Category: Z

“The living dead,” or zombie cadavre; people supposedly raised from the dead by Voodoo (vodun) houngans (priests) or bokors (evil sorcerers) and used as slaves. Thanks to horror novels and movies, zombies have become a part of Western folklore. They originated, however, in Haitian Voodoo belief and are not a part of Voodoo belief in…

Remains of a medieval native civilization in southeast Africa. In 1871, German explorer Karl Mauch (1837-75) set out on an expedition from South Africa. He was heading north, looking for the fabled city of Ophir, perhaps the home of the Queen of Sheba or the site of King Solomon’s Mines. However, Mauch was less interested…

Deck of cards developed for research in extrasensory perception (ESP). The cards were designed by Karl E. Zener, a colleague of Joseph Banks Rhine at Duke University’s Department of Psychology in the 1930s. Rhine had developed ESP tests using cards but ran into a number of methodological problems. He asked Zener, who had done special…

Refers popularly to a tradition of Buddhism and, more literally, to the meditation practiced in this tradition as the primary means of attaining enlightenment, which is the objective shared by all traditions of Buddhism. Although all schools and traditions of Buddhism value introspection and spirituality, the Zen school is unique in the unusual emphasis that…

The area in a petri dish that has been cleared of pathogens by a substance being tested. The larger the zone, the greater the inhibitory properties of the test substance.  

The science of fermentation.  

A sterol obtained from yeast.  

An anticomplement obtained from the walls of yeast cells.    

Any protein that also functions as an enzyme.  

Causing a reaction catalyzed by an enzyme.