time of their selection. Selection was initially limited to military pilots. The earliest astronauts for both America and the USSR tended to be jet fighter pilots, and were often test pilots. Once selected, NASA astronauts go through twenty months of training in a variety of areas, including training for extravehicular activity in a facility such as NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory. Astronauts-in-training (astronaut candidates) may


title: Astronaut content: also experience short periods of weightlessness (microgravity) in an aircraft called the "Vomit Comet," the nickname given to a pair of modified KC-135s (retired in 2000 and 2004, respectively, and replaced in 2005 with a C-9) which perform parabolic flights. Astronauts are also required to accumulate a number of flight hours in high-performance jet aircraft. This is mostly done in T-38 jet aircraft out of Ellington Field, due to its proximity to the Johnson Space Center. Ellington Field is also where the Shuttle Training Aircraft is maintained and developed, although most flights of the aircraft are conducted from Edwards Air


title: Astronaut content: Force Base. Astronauts is training must learn how to control and fly the Space Shuttle and, it is vital that they are familiar with the International Space Station so they know what they must do when they get there. Mission Specialist Educators, or "Educator Astronauts", were first selected in 2004, and as of 2007, there are three NASA Educator astronauts: Joseph M. Acaba, Richard R. Arnold, and Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger. Barbara Morgan, selected as back-up teacher to Christa McAuliffe in 1985, is considered to be the first Educator astronaut by the media, but she trained as a mission specialist. The Educator


title: Astronaut content: Astronaut program is a successor to the Teacher in Space program from the 1980s. Astronauts are susceptible to a variety of health risks including decompression sickness, barotrauma, immunodeficiencies, loss of bone and muscle, loss of eyesight, orthostatic intolerance, sleep disturbances, and radiation injury. A variety of large scale medical studies are being conducted in space via the National Space and Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) to address these issues. Prominent among these is the Advanced Diagnostic Ultrasound in Microgravity Study in which astronauts (including former ISS commanders Leroy Chiao and Gennady Padalka) perform ultrasound scans under the guidance of remote experts


title: Astronaut content: to diagnose and potentially treat hundreds of medical conditions in space. This study's techniques are now being applied to cover professional and Olympic sports injuries as well as ultrasound performed by non-expert operators in medical and high school students. It is anticipated that remote guided ultrasound will have application on Earth in emergency and rural care situations, where access to a trained physician is often rare. A 2006 Space Shuttle experiment found that "Salmonella typhimurium", a bacterium that can cause food poisoning, became more virulent when cultivated in space. More recently, in 2017, bacteria were found to be more resistant


title: Astronaut content: to antibiotics and to thrive in the near-weightlessness of space. Microorganisms have been observed to survive the vacuum of outer space. On December 31, 2012, a NASA-supported study reported that manned spaceflight may harm the brain and accelerate the onset of Alzheimer's disease. In October 2015, the NASA Office of Inspector General issued a health hazards report related to space exploration, including a human mission to Mars. Over the last decade, flight surgeons and scientists at NASA have seen a pattern of vision problems in astronauts on long-duration space missions. The syndrome, known as visual impairment intracranial pressure (VIIP), has


title: Astronaut content: been reported in nearly two-thirds of space explorers after long periods spent aboard the International Space Station (ISS). On November 2, 2017, scientists reported that significant changes in the position and structure of the brain have been found in astronauts who have taken trips in space, based on MRI studies. Astronauts who took longer space trips were associated with greater brain changes. Being in space can be physiologically deconditioning on the body. It can affect the otolith organs and adaptive capabilities of the central nervous system. Zero gravity and cosmic rays can cause many implications for astronauts. In October 2018,


title: Astronaut content: NASA-funded researchers found that lengthy journeys into outer space, including travel to the planet Mars, may substantially damage the gastrointestinal tissues of astronauts. The studies support earlier work that found such journeys could significantly damage the brains of astronauts, and age them prematurely. Researchers in 2018 reported, after detecting the presence on the International Space Station (ISS) of five "Enterobacter bugandensis" bacterial strains, none pathogenic to humans, that microorganisms on ISS should be carefully monitored to continue assuring a medically healthy environment for astronauts. An astronaut on the International Space Station requires about 0.83 kilograms (1.83 pounds) weight of food


title: Astronaut content: inclusive of food packaging per meal each day. (The packaging for each meal weighs around 0.12 kilograms - 0.27 pounds) Longer-duration missions require more food. Shuttle astronauts worked with nutritionists to select menus that appeal to their individual tastes. Five months before flight, menus are selected and analyzed for nutritional content by the shuttle dietician. Foods are tested to see how they will react in a reduced gravity environment. Caloric requirements are determined using a basal energy expenditure (BEE) formula. On Earth, the average American uses about 35 gallons (132 liters) of water every day. On board the ISS astronauts


title: Astronaut content: limit water use to only about three gallons (11 liters) per day. In Russia, cosmonauts are awarded Pilot-Cosmonaut of the Russian Federation upon completion of their missions, often accompanied with the award of Hero of the Russian Federation. This follows the practice established in the USSR where cosmonauts were usually awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. At NASA, those who complete astronaut candidate training receive a silver lapel pin. Once they have flown in space, they receive a gold pin. U.S. astronauts who also have active-duty military status receive a special qualification badge, known as the Astronaut Badge,


title: Astronaut content: after participation on a spaceflight. The United States Air Force also presents an Astronaut Badge to its pilots who exceed in altitude. Eighteen astronauts (fourteen men and four women) have lost their lives during four space flights. By nationality, thirteen were American (including one born in India), four were Russian (Soviet Union), and one was Israeli. Eleven people (all men) have lost their lives training for spaceflight: eight Americans and three Russians. Six of these were in crashes of training jet aircraft, one drowned during water recovery training, and four were due to fires in pure oxygen environments. The Space


title: Astronaut content: Mirror Memorial, which stands on the grounds of the John F. Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, commemorates the lives of the men and women who have died during spaceflight and during training in the space programs of the United States. In addition to twenty NASA career astronauts, the memorial includes the names of a U.S. Air Force X-15 test pilot, a U.S. Air Force officer who died while training for a then-classified military space program, and a civilian spaceflight participant. Astronaut An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as


title: Aardvark content: Aardvark The aardvark ( ; "Orycteropus afer") is a medium-sized, burrowing, nocturnal mammal native to Africa. It is the only living species of the order Tubulidentata, although other prehistoric species and genera of Tubulidentata are known. Unlike other insectivores, it has a long pig-like snout, which is used to sniff out food. It roams over most of the southern two-thirds of the African continent, avoiding areas that are mainly rocky. A nocturnal feeder, it subsists on ants and termites, which it will dig out of their hills using its sharp claws and powerful legs. It also digs to create burrows


title: Aardvark content: in which to live and rear its young. It receives a "least concern" rating from the IUCN, although its numbers seem to be decreasing. The aardvark is sometimes colloquially called "African ant bear", "anteater" (not to be confused with the South American anteater), or the "Cape anteater" after the Cape of Good Hope. The name "aardvark" () comes from earlier Afrikaans (erdvark) and means "earth pig" or "ground pig" ("aarde": earth/ground, "vark": pig), because of its burrowing habits. The name "Orycteropus" means burrowing foot, and the name "afer" refers to Africa. The name of the aardvarks's order, "Tubulidentata," comes from


