Category: N

Leading parapsychological organization in the Netherlands. The Nederlandse Vereniging Voor Parapsychologie (Dutch Society for Parapyschology NWP) was formed in 1960 as a result of an internal controversy in the studievereniging voor psychical research (SVPR). In the early decades of the 20th century, the Netherlands had been the single most-receptive country in continental Europe to the…

A theory of the formation of the Sun’s planetary system advanced by Pierre Simon Laplace (1749-1827) in his Exposition du Systeme du Monde (1796). He theorized that gravity would condense a rotating disc of matter with most of its mass near the center into a massive central body and a number of much smaller orbiting…

An increasingly extreme racial policy that was carried out by the Nazi regime (1933-45), culminating in genocide. Nazi ideologists produced a coherent and systematic body of thought that drew on a number of older racist themes. Right-wing political theory had earlier emphasized the dangers of mixing the blood of different races. The Aryan race, which…

Amazing ancient tableau of gigantic figures and lines drawn on the desert floor about 402 kilo meters (250 miles) southwest of Lima, Peru; brought to prominence with the 1970 publication of Erich Von Daniken’s best-selling book Chariots of the Gods? The several hundred drawings of birds, animals, humans, geometric shapes, and straight lines cover about…

The belief that religious knowledge can be obtained by human reason by working upon information gained by observing the world and all its wonders, as opposed to the more usual revelation by faith or reading the Scriptures. It was Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-74) who formulated the distinction between natural and revealed theology, as opposed the…

The concept that there is a system of justice inherent in the world that is more certain, more just, and superior to the written laws of any society, which are always specific to time and place and made by imperfect human beings, and therefore fallible. The idea that there is an objectively discoverable set of…

A wound in which the surface of the skin remains intact.  

The removal of nitrogen from the body by breathing either 100% oxygen or a combination of oxygen and helium. Used to measure total lung capacity.  

A calicivirus that is the causative organism in over half of the reported cases of epidemic viral gastroenteropathy. It commonly causes nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. The incubation period ranges from 18 to 72 hr. Outbreaks are usually self-limited. Intestinal signs and symptoms last for 24 to 48 hr. Treatment, if required, is supportive and directed…

A member of the family of paramyxoviruses that can cause outbreaks of encephalitis and respiratory disease in humans. It is transmitted to humans from infected swine (e.g., in slaughterhouses). The pathogen responsible for causing nipah disease and nipah encephalitis is referred to as the “nipah virus.”