Category: W
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Well-hung meat
When the term well-hung first appeared in English, it was applied to people with large, pendulous organs—men with big ears, for example. By the late nineteenth century, however, well-hung came to be applied to another kind of meat, that which is slaughtered and then hung for a time in a cool, dry room to improve…
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Wedding cake
The customs surrounding wedding cakes are among the strangest that have ever developed. In the Vendee, a coastal region on the Bay of Biscay, the parents of the bridal couple traditionally purchase the largest wedding cake imaginable—sometimes weighing eighty pounds—and then have it borne into the banquet hall by attendants who fulfill their part of…
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Watermelon
Before it acquired its current name in the early seventeenth century, the watermelon was known as citrul or pasteque. The older of these words was citrul, which originated in the fourteenth century and did not fade into oblivion until the mid eighteenth century; it derived, through French and Italian, from the Latin citrus, the connection…
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Walnut
Whereas we throw rice over a newly married couple to assure their fertility, it was once a custom in ancient Rome for the bride and groom to throw walnuts at children, not because the children were brawling and ruining the wedding party, but rather to represent the casting off of the newlyweds’ childish natures. It…
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World trade organization (WTO)
The international organization composed of the more than 100 nations that signed the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which was WTO’s predecessor body. WTO permits signatory countries to ban specific imports from other countries in order to protect the health of humans, animals, or plants. Such import bans are allowed based on the…
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Wobble
The ability of the third base in a tRNA (transfer RNA) anticodon to hydrogen bond with any of two or three bases at the 3′ end of a codon. This wobble (nonspecificity) allows a single tRNA species to recognize several different codons.
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Wild type
The normal form of an organism as it is ordinarily encountered in nature. In contrast to natural mutant or laboratory mutant individuals (organisms). One example of a measurable difference between the two types is that wild strains of animals respond to the presence of EMF fields (e.g., weak magnetic fields such as those generated near…
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Whiskers
A trademarked method for inserting DNA into plant cells, so that those plant cells will then incorporate that new DNA and express the protein(s) coded-for by that DNA. Developed by ICI Seeds Inc. (Garst Seed Company) in 1993, Whiskers is an alternative to other methods of inserting DNA into plant cells (e.g., the Biolistic® Gene…
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Wheat take-all disease
A fungal disease that attacks wheat (Triticum aestivum) plant roots, and causes dry rot and premature death of the plant. Certain strains of Brassica plants and Pseudomonas bacteria act as natural antifungal agents against the wheat take-all fungus.
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Western blot test
A test that is performed on blood (after centrifugation to remove red blood cells from the blood) to detect AIDS antibodies individually. Gel electrophoresis is used to separate the AIDS antigen proteins of killed (known) AIDS viruses. Next the protein bands (resulting from the gel electrophoresis) are exposed to the blood being tested and (AIDS)…