title: Aardvark content: the tubule-style teeth. The aardvark is not closely related to the pig; rather, it is the sole extant representative of the obscure mammalian order Tubulidentata, in which it is usually considered to form one variable species of the genus "Orycteropus", the sole surviving genus in the family Orycteropodidae. The aardvark is not closely related to the South American anteater, despite sharing some characteristics and a superficial resemblance. The similarities are based on convergent evolution. The closest living relatives of the aardvark are the elephant shrews, tenrecs and golden moles. Along with the sirenians, hyraxes, elephants, and their extinct relatives, these


title: Aardvark content: animals form the superorder Afrotheria. Studies of the brain have shown the similarities with Condylarthra, and given the clade's status as a wastebasket taxon it may mean some species traditionally classified as "condylarths" are actually stem-aardvarks. Based on fossils, Bryan Patterson has concluded that early relatives of the aardvark appeared in Africa around the end of the Paleocene. The ptolemaiidans, a mysterious clade of mammals with uncertain affinities, may actually be stem-aardvarks, either as a sister clade to Tubulidentata or as a grade leading to true tubulidentates. The first unambiguous tubulidentate was probably "Myorycteropus africanus" from Kenyan Miocene deposits. The


title: Aardvark content: earliest example from the genus "Orycteropus" was "Orycteropus mauritanicus", found in Algeria in deposits from the middle Miocene, with an equally old version found in Kenya. Fossils from the aardvark have been dated to 5 million years, and have been located throughout Europe and the Near East. The mysterious Pleistocene "Plesiorycteropus" from Madagascar was originally thought to be a tubulidentate that was descended from ancestors that entered the island during the Eocene. However, a number of subtle anatomical differences coupled with recent molecular evidence now lead researchers to believe that "Plesiorycteropus" is a relative of golden moles and tenrecs that


title: Aardvark content: achieved an aardvark-like appearance and ecological niche through convergent evolution. The aardvark has seventeen poorly defined subspecies listed: The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica also mentions "O. a. capensis" or Cape ant-bear from South Africa. The aardvark is vaguely pig-like in appearance. Its body is stout with a prominently arched back and is sparsely covered with coarse hairs. The limbs are of moderate length, with the rear legs being longer than the forelegs. The front feet have lost the pollex (or 'thumb'), resulting in four toes, while the rear feet have all five toes. Each toe bears a large, robust nail which


title: Aardvark content: is somewhat flattened and shovel-like, and appears to be intermediate between a claw and a hoof. Whereas the aardvark is considered digitigrade, it appears at time to be plantigrade. This confusion happens because when it squats it stands on its soles. A contributing characteristic to the burrow digging capabilities of aardvarks is an endosteal tissue called compacted coarse cancellous bone (CCCB). The stress and strain resistance provided by CCCB allows aardvarks to create their burrows, ultimately leading to a favorable environment for plants and a variety of animals. An aardvark's weight is typically between . An aardvark's length is usually


title: Aardvark content: between , and can reach lengths of when its tail (which can be up to ) is taken into account. It is tall at the shoulder, and has a girth of about . It is the largest member of the proposed clade Afroinsectiphilia. The aardvark is pale yellowish-gray in color and often stained reddish-brown by soil. The aardvark's coat is thin, and the animal's primary protection is its tough skin. Its hair is short on its head and tail; however its legs tend to have longer hair. The hair on the majority of its body is grouped in clusters of


title: Aardvark content: 3-4 hairs. The hair surrounding its nostrils is dense to help filter particulate matter out as it digs. Its tail is very thick at the base and gradually tapers. The greatly elongated head is set on a short, thick neck, and the end of the snout bears a disc, which houses the nostrils. It contains a thin but complete zygomatic arch. The head of the aardvark contains many unique and different features. One of the most distinctive characteristics of the Tubulidentata is their teeth. Instead of having a pulp cavity, each tooth has a cluster of thin, hexagonal, upright, parallel


title: Aardvark content: tubes of vasodentin (a modified form of dentine), with individual pulp canals, held together by cementum. The number of columns is dependent on the size of the tooth, with the largest having about 1,500. The teeth have no enamel coating and are worn away and regrow continuously. The aardvark is born with conventional incisors and canines at the front of the jaw, which fall out and are not replaced. Adult aardvarks have only cheek teeth at the back of the jaw, and have a dental formula of: These remaining teeth are peg-like and rootless and are of unique composition. The


title: Aardvark content: teeth consist of 14 upper and 12 lower jaw molars. The nasal area of the aardvark is another unique area, as it contains ten nasal conchae, more than any other placental mammal. The sides of the nostrils are thick with hair. The tip of the snout is highly mobile and is moved by modified mimetic muscles. The fleshy dividing tissue between its nostrils probably has sensory functions, but it is uncertain whether they are olfactory or vibratory in nature. Its nose is made up of more turbinate bones than any other mammal, with between 9 and 11, compared to dogs


title: Aardvark content: with 4 to 5. With a large quantity of turbinate bones, the aardvark has more space for the moist epithelium, which is the location of the olfactory bulb. The nose contains nine olfactory bulbs, more than any other mammal. Its keen sense of smell is not just from the quantity of bulbs in the nose but also in the development of the brain, as its olfactory lobe is very developed. The snout resembles an elongated pig snout. The mouth is small and tubular, typical of species that feed on ants and termites. The aardvark has a long, thin, snakelike, protruding


title: Aardvark content: tongue (as much as long) and elaborate structures supporting a keen sense of smell. The ears, which are very effective, are disproportionately long, about long. The eyes are small for its head, and consist only of rods. The aardvark's stomach has a muscular pyloric area that acts as a gizzard to grind swallowed food up, thereby rendering chewing unnecessary. Its cecum is large. Both sexes emit a strong smelling secretion from an anal gland. Its salivary glands are highly developed and almost completely ring the neck; their output is what causes the tongue to maintain its tackiness. The female has


title: Aardvark content: two pairs of teats in the inguinal region. Genetically speaking, the aardvark is a living fossil, as its chromosomes are highly conserved, reflecting much of the early eutherian arrangement before the divergence of the major modern taxa. Aardvarks are found in sub-Saharan Africa, where suitable habitat (savannas, grasslands, woodlands and bushland) and food (i.e., ants and termites) is available. They spend the daylight hours in dark underground burrows to avoid the heat of the day. The only major habitat that they are not present in is swamp forest, as the high water table precludes digging to a sufficient depth. They


title: Aardvark content: also avoid terrain rocky enough to cause problems with digging. They have been documented as high as in Ethiopia. They are present throughout sub-Saharan Africa all the way to South Africa with few exceptions. These exceptions include the coastal areas of Namibia, Ivory Coast, and Ghana. They are not found in Madagascar. Aardvarks live for up to 23 years in captivity. Its keen hearing warns it of predators: lions, leopards, cheetahs, hunting dogs, hyenas, and pythons. Some humans also hunt aardvarks for meat. Aardvarks can dig fast or run in zigzag fashion to elude enemies, but if all else fails,


title: Aardvark content: they will strike with their claws, tail and shoulders, sometimes flipping onto their backs lying motionless except to lash out with all four feet. They are capable of causing substantial damage to unprotected areas of an attacker. They will also dig to escape as they can, when pressed, dig extremely quickly. The aardvark is nocturnal and is a solitary creature that feeds almost exclusively on ants and termites (myrmecophagy); the only fruit eaten by aardvarks is the aardvark cucumber. In fact, the cucumber and the aardvark have a symbiotic relationship as they eat the subterranean fruit, then defecate the seeds


title: Aardvark content: near their burrows, which then grow rapidly due to the loose soil and fertile nature of the area. The time spent in the intestine of the aardvark helps the fertility of the seed, and the fruit provides needed moisture for the aardvark. They avoid eating the African driver ant and red ants. Due to their stringent diet requirements, they require a large range to survive. An aardvark emerges from its burrow in the late afternoon or shortly after sunset, and forages over a considerable home range encompassing . While foraging for food, the aardvark will keep its nose to the


