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 Talk Talk - Communication terms
Category: General technical and industrial
Date & country: 28/05/2010, UK
Words: 18630


Baltic Sea
Shallow sea, and arm of the Atlantic Ocean, extending northeast from the narrow Skagerrak arm of the North Sea and the Kattegat strait, between Sweden and Denmark, to the Gulf of Bothnia between Sweden and Finland. Its coastline is 8,000 km/5,000 mi long; the sea is 1,500 km/930 mi long and 650 km/404 mi wide, and its area, includin...

balsam
Any of various garden plants belonging to the balsam family. They are usually annuals with spurred red or white flowers and pods that burst and scatter their seeds when ripe. (Genus Impatiens, family Balsaminaceae.) In medicine and perfumery, balsam refers to various oily or gummy aromatic plant resins, such as balsam of Peru fro...

Balmoral Castle
Residence of the British royal family in Scotland on the River Dee, 10 km/6 mi northeast of Braemar, Aberdeenshire. It was purchased for Queen Victoria by her husband, Prince Albert, in 1852. King Robert II of Scotland (1316–1390) held a hunting seat in the grounds, and by 1390 a stone castle was built. After leasing the property in 1848, ...

ballad
(literature) Literary genre of traditional narrative poetry, widespread in Europe and the USA. Ballads are simple in metre, sometimes (as in Russia) without regular lines and rhymes or (as in Denmark) dependent on assonance. Concerned with some strongly emotional event, the ballad is halfway b...

Ball, John
English priest. He was one of the leaders of the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, known as `the mad priest of Kent`. A follower of John Wycliffe and a believer in social equality, he was imprisoned for disagreeing with the archbishop of Canterbury. During the revolt he was released from prison, and when in Blackheath, London, incited people ...

Balkhash, Lake
Lake in eastern Kazakhstan, the eastern half of which is salty, and the western half fresh; area 17,400 sq km/6,715 sq mi. Lake Balkhash is 600 km/375 mi long and is fed by several rivers, including the Karatal, Lepsy, and Ili, but has no outlet. It is very shallow, especially in the east, particularly since the 1970s with the diversion...

Balkan Wars
Two wars 1912–13 and 1913 (preceding World War I) which resulted in the expulsion by the Balkan states of Ottoman Turkey from Europe, except for a small area around Istanbul. The First Balkan War, 1912, of Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, and Montenegro against Turkey, forced the Turks to ask for an armistice, but the London-held peace negotiatio...

Balder
In Norse mythology, the best, wisest, and most loved of all the gods; son of Odin and Frigga; husband of Nanna. He was one of the Aesir (principal gods), but was killed unwittingly with a twig of mistletoe shot by Hodur, his blind brother; the tragedy was engineered by the god-giant Loki. It had been foretold that the gods would be ...

balalaika
Russian musical instrument, resembling a guitar. It has a triangular soundbox, frets, and two, three, or four strings played by strumming with the fingers. A range of instruments is made, from treble to bass, and orchestras of balalaikas are popular in Russia

Balakirev, Mily Alexeyevich
Russian composer. He wrote piano music, including the fantasy Islamey (1869), orchestral works, songs, and a symphonic poem Tamara (1867–82), all imbued with the Russian national character and spirit. He was the leader of the group known as `The Five` and taught its members, Modest Mussorgsky, C&...

Balaclava, Battle of
A Russian attack on 25 October 1854, during the Crimean War, on British positions, near a town in Ukraine, 10 km/6 mi southeast of Sevastopol. It was the scene of the ill-timed Charge of the Light Brigade of British cavalry against the Russian entrenched artillery. Of the 673 soldiers who took part, there were 272 casualties. Balaclava helm...

Bakunin, Mikhail
Russian anarchist, active in Europe. In 1848 he was expelled from France as a revolutionary agitator. In Switzerland in the 1860s he became recognized as the leader of the anarchist movement. In 1869 he joined the First International (a coordinating socialist body) but, after stormy conflicts with Karl Marx, was expelled in 1872. Born of a noble fa...

Baku
Capital city of the republic of