High-level computer programming language. Developed by Bjarne Stroustrup of Bell Laboratories in the early 1980s, it is traditional C language with added object-oriented programming capabilities. C++, along with Java, has become popular fo...

Cyril Dean Darlington's research and writing centered on chromosomes, genes, and the process of meiosis. Darlington's work on chromosomes helped shape the understanding of how evolution is dependent upon the concepts of hereditary mechanis...

Chakravarti Rajagopalachari (1879-1972) was a prominent Indian nationalist leader, first Indian governor general of his country, and founder of the Swatantra party. He also wrote a popular version of the "Mahabharata." Chakravarti Rajagopa...

American sociologist and political polemicist C. Wright Mills (1916-1962) argued that the academic elite has a moral duty to lead the way to a better society by actively indoctrinating the masses with values. On Aug. 28, 1916, C. Wright Mi...

In the 1960s, two Australian scientists, M.D. Hatch and C.R. Slack described a new pathway for carbon fixation in photosynthesis. The Hatch-Slack pathway describes a biochemical system in which carbon is first incorporated into the four-ca...

The Cabbage Patch Kids doll-craze was an unprecedented phenomenon among children and their parents that swept America during the 1980s, reflecting, perhaps, the cultural leanings of an era intent on expressing family values. By comparison ...

Tropical New World tree (Theobroma cacao) of the chocolate family (Sterculiaceae, or Byttneriaceae). Its seeds, after fermentation and roasting, yield cocoa and chocolate. Cocoa butter is extracted from the seed. The tree is grown througho...

Any of the flowering plants that make up the family Cactaceae, containing about 1,650 species, native through most of North and South America, with the greatest number and variety in Mexico. Cacti are succulent perennials. Most live in and...

For several decades of the twentieth century, the Cadillac, a car made by General Motors' luxury automobile division, was the most enduring symbol of middle-class achievement for status-conscious Americans. Nowhere is the past and s...

In China, the term "cadre" refers both to all party functionaries and civil servants in administrative institutions, public organizations, and armed forces and to persons in leading positions. It is important to differentiate...

Sid Caesar was one of the most familiar and talented television performers of the 1950s. His skills as a dialectician, pantomime, and monologist made him a favorite of the critics and a fixture on Saturday night television from 1950 to 195...

Chemical element, one of the alkali metals, chemical symbol Cs, atomic number 55. The first element discovered by spectroscopy (1860), it is silvery white, liquid at warm room temperature (melting at 83 °F [28.4 °C]), and very soft...

River, northeastern Luzon, Philippines. Flowing north 220 mi (355 km) to the port of Aparri on the Babuyan Channel, it is the longest river in Luzon and is seasonally navigable for much of its course. Its chief tributaries are the Chico, M...

50-121 Chinese official credited with the invention of paper. In 105 Ts'ai Lun, a eunuch in the court of the Han Dynasty emperor, suggested creating paper out of tree bark, scraps of hemp, rags, and old fishnet. Not only was this fa...

The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk Herman Wouk was born May 27, 1915, in New York to Jewish immigrant parents. After graduating from Columbia University, he wrote jokes for radio comedians, and then he began to compose scripts. By 1941 Wouk wa...

in engineering, boxlike structure used in construction work underwater or as a foundation. It is usually rectangular or circular in plan and may be tens of metres in diameter. A box caisson, open at the top and closed at the bottom, is usu...

CAKRASAMVARA. The term Cakrasamvara, "the binding of the wheels," designates both a Buddhist scripture and also the maṇḍala that it describes, which is the abode of a host of deities centering around the divine ...

Cal Ripken, Jr. (born 1960) holds many records in professional baseball, but it is his breaking of Lou Gehrig's record of 2,131 consecutive games played that especially endears him to his admirers, who call him the "Iron Man" of baseball. ...

Calcareous ooze is the general term for layers of muddy, calcium carbonate (CaCO3) bearing soft rock sediment on the seafloor. Of all the distinct types of veneers covering the Earth's crust—be it soil, sediment, snow, or ice...

Chemical element, one of the alkaline earth metals, chemical symbol Ca, atomic number 20. The most abundant metallic element in the human body, it is an essential part of bones and teeth and has many physiological functions (&see; calcium ...

Calcium Hydroxide Overview Calcium hydroxide (KAL-see-um hye-DROK-side) is a soft, white odorless solid that occurs as granules or a powder. It has a slightly bitter, alkaline taste. Calcium hydroxide absorbs carbon dioxide readily from the...

Inorganic compound, white or grayish white solid, chemical formula CaO, made by roasting limestone (calcium carbonate, CaCO3) until all the carbon dioxide (CO2) is driven off. One of the four most important basic chemical commodities, it i...

Calcium Silicate Overview The term calcium silicate (KAL-see-um SILL-i-kate) applies to a number of related compounds consisting of calcium, silicon, and oxygen, all of which tend to occur in a hydrated form. The most common of these forms ...

Although the abacus, the first tool of calculation, has existed since ancient times, advanced calculating machines did not appear until the early 1600s. Scientists and mathematicians were determined to simplify complex astronomical and nav...

Field of mathematics that analyzes aspects of change in processes or systems that can be modeled by functions. Through its two primary tools—the derivative and the integral—it allows precise calculation of rates of change and o...