title: Aardvark content: ground and its ears pointed forward, which indicates that both smell and hearing are involved in the search for food. They zig-zag as they forage and will usually not repeat a route for 5–8 days as they appear to allow time for the termite nests to recover before feeding on it again. During a foraging period, they will stop and dig a "V" shaped trench with their forefeet and then sniff it profusely as a means to explore their location. When a concentration of ants or termites is detected, the aardvark digs into it with its powerful front legs, keeping


title: Aardvark content: its long ears upright to listen for predators, and takes up an astonishing number of insects with its long, sticky tongue—as many as 50,000 in one night have been recorded. Its claws enable it to dig through the extremely hard crust of a termite or ant mound quickly. It avoids inhaling the dust by sealing the nostrils. When successful, the aardvark's long (up to ) tongue licks up the insects; the termites' biting, or the ants' stinging attacks are rendered futile by the tough skin. After an aardvark visit at a termite mound, other animals will visit to pick up


title: Aardvark content: all the leftovers. Termite mounds alone don't provide enough food for the aardvark, so they look for termites that are on the move. When these insects move, they can form columns long and these tend to provide easy pickings with little effort exerted by the aardvark. These columns are more common in areas of livestock or other hoofed animals. The trampled grass and dung attract termites from Odontotermes, Microtermes, and Pseudacanthotermes genera. On a nightly basis they tend to be more active during the first portion of the night time (20:00-00:00); however, they don't seem to prefer bright or dark


title: Aardvark content: nights over the other. During adverse weather or if disturbed they will retreat to their burrow systems. They cover between per night; however, some studies have shown that they may traverse as far as in a night. The aardvark is a rather quiet animal. However, it does make soft grunting sounds as it forages and loud grunts as it makes for its tunnel entrance. It makes a bleating sound if frightened. When it is threatened it will make for one of its burrows. If one is not close it will dig a new one rapidly. This new one will be


title: Aardvark content: short and require the aardvark to back out when the coast is clear. The aardvark is known to be a good swimmer and has been witnessed successfully swimming in strong currents. It can dig a yard of tunnel in about five minutes, but otherwise moves fairly slowly. When leaving the burrow at night, they pause at the entrance for about ten minutes, sniffing and listening. After this period of watchfulness, it will bound out and within seconds it will be away. It will then pause, prick its ears, twisting its head to listen, then jump and move off to start


title: Aardvark content: foraging. Aside from digging out ants and termites, the aardvark also excavates burrows in which to live; of which they generally fall into three categories: burrows made while foraging, refuge and resting location, and permanent homes. Temporary sites are scattered around the home range and are used as refuges, while the main burrow is also used for breeding. Main burrows can be deep and extensive, have several entrances and can be as long as . These burrows can be large enough for a man to enter. The aardvark changes the layout of its home burrow regularly, and periodically moves on


title: Aardvark content: and makes a new one. The old burrows are an important part of the African wildlife scene. As they are vacated, then they are inhabited by smaller animals like the African wild dog, ant-eating chat, "Nycteris thebaica" and warthogs. Other animals that use them are hares, mongooses, hyenas, owls, pythons, and lizards. Without these refuges many animals would die during wildfire season. Only mothers and young share burrows; however, the aardvark is known to live in small family groups or as a solitary creature. If attacked in the tunnel, it will escape by digging out of the tunnel thereby placing


title: Aardvark content: the fresh fill between it and its predator, or if it decides to fight it will roll onto its back, and attack with its claws. The aardvark has been known to sleep in a recently excavated ant nest, which also serves as protection from its predators. Aardvarks pair only during the breeding season; after a gestation period of seven months, one cub weighing around is born during May–July. When born, the young has flaccid ears and many wrinkles. When nursing, it will nurse off each teat in succession. After two weeks, the folds of skin disappear and after three, the


title: Aardvark content: ears can be held upright. After 5–6 weeks, body hair starts growing. It is able to leave the burrow to accompany its mother after only two weeks and eats termites at 9 weeks, and is weaned between three months and 16 weeks. At six months of age, it is able to dig its own burrows, but it will often remain with the mother until the next mating season, and is sexually mature from approximately two years of age. Aardvarks were thought to have declining numbers, however, this is possibly due to the fact that they are not readily seen. There


title: Aardvark content: are no definitive counts because of their nocturnal and secretive habits; however, their numbers seem to be stable overall. They are not considered common anywhere in Africa, but due to their large range, they maintain sufficient numbers. There may be a slight decrease in numbers in eastern, northern, and western Africa. Southern African numbers are not decreasing. It receives an official designation from the IUCN as least concern. However, they are a species in a precarious situation, as they are so dependent on such specific food; therefore if a problem arises with the abundance of termites, the species as a


title: Aardvark content: whole would be affected drastically. Aardvarks handle captivity well. The first zoo to have one was London Zoo in 1869, which had an animal from South Africa. In African folklore, the aardvark is much admired because of its diligent quest for food and its fearless response to soldier ants. Hausa magicians make a charm from the heart, skin, forehead, and nails of the aardvark, which they then proceed to pound together with the root of a certain tree. Wrapped in a piece of skin and worn on the chest, the charm is said to give the owner the ability to


title: Aardvark content: pass through walls or roofs at night. The charm is said to be used by burglars and those seeking to visit young girls without their parents' permission. Also, some tribes, such as the Margbetu, Ayanda, and Logo, will use aardvark teeth to make bracelets, which are regarded as good luck charms. The meat, which has a resemblance to pork, is eaten in certain cultures. The Egyptian god Set is usually depicted with the head of an unidentified animal, whose similarity to an aardvark has been noted in scholarship. The titular character of "Arthur", an animated television series for children based


title: Aardvark content: on a book series and produced by WGBH, shown in more than 180 countries, is an aardvark. Otis the Aardvark was a puppet character used on Children's BBC programming. An aardvark features as the antagonist in the cartoon "The Ant and the Aardvark" as well as in the Canadian animated series "The Raccoons". In the military, the Air Force supersonic fighter-bomber F-111/FB-111 was nicknamed the Aardvark because of its long nose resembling the animal. It also had similarities with its nocturnal missions flown at a very low level employing ordnance that could penetrate deep into the ground. In the US


title: Aardvark content: Navy, the squadron VF-114 was nicknamed the Aardvarks, flying F-4s and then F-14s. The squadron mascot was adapted from the animal in the comic strip "B.C.", which the F-4 was said to resemble. Cerebus the Aardvark is a 300-issue comic book series by Dave Sim. Aardvark The aardvark ( ; "Orycteropus afer") is a medium-sized, burrowing, nocturnal mammal native to Africa. It is the only living species of the order Tubulidentata, although other prehistoric species and genera of Tubulidentata are known. Unlike other insectivores, it has a long pig-like snout, which is used to sniff out food. It roams over


title: ABBA content: into the mainstream international market with music by Andersson and Ulvaeus. "One day the pair of you will write a song that becomes a worldwide hit", he predicted. Stig Anderson encouraged Ulvaeus and Andersson to write a song for Melodifestivalen, and after two rejected entries in 1971, Andersson and Ulvaeus submitted their new song "Säg det med en sång" ("Say It with a Song") for the 1972 contest, choosing newcomer Lena Anderson to perform. The song came in third place, encouraging Stig Anderson, and became a hit in Sweden. The first signs of foreign success came as a surprise, as


