The Pap test is a simple and painless procedure for the early detection of the two most common and fatal forms of cancer in women: cervical and uterine. It is considered one of the most effective and significant weapons in the modern fight...

Pulp and paper mills take wood and transform the raw product into paper. Hardwood logs (beech, birch, and maple) and softwoods (pine, spruce, and fir) are harvested from managed forestlands or purchased from local farms and timberlands a...

When Pocket Books introduced the paperback to American consumers in 1939, book publishing changed forever. Paperbacks did more than make books affordable to a mass audience; they made books available to readers who did not live near book s...

Invented in 1900 by Norwegian Johann Waaler, the now common item was actually patented in Germany. Originally a metallic clip, the invention allowed several pieces of paper to be joined together, but then easily separated when necessary. N...

A mixture of paper pulp, glue, chalk, and sand, pâpier maché first became popular in Europe in the mid-eighteenth century for making ornamental items such as trays, boxes, and mirror frames; it was later used in architectural ...

Independent State of Papua New Guinea CAPITAL: Port Moresby FLAG: The flag is a rectangle, divided diagonally. The upper segment is scarlet with a yellow bird of paradise; the lower segment is black with five white stars representing the S...

Geometrically, a parabola is the set of all points in the plane which are equally distant from a fixed point, called the focus, and a fixed line, called the directrix. We will say more about this geometric definition below. Algebraically, ...

The Swiss doctor and alchemist Philippus Aureolus Paracelsus (1493-1541) is noted for opposing Galen's medical theories and for founding medical chemistry. The real name of Philippus Aureolus Paracelsus was Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohen...

The earliest known parachute design is that of Leonardo da Vinci, who in 1485 devised what he called a "tent roof." It had rigid frame at the base on the assumption it wouldn't stay open otherwise. The canopy, over twenty feet wide, was to...

In science and philosophy in the second half of the twentieth century, the word "paradigm"has become strongly associated with the 1962 book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, by Thomas Kuhn, in which he described a paradigm shift as...

PARADISE. The word paradise originated from Old Persian pairidaeza, which meant "walled enclosure, pleasure park, garden." Pairidaeza came into Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek retaining its original meanings. It appears three time...

PARADOX AND RIDDLES. Although paradoxes can seem enigmatic and riddles paradoxical, they are fundamentally different realities. Riddles are mainly instrumental and performance-oriented, whether used in sacred or secular contexts, whereas p...

Paraguay is a landlocked country in South America slightly smaller than California. It is bordered by the countries of Brazil, Argentina, and Bolivia. The country is divided into two unequal portions by the Rio Paraguay, the third largest...

Parallel evolution is a system whereby different populations can, even though they are in widely different areas, follow the same course of evolution to produce the same organisms at the end of the process. As evolution is based on random ...

Parallel processing is information processing that uses more than one computer processor simultaneously to perform work on a problem. This should not be confused with multitasking, in which many tasks are performed on a single processor by...

Paralysis is defined as complete loss of strength in an affected limb or muscle group. The chain of nerve cells that runs from the brain through the spinal cord out to the muscle is called the motor pathway. Normal muscle function requires...

Paramecium are single celled eukaryotes, reminiscent of a football in shape, that belong to the group of microorganisms known as the Protozoa. The protozoan inhabits freshwater bodies such as ponds. The organism is useful as a teaching too...

An attribute list defines a list of attributes for a particular element. Each attribute is a characteristic of the element. There are a myriad of attribute lists, reflecting the myriad of existing programs and files. In word processing app...

Parametric equations are those that relate typical x and y values to another variable or arbitrarily chosen constant. Such equations are widely found in studies dealing with motion as a function of time. There are scalar and vector paramet...

PARAMĀRTHA was the religious name of Kulanātha (499–569), an Indian monk and translator of Sanskrit texts. Paramārtha was a central figure in the introduction of the Buddhist Yogācāra, or Vij...

UFO RELIGIONS. The rise of interest in unidentified flying objects (UFOs) has been amply demonstrated over the last few decades. It is not surprising that in an age of scientific discoveries, especially in the field of astronomy, the searc...

Sexual perversions are conditions in which sexual excitement or orgasm is associated with acts or imagery that are considered unusual within the culture. To avoid problems associated with the stigmatization of labels, the neutral term "par...

Parasitism describes a relationship between two species, a parasite and its host, in which the parasite benefits, while the host is harmed. Parasitism is one form of symbiosis, which more generally describes any situation involving a close...

The autonomic nervous system (ANS) is divided into two subsystems, the parasympathetic and sympathetic systems. Parasympathetic fibers innervate smooth muscle, cardiac muscle, and glandular tissue. In general, stimulation via parasympathet...

A camphorated OPIUM tincture; tinctures of opium are alcoholic extracts of opium, widely used in the treatment of diarrhea. Paregoric contains powdered opium, anise oil, benzoic acid, camphor, glycerin, and diluted alcohol. With only 0.4 m...