title: Astatine content: than iodine, astatine is the least reactive of the halogens, although its compounds have been synthesized in microscopic amounts and studied as intensively as possible before their radioactive disintegration. The reactions involved have been typically tested with dilute solutions of astatine mixed with larger amounts of iodine. Acting as a carrier, the iodine ensures there is sufficient material for laboratory techniques (such as filtration and precipitation) to work. Like iodine, astatine has been shown to adopt odd-numbered oxidation states ranging from −1 to +7. Only a few compounds with metals have been reported, in the form of astatides of sodium,


title: "Abdul Alhazred" content: corruption of sorts on the phrase "All has read", to imply he has read much, and has immense amounts of knowledge. However Abdul is a common Arabic prefix meaning "Servant" and "Al" is Arabic for "the", and if "hazra" means "he prohibited", "he fenced in" or "Great Lord", then the name would mean "Servant of the Prohibited", "Servant of the Fenced in", or "Servant of the Great Lord" which would make sense considering his role, even if it is not a proper Arabic name. An explanation that is more in sync with Arabic usage and existing Sufi tradition is that


title: Accordion content: the concert virtuoso John Serry, Sr. During the 1950s through the 1980s the accordion received significant exposure on television with performances by Myron Floren on "The Lawrence Welk Show". In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the accordion declined in popularity due to the rise of rock and roll. The first accordionist to appear and perform at the Newport Jazz Festival was Angelo DiPippo. He can be seen playing his accordion in the motion picture "The Godfather". He also composed and performed with his accordion on part of the soundtrack of Woody Allen's movie "To Rome With Love". He was


title: Anglicanism content: of the Oxford Movement, there arose greater concern for reunion of the churches of "Catholic confession". This desire to work towards full communion with other denominations led to the development of the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral, approved by the third Lambeth Conference of 1888. The four points (the sufficiency of scripture, the historic creeds, the two dominical sacraments, and the historic episcopate) were proposed as a basis for discussion, although they have frequently been taken as a non-negotiable bottom-line for any form of reunion. Anglicanism in general has always sought a balance between the emphases of Catholicism and Protestantism, while tolerating a


title: "Agapanthus africanus" content: Agapanthus africanus Agapanthus africanus (African lily) is a flowering plant from the genus "Agapanthus" native to the area of Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. "A. africanus" is more difficult to grow in gardens than "A. praecox", and almost all plants sold as "A. africanus" are actually "A. praecox". It has a short stem bearing a tuft of long, narrow, arching leaves 10–35 cm long and 1–2 cm broad, and a central flower stalk 25–60 cm tall, ending in an umbel of 20-30 white, or bright blue, funnel-shaped flowers, each flower 2.5–5 cm diameter. It was introduced to Europe


title: "Agapanthus africanus" content: at the close of the 17th century. Unlike the more common "A. praecox", it is not generally suitable as a garden plant, and will not tolerate extended freezing temperatures. Agapanthus africanus Agapanthus africanus (African lily) is a flowering plant from the genus "Agapanthus" native to the area of Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. "A. africanus" is more difficult to grow in gardens than "A. praecox", and almost all plants sold as "A. africanus" are actually "A. praecox". It has a short stem bearing a tuft of long, narrow, arching leaves 10–35 cm long and 1–2 cm broad, and


title: "Ahmad Shah Durrani" content: and the Ishaqi (Black Mountain) faction. The Ishaqi defeated the Afaqi, which resulted in the Afaqi Khoja inviting the 5th Dalai Lama, the leader of the Tibetan Buddhists, to intervene on his behalf in 1677. The 5th Dalai Lama then called upon his Dzungar Buddhist followers in the Zunghar Khanate to act on this invitation. The Dzungar Khanate then conquered the Tarim Basin in 1680, setting up the Afaqi Khoja as their puppet ruler. Khoja Afaq asked the 5th Dalai Lama when he fled to Lhasa to help his Afaqi faction take control of the Tarim Basin (Kashgaria). The Dzungar


title: Ailanthus content: Ailanthus Ailanthus (; derived from "ailanto," an Ambonese word probably meaning "tree of the gods" or "tree of heaven") is a genus of trees belonging to the family Simaroubaceae, in the order Sapindales (formerly Rutales or Geraniales). The genus is native from east Asia south to northern Australasia. The number of living species is disputed, with some authorities accepting up to ten species, while others accept six or fewer. Species include: There is a good fossil record of "Ailanthus" with many species names based on their geographic occurrence, but almost all of these have very similar morphology and have been


title: Ailanthus content: grouped as a single species among the three species recognized: A silk spinning moth, the ailanthus silkmoth ("Samia cynthia"), lives on "Ailanthus" leaves, and yields a silk more durable and cheaper than mulberry silk, but inferior to it in fineness and gloss. This moth has been introduced to the eastern United States and is common near many towns; it is about 12 cm across, with angulated wings, and in color olive brown, with white markings. Other Lepidoptera whose larvae feed on "Ailanthus" include "Endoclita malabaricus". Ailanthus Ailanthus (; derived from "ailanto," an Ambonese word probably meaning "tree of the gods"


title: "Alaric I" content: most powerful weapon. When the ambassadors of the Senate, entreating for peace, tried to intimidate him with hints of what the despairing citizens might accomplish, he laughed and gave his celebrated answer: "The thicker the hay, the easier mowed!" After much bargaining, the famine-stricken citizens agreed to pay a ransom of 5,000 pounds of gold, 30,000 pounds of silver, 4,000 silken tunics, 3,000 hides dyed scarlet, and 3,000 pounds of pepper. Along came 40,000 freed Gothic slaves. Thus ended Alaric's first siege of Rome. The combined value of the gold and silver in pure coinage would have been worth 7000


title: "Ealdred (archbishop of York)" content: the Hungarians were strained, and the emperor was unable or unwilling to help Ealdred. Ealdred was able to discover that Edward was alive, and had a place at the Hungarian court. Although some sources state that Ealdred attended the coronation of Emperor Henry IV, this is not possible, as on the date that Henry was crowned, Ealdred was in England consecrating an abbot. Ealdred had returned to England by 1055, and brought with him a copy of the "Pontificale Romano-Germanicum", a set of liturgies, with him. An extant copy of this work, currently manuscript Cotton Vitellus E xii, has been


title: "Andrew Jackson" content: the New York Customs House; the Postal Service; the Departments of Navy and War; and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, whose budget had increased enormously in the previous two decades) proved to be difficult. Remini claims that because "friendship, politics, and geography constituted the President's total criteria for appointments, most of his appointments were predictably substandard." In 1828, Congress had approved the "Tariff of Abominations", which set the tariff at an historically high rate. Southern planters, who sold their cotton on the world market, strongly opposed this tariff, which they saw as favoring northern interests. The South now had to


title: Aberdeen content: former office of the Northern Assurance Company, and the National Bank of Scotland. In Castle Street, a continuation eastwards of Union Street, is the new Town House, a very prominent landmark in Aberdeen, built between 1868 and 1873 to a design by Peddie and Kinnear. Alexander Marshall Mackenzie's extension to Marischal College on Broad Street, opened by King Edward VII in 1906, created the second largest granite building in the world (after the Escorial, Madrid). In addition to the many fine landmark buildings, Aberdeen has many prominent public statues, three of the most notable being William Wallace at the junction


title: Aquaculture content: on naturally available food. Abalone have been farmed on an artificial reef consuming seaweed which grows naturally on the reef units. Integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) is a practice in which the byproducts (wastes) from one species are recycled to become inputs (fertilizers, food) for another. Fed aquaculture (for example, fish, shrimp) is combined with inorganic extractive and organic extractive (for example, shellfish) aquaculture to create balanced systems for environmental sustainability (biomitigation), economic stability (product diversification and risk reduction) and social acceptability (better management practices). "Multi-trophic" refers to the incorporation of species from different trophic or nutritional levels in the same


title: Autism content: impaired regulation of growth factor receptors. Also, some inborn errors of metabolism are associated with autism, but probably account for less than 5% of cases. The mirror neuron system (MNS) theory of autism hypothesizes that distortion in the development of the MNS interferes with imitation and leads to autism's core features of social impairment and communication difficulties. The MNS operates when an animal performs an action or observes another animal perform the same action. The MNS may contribute to an individual's understanding of other people by enabling the modeling of their behavior via embodied simulation of their actions, intentions, and


title: "International Atomic Time" content: using an Atomichron commercial atomic clock, followed by the NBS-A scale at the National Bureau of Standards, Boulder, Colorado on 9 October 1957. The International Time Bureau (BIH) began a time scale, T or AM, in July 1955, using both local caesium clocks and comparisons to distant clocks using the phase of VLF radio signals. The BIH scale, A.1, and NBS-A were defined by an epoch at the beginning of 1958 The procedures used by the BIH evolved, and the name for the time scale changed: "A3" in 1963 and "TA(BIH)" in 1969. The SI second was defined in terms


title: "Ayn Rand" content: the book's main character Lopuhov says "I am not a man to make sacrifices. And indeed there are no such things. One acts in the way that one finds most pleasant." Among the philosophers Rand held in particular disdain was Immanuel Kant, whom she referred to as a "monster", although philosophers George Walsh and Fred Seddon have argued that she misinterpreted Kant and exaggerated their differences. Rand said her most important contributions to philosophy were her "theory of concepts, [her] ethics, and [her] discovery in politics that evil—the violation of rights—consists of the initiation of force". She believed epistemology was


title: "Andrew II of Hungary" content: in 1208 after they were accused of participating in the murder of Philip, King of the Germans. Andrew granted large domains to Bishop Ekbert in the Szepesség region (now Spiš, Slovakia). Gertrude's youngest brother, Berthold, had been Archbishop of Kalocsa since 1206; he was made Ban of Croatia and Dalmatia in 1209. Andrew's generosity towards his wife's German relatives and courtiers discontented the local lords. According to historian Gyula Kristó, the anonymous author of "The Deeds of the Hungarians" referred to the Germans from the Holy Roman Empire when he sarcastically mentioned that " the Romans gaze on the goods


title: "Alexander Selkirk" content: Admiral authorising their armed merchant ships to attack foreign enemies as the War of the Spanish Succession was then going on between England and Spain. Dampier was captain of "St George" and Selkirk served on "Cinque Ports", "St George"s companion ship, as sailing master under Captain Thomas Stradling. By this time, Selkirk must have had considerable experience at sea. In February 1704, following a stormy passage around Cape Horn, the privateers fought a long battle with a well-armed French vessel, "St Joseph", only to have it escape to warn its Spanish allies of their arrival in the Pacific. A raid


title: "Approval voting" content: explicitly know all their choices. The Yes/No format can help to detect an "undervote" when a candidate is left unmarked and allow the voter a second chance to confirm the ballot markings are correct. The "single bubble" format is incapable of producing invalid ballots (which might otherwise be rejected in counting). Unless the second or fourth format is used, fraudulently adding votes to an approval voting ballot does not invalidate the ballot (that is, it does not make it appear inconsistent). Thus, approval voting raises the importance of ensuring that the "chain of custody" of ballots is secure. Approval voting


title: "Art Deco" content: Ruhlmann and Paul Foliot refused to use mass production, and insisted that each piece be made individually by hand. The early art deco style featured luxurious and exotic materials such as ebony, and ivory and silk, very bright colors and stylized motifs, particularly baskets and bouquets of flowers of all colors, giving a modernist look. The Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (1910–1913), by Auguste Perret was the first landmark Art Deco building completed in Paris. Previously reinforced concrete had been used only for industrial and apartment buildings, Perret had built the first modern reinforced concrete apartment building in Paris on rue Benjamin


title: "Art Deco" content: Salon of 1912. The rules of the Salon indicated that only modern styles would be permitted. All of the major French furniture designers took part in Salon: Paul Follot, Paul Iribe, Maurice Dufrene, André Groult, André Mare and Louis Suë took part, presenting new works that updated the traditional French styles of Louis XVI and Louis Philippe with more angular corners inspired by Cubism and brighter colors inspired by Fauvism and the Nabis. The painter André Mare and furniture designer Louis Suë both participated the 1912 Salon. After the war the two men joined together to form their own company,


title: Ampicillin content: activity is enhanced by co-administration of sulbactam, a drug that inhibits beta lactamase, an enzyme produced by bacteria to inactivate ampicillin and related antibiotics. It is sometimes used in combination with other antibiotics that have different mechanisms of action, like vancomycin, linezolid, daptomycin, and tigecycline. Ampicillin can be administered by mouth, an intramuscular injection (shot) or by intravenous infusion. The oral form, available as capsules or oral suspensions, is not given as an initial treatment for severe infections, but rather as a follow-up to an IM or IV injection. For IV and IM injections, ampicillin is kept as a powder


title: "Argo Navis" content: Lacaille's designations were kept in the three separate constellations, so Carina has α, β and ε, Vela has γ and δ, Puppis has ζ, and so on. As a result of this breakup, Argo Navis is the only one of the 48 constellations listed by Ptolemy in his "Almagest" that is no longer officially recognized as a single constellation. In addition, the constellation Pyxis (the mariner's compass) occupies an area near that which in antiquity was considered part of Argo's mast. Some authors state that Pyxis was part of the Greek conception of Argo Navis, but magnetic compasses were unknown


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz concentration camp was a network of concentration and extermination camps built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It consisted of (the original concentration camp), Auschwitz II–Birkenau (a combined concentration/extermination camp), (a labor camp to staff an IG Farben factory), and 45 satellite camps. Auschwitz I was first constructed to hold Polish political prisoners, who began to arrive in May 1940. The first extermination of prisoners took place in September 1941. Auschwitz II–Birkenau went on to become a major site of the Nazis' Final Solution to the Jewish Question during the


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: Holocaust. From early 1942 until late 1944, transport trains delivered Jews to the camp's gas chambers from all over German-occupied Europe, where they were killed en masse with the cyanide-based poison Zyklon B, originally developed to be used as a pesticide. An estimated 1.3 million people were sent to the camp, of whom at least 1.1 million died. Around 90 percent of those were Jews; approximately one in six Jews killed in the Holocaust died at the camp. Others deported to Auschwitz included 150,000 Poles, 23,000 Romani and Sinti, 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war, 400 Jehovah's Witnesses, and tens of


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: thousands of others of diverse nationalities, including an unknown number of homosexuals. Many of those not killed in the gas chambers died of starvation, forced labor, infectious diseases, individual executions, and medical experiments. In the course of the war, the camp was staffed by 7,000 members of the German "Schutzstaffel" (SS), approximately 12 percent of whom were later convicted of war crimes. Some, including camp commandant Rudolf Höss, were executed. The Allied Powers did not act on early reports of atrocities at the camp, and their failure to bomb the camp or its railways remains controversial. At least 802 prisoners


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: attempted to escape from Auschwitz, 144 successfully, and on 7 October 1944 two "Sonderkommando" units, consisting of prisoners assigned to staff the gas chambers, launched a brief, unsuccessful uprising. As Soviet troops approached Auschwitz in January 1945, most of its population was sent west on a death march. The prisoners remaining at the camp were liberated on 27 January 1945, a day now commemorated as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. In the following decades, survivors such as Primo Levi, Viktor Frankl, and Elie Wiesel wrote memoirs of their experiences in Auschwitz, and the camp became a dominant symbol of the Holocaust.


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: In 1947 Poland founded the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum on the site of Auschwitz I and II, and in 1979 it was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The ideology of Nazism brought together elements of antisemitism, racial hygiene, and eugenics, and combined them with pan-Germanism and territorial expansionism with the goal of obtaining more "Lebensraum" (living space) for the Germanic people. Immediately after the Nazi seizure of power in Germany, acts of violence perpetrated against Jews became ubiquitous. The Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service, passed on 7 April 1933 excluded most Jews from the legal


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: profession and the civil service. Similar legislation soon deprived Jewish members of other professions of the right to practise. Harassment and economic pressure were used by the regime to encourage Jews to leave the country voluntarily. Their businesses were denied access to markets, forbidden to advertise in newspapers, and deprived of government contracts. German Jews were subjected to violent attacks and boycotts. In September 1935, the Nuremberg Laws were enacted. These laws prohibited marriages between Jews and people of Germanic extraction, extramarital relations between Jews and Germans, and the employment of German women under the age of 45 as domestic


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: servants in Jewish households. The Reich Citizenship Law stated that only those of Germanic or related blood were defined as citizens. Thus Jews and other minority groups were stripped of their German citizenship. The laws were expanded on 26 November 1935 to include Romani people and Afro-Germans. This supplementary decree defined Gypsies as "enemies of the race-based state", the same category as Jews. By the start of World War II in 1939, around 250,000 of Germany's 437,000 Jews had emigrated to the United States, Palestine, the United Kingdom, and other countries. Nazi Germany invaded Poland in September 1939. German dictator


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: Adolf Hitler ordered that the Polish leadership and intelligentsia be destroyed. Approximately 65,000 civilians, who were viewed as being inferior to the Aryan master race, were killed by the end of 1939. In addition to leaders of Polish society, the Nazis killed Jews, prostitutes, Romani, and the mentally ill. SS-"Obergruppenführer" Reinhard Heydrich, then head of the Gestapo, ordered on 21 September that Polish Jews should be rounded up and concentrated into cities with good rail links. Initially the intention was to deport the Jews to points further east, or possibly to Madagascar. Two years later, in an attempt to obtain


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: new territory, Hitler invaded the Soviet Union, intending to deport or kill the Jews and Slavs living there. After this part of Poland was annexed by Nazi Germany, Oświęcim (Auschwitz) was located administratively in Germany, Province of Upper Silesia, Regierungsbezirk Kattowitz, Landkreis Bielitz. It was first suggested as a site for a concentration camp for Polish prisoners by "SS-Oberführer" Arpad Wigand, an aide to Higher SS and Police Leader for Silesia, Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski. Bach-Zelewski had been searching for a site to house prisoners in the Silesia region, as the local prisons were filled to capacity. Richard Glücks, head


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: of the Concentration Camps Inspectorate, sent former Sachsenhausen concentration camp commandant Walter Eisfeld to inspect the site, which already held sixteen dilapidated one-story buildings that had once served as an Austrian and later Polish Army barracks and a camp for transient workers. "Reichsführer-SS" Heinrich Himmler, head of the "Schutzstaffel" (SS), approved the site in April 1940, intending to use the facility to house political prisoners. SS-"Obersturmbannführer" (lieutenant colonel) Rudolf Höss oversaw the development of the camp and served as the first commandant. SS-"Obersturmführer" (senior lieutenant) Josef Kramer was appointed Höss's deputy. Auschwitz I, the original camp, became the administrative center


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: for the whole complex. Local residents were evicted, including 1,200 people who lived in shacks around the barracks. Around 300 Jewish residents of Oświęcim were brought in to lay foundations. From 1940 to 1941, 17,000 Polish and Jewish residents of the western districts of Oświęcim were expelled from places adjacent to the camp. The Germans also ordered expulsions of Poles from the villages of Broszkowice, Babice, Brzezinka, Rajsko, Pławy, Harmęże, Bór, and Budy to the General Government. German citizens were offered tax concessions and other benefits if they would relocate to the area. By October 1943, more than 6,000 Reich


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: Germans had arrived. The Nazis planned to build a model modern residential area for incoming Germans, including schools, playing fields, and other amenities. Some of the plans went forward, including the construction of several hundred apartments, but many were never fully implemented. Basic amenities such as water and sewage disposal were inadequate, and water-borne illnesses were commonplace. The first prisoners (30 German criminal prisoners from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp) arrived in May 1940, intended to act as functionaries within the prison system. The first mass transport to Auschwitz concentration camp, which included Catholic prisoners, suspected members of the resistance, and


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: 20 Jews, arrived from the prison in Tarnów, Poland, on 14 June 1940. They were interned in the former building of the Polish Tobacco Monopoly, adjacent to the site, until the camp was ready. The inmate population grew quickly as the camp absorbed Poland's intelligentsia and dissidents, including the Polish underground resistance. By March 1941, 10,900 were imprisoned there, most of them Poles. By the end of 1940, the SS had confiscated land in the surrounding area to create a "zone of interest" surrounded by a double ring of electrified barbed wire fences and watchtowers. Like other Nazi concentration camps,


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: the gates to Auschwitz I displayed the motto "Arbeit macht frei" ("Work brings freedom"). The victories of Operation Barbarossa in the summer and fall of 1941 against Hitler's new enemy, the Soviet Union, led to dramatic changes in Nazi anti-Jewish ideology and the profile of prisoners brought to Auschwitz. Construction on Auschwitz II-Birkenau began in October 1941 to ease congestion at the main camp. "Reichsführer-SS" Heinrich Himmler, head of the "Schutzstaffel" (SS), intended the camp to house 50,000 prisoners of war, who would be interned as forced laborers. Plans called for the expansion of the camp first to house 150,000


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: and eventually as many as 200,000 inmates. An initial contingent of 10,000 Soviet prisoners of war arrived at Auschwitz I in October 1941, but by March 1942 only 945 were still alive, and these were transferred to Birkenau, where most of them died from disease or starvation by May. By this time the Nazis had decided to annihilate the Jewish people, so Birkenau was changed to a labor camp–extermination camp. The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum estimates that 1.3 million people, 1.1 million of them Jewish, were sent to the camp during its existence. The chief of construction of Auschwitz II-Birkenau


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: was Karl Bischoff. Unlike his predecessor, he was a competent and dynamic bureaucrat who, in spite of the ongoing war, carried out the construction deemed necessary. The Birkenau camp, the four crematoria, a new reception building, and hundreds of other buildings were planned and constructed. Bischoff's plans called for each barrack to have an occupancy of 550 prisoners (one-third of the space allotted in other Nazi concentration camps). He later changed this to 744 prisoners per barrack. The SS designed the barracks not so much to house people as to destroy them. The first gas chamber at Birkenau was the


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: "red house" (called Bunker 1 by SS staff), a brick cottage converted into a gassing facility by tearing out the inside and bricking up the windows. It was operational by March 1942. A second brick cottage, the "white house" or Bunker 2, was converted some weeks later. These structures were in use for mass killings until early 1943. Himmler visited the camp in person on 17 and 18 July 1942. He was given a demonstration of a mass killing using the gas chamber in Bunker 2 and toured the building site of the new IG Farben plant being constructed at


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: the nearby town of Monowitz. In early 1943, the Nazis decided to greatly increase the gassing capacity of Birkenau. Crematorium II, which had been designed as a mortuary with morgues in the basement and ground-level incinerators, was converted into a killing factory by installing gas-tight doors, vents for the Zyklon B (a highly lethal cyanide-based poison) to be dropped into the chamber, and ventilation equipment to remove the gas thereafter. It went into operation in March. Crematorium III was built using the same design. Crematoria IV and V, designed from the start as gassing centers, were also constructed that spring.


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: By June 1943, all four crematoria were operational. Most of the victims were killed using these four structures. A separate camp for Roma known as the "Zigeunerfamilienlager" (Gypsy Family Camp) was set up at Auschwitz II-Birkenau; unlike other arrivals, the Romani prisoners were not subject to selection and families were allowed to remain together. The first transport of German Gypsies arrived on 26 February 1943, and was housed in Section B-IIe of Auschwitz II. Approximately 23,000 Gypsies had been brought to Auschwitz by 1944, 20,000 of whom died there. One transport of 1,700 Polish Sinti and Roma were killed in


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: the gas chambers upon arrival, as they were suspected to be ill with spotted fever. Gypsy prisoners were used primarily for construction work. Thousands died of typhus and noma due to overcrowding, poor sanitary conditions, and malnutrition. Between 1,400 and 3,000 prisoners were transferred to other concentration camps. On 2 August 1944, the SS cleared the Gypsy camp; the surviving population (estimated at 2,897 to 5,600) was then killed en masse in the gas chambers. The Theresienstadt family camp, which existed between September 1943 and July 1944, served a different purpose. The SS deported 17,500 Jews from Theresienstadt concentration camp


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: to Auschwitz, but allowed them to remain alive temporarily and send letters to friends and relatives to cast doubt on reports of the Final Solution, both at Theresienstadt and in the wider world. On 8 March 1944, the remaining Jews from the first two transports in September were murdered; this was the largest massacre of Czechoslovak citizens in history. News of the liquidation reached the Czechoslovak government-in-exile which initiated diplomatic manoeuvers to save the remaining Jews. However, after the Red Cross visited Theresienstadt in June 1944 and concluded that no Jews were deported from Theresienstadt, about 3,500 Jews were removed


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: from the family camp to other sections of Auschwitz. The remaining 6,500 were murdered in the gas chambers between 10 and 12 July 1944. After examining several sites for a new plant to manufacture buna, a type of synthetic rubber essential to the war effort, chemicals manufacturer IG Farben chose a site near the towns of Dwory and Monowice (Monowitz in German), about east of Auschwitz I and east of the town of Oświęcim. Financial support in the form of tax exemptions was available to corporations prepared to develop industries in the frontier regions under the Eastern Fiscal Assistance Law,


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: passed in December 1940. In addition to its proximity to the concentration camp, which could be used as a source of cheap labor, the site had good railway connections and access to raw materials. In February 1941, Himmler ordered that the Jewish population of Oświęcim should be expelled to make way for skilled laborers that would be brought in to work at the plant. All Poles able to work were to remain in the town and were forced to work building the factory. Himmler visited in person in March and decreed an immediate expansion of the parent camp to house


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: 30,000 persons. Development of the camp at Birkenau began about six months later. Construction of IG Auschwitz began in April, with an initial force of 1,000 workers from Auschwitz I assigned to work on the construction. This number increased to 7,000 in 1943 and 11,000 in 1944. Over the course of its history, about 35,000 inmates in total worked at the plant; 25,000 died as a result of malnutrition, disease, and the physically impossible workload. In addition to the concentration camp inmates, who comprised a third of the work force, IG Auschwitz employed slave laborers from all over Europe. At


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: first, the laborers walked the seven kilometers from Auschwitz I to the plant each day, but as this meant they had to rise at 03:00, many arrived exhausted and unable to work. The camp at Monowitz (also called Monowitz-Buna or Auschwitz III) was constructed and began housing inmates on 30 October 1942, the first concentration camp to be financed and built by private industry. In January 1943 the "ArbeitsausbildungLager" (labor education camp) was moved from the parent camp to Monowitz. These prisoners were also forced to work on the building site. The SS charged IG Farben three Reichsmarks per hour


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: for unskilled workers, four for skilled workers. Although the camp administrators expected the prisoners to work at 75 percent of the capacity of a free worker, the inmates were only able to perform 20 to 50 percent as well. Site managers constantly threatened inmates with transportation to Birkenau for death in the gas chambers as a way to try to increase productivity. Deaths and transfers to the gas chambers at Birkenau reduced the prisoner population of Monowitz by nearly a fifth each month; numbers were made up with new arrivals. Life expectancy of inmates at Monowitz averaged about three months.


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: Though the factory had been expected to begin production in 1943, shortages of labor and raw materials meant start-up had to be postponed repeatedly. The plant was almost ready to commence production when it was overrun by Soviet troops in 1945. Various other German industrial enterprises, such as Krupp and Siemens-Schuckert, built factories with their own subcamps. There were 45 such satellite camps, 28 of which served corporations involved in the armaments industry. Prisoner populations ranged from several dozen to several thousand. Subcamps were built at Blechhammer, Jawiszowice, Jaworzno, Lagisze, Mysłowice, Trzebinia, and other centers as far afield as the


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Satellite camps were designated as "Aussenlager" (external camp), "Nebenlager" (extension or subcamp), or "Arbeitslager" (labor camp). Industries with satellite camps included coal mines, foundries and other metal works, chemical plants, and other industries. Prisoners were also made to work in forestry and farming. Budy was a farming subcamp where prisoners worked 12-hour days, often in the fields, but sometimes tending animals, cleaning ponds, digging ditches, and making compost. Human ashes from the crematorium were mixed with sod and manure to make the compost. The prisoner barracks at Budy also housed workers from nearby work sites,


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: like the fish farm in Plawy. Meals at the worksite included herbal tea and a piece of bread with margarine or jam. The evening meal was a soup of rutabaga, rye, and nettles. Incidents of sabotage to decrease production took place in some subcamps, including Charlottengrube, Gleiwitz II, and Rajsko. In mid-1944, about 130,000 prisoners were present in Auschwitz when the SS started to move about half of them to other concentration camps. In November 1944, with the Soviet Red Army approaching through Poland, Himmler ordered gassing operations to cease across the Reich. The crematorium IV building was dismantled, and


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: the "Sonderkommando" were ordered to begin removing evidence of the killings, including the mass graves. The SS destroyed written records, and in the final week before the camp's liberation, burned or demolished many of its buildings. The plundered goods from the 'Canada' barracks at Birkenau together with building supplies were transported to the German interior. On 20 January, the overflowing warehouses were set ablaze. On the same day, the gas chambers as well as crematoria II and III at Birkenau were blown up. The raging fires lasted for several days. On 26 January 1945, the last crematorium V at Birkenau


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: was demolished with explosives just one day ahead of the Soviet attack. Himmler ordered the evacuation of all camps in January 1945, charging camp commanders with "making sure that not a single prisoner from the concentration camps falls alive into the hands of the enemy." On 17 January, 56,000–58,000 Auschwitz detainees, of whom two-thirds were Jews, were evacuated under guard, largely on foot, in severe winter conditions. Thousands of them died in the subsequent death march west towards Wodzisław Śląski. The guards shot all prisoners who were unable to march at the imposed pace. Peter Longerich estimates that a quarter


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: of the detainees were thus killed. A column of inmates reached Gross-Rosen concentration camp complex. Throughout February, the terribly overcrowded main camp at Gross-Rosen was cleared, and all 44,000 inmates were moved further west. An unknown number died in this last journey. In March 1945, Himmler ordered that no more prisoners should be killed, as he hoped to use them as hostages in negotiations with the Allies. Approximately 20,000 Auschwitz prisoners made it to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany, where they were liberated by the British in April 1945. When Auschwitz was liberated on 27 January 1945 by the 322nd


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: Rifle Division of the Red Army, the soldiers found 7,500 prisoners alive and over 600 corpses. Among items found by the Soviet soldiers were 370,000 men's suits, 837,000 women's garments, and of human hair. The camp's liberation received little press attention at the time. In historian Laurence Rees' opinion, this was due to three factors: the previous discovery of similar crimes at Majdanek concentration camp, competing news from the Allied summit at Yalta, and the Soviet Union's interest, for propaganda purposes, in minimizing attention to Jewish suffering. Due to the vast extent of the camp area, at least four divisions


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: took part in liberating the camp: 100th Rifle Division (established in Vologda, Russia), 322nd Rifle Division (Gorky, Russia), 286th Rifle Division (Leningrad), and 107th Motor Rifle Division (Tambov, Russia). Auschwitz II-Birkenau was liberated by the Red Army at around 3:30 p.m. on 27 January 1945, and the main camp (Auschwitz I) two hours later. Military trucks loaded with bread arrived the next day. Volunteers began to offer first aid and improvised assistance the following week. In early February, the Polish Red Cross hospital opened in blocks 14, 21, and 22 at Auschwitz I, headed by Dr. Józef Bellert and staffed


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: by 30 volunteer doctors and nurses from Kraków, along with around 90 former inmates. The critically injured patients – estimated at several thousands – were relocated from Birkenau and Monowitz to the main camp. Some orphaned children were immediately adopted by Oświęcim residents, while others were transferred to Kraków, where a number of them were adopted by Polish families. Others were placed in an orphanage at Harbutowice. The hospital cared for more than 4,500 patients (most of them Jews) from 20 countries, suffering from starvation, alimentary dystrophy, gangrene, necrosis, internal haemorrhaging, and typhoid fever. At least 500 patients died. Assistance


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: was provided by volunteers from Oświęcim and Brzeszcze, who donated money and food, cleaned hospital rooms, delivered water, washed patients, cooked meals, buried the dead, and transported the sick in horse-drawn carts between locations. Securing enough food for thousands of former prisoners was a constant challenge. The hospital director personally went from village to village to collect milk. In June 1945 the Soviet authorities took over Auschwitz I and converted it to a POW camp for German prisoners. The hospital had to move beyond the camp perimeter into former administrative buildings, where it functioned until October 1945. Early on, many


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: barracks at Birkenau were taken apart by civilians who used the materials to rebuild their own homes, levelled out in the construction of Auschwitz II. The poorest residents sifted the crematoria ashes in search of nuggets from melted gold, before the warning shots were fired. The POW camp for the German prisoners of war was used by the Soviet NKVD until 1947. In the two years, the Soviets dismantled and exported the IG Farben factories to the USSR. Meanwhile, Soviet and Polish investigators worked to document the war crimes of the SS. After the site became a museum in 1947,


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: exhumation work lasted for more than a decade. Antoni Dobrowolski, the oldest known survivor of Auschwitz, died aged 108 on 21 October 2012, in Dębno, Poland. Camp commandant Rudolf Höss was pursued by the British Intelligence Corps, who arrested him at a farm near Flensburg, Germany, on 11 March 1946. Höss confessed to his role in the mass killings at Auschwitz in his memoirs and in his trial before the Supreme National Tribunal in Warsaw, Poland. He was convicted of murder, returned to Auschwitz and hanged at the site of his crimes on 16 April 1947. Around 12 percent of


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: Auschwitz's 6,500 staff who survived the war were eventually brought to trial. Poland was more active than other nations in investigating war crimes, prosecuting 673 of the total 789 Auschwitz staff brought to trial. On 25 November 1947, the Auschwitz Trial began in Kraków, when Poland's Supreme National Tribunal brought to court 40 former Auschwitz staff. The trial's defendants included commandant Arthur Liebehenschel, women's camp leader Maria Mandel, and camp leader Hans Aumeier. The trials ended on 22 December 1947, with 23 death sentences, 7 life sentences, and 9 prison sentences ranging from three to fifteen years. Hans Münch, an


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: SS doctor who had several former prisoners testify on his behalf, was the only person to be acquitted. Other former staff were hanged for war crimes in the Dachau Trials and the Belsen Trial, including camp leaders Josef Kramer, Franz Hössler, and Vinzenz Schöttl; doctor Friedrich Entress; and guards Irma Grese and Elisabeth Volkenrath. The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials, held in West Germany from 20 December 1963 to 20 August 1965, convicted 17 of 22 defendants, giving them prison sentences ranging from life to three years and three months. Bruno Tesch and Karl Weinbacher, the owner and the chief executive officer


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: of the firm Tesch & Stabenow, one of the suppliers of Zyklon B, were executed for knowingly supplying the chemical for use on humans. Camp guards were members of the "SS-Totenkopfverbände" (Death's Head Units). Around 7,000 SS personnel in total were posted to Auschwitz during the war. Of these, 4 percent of SS personnel were officers and 26 percent were non-commissioned officers, while the remainder were rank-and-file members. Approximately three in four SS personnel worked in security. Others worked in the medical or political departments, in the camp headquarters, or in the economic administration, which was responsible for the property


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: of dead prisoners. SS personnel at the camp included 200 women, who worked as guards, nurses, or messengers. The overall command authority for the entire camp was Department D (the Concentration Camps Inspectorate) of the "SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt" (SS Economics Main Office; SS-WVHA). Auschwitz was considered a comfortable posting by many SS members, due to its many amenities and the abundance of slave labor. Of the various prisoner groups, SS officers preferred Jehovah's Witnesses for household slaves because of their nonviolent behavior. Höss lived with his wife and children in a villa just outside the camp grounds. Other SS personnel were also


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: initially allowed to bring fiancees, wives, and children to live at the camp, but when the SS camp grew more crowded, Höss restricted further arrivals. Facilities for the SS personnel and their families included a library, swimming pool, coffee house, and a theater that hosted regular performances. Some prisoners—usually Aryan—were assigned positions of authority, such as "Blockschreiber" ("block clerk"), "Funktionshäftling" ("functionary"), "Kapo" ("head" or "overseer"), and "Stubendienst" ("barracks orderly"). They were considered members of the camp elite, and had better food and lodgings than the other prisoners. The "Kapos" in particular wielded tremendous power over other prisoners, whom they often


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: abused. Very few "Kapos" were prosecuted after the war, due to the difficulty in determining which "Kapo" atrocities had been performed under SS orders and which had been individual actions. About 120 SS personnel were assigned to the gas chambers and lived on site at the crematoria. Several SS personnel oversaw the killings at each gas chamber, while the bulk of the work was done by the mostly Jewish prisoners known as "Sonderkommandos" (special squads). "Sonderkommando" responsibilities included guiding victims to the gas chambers and removing, looting, and cremating the corpses. The "Sonderkommando" were housed separately from other prisoners, in


title: "Auschwitz concentration camp" content: somewhat better conditions. Their quality of life was further improved by access to the goods taken from murdered prisoners, which "Sonderkommandos" were sometimes able to steal for themselves and to trade on Auschwitz's black market. Hungarian doctor Miklós Nyiszli reported that the "Sonderkommando" numbered around 860 prisoners when the Hungarian Jews were being killed in 1944. Many "Sonderkommandos" committed suicide due to the horrors of their work; those who did not generally were shot by the SS in a matter of weeks, and new "Sonderkommando" units were then formed from incoming transports. Almost none of the 2,000 prisoners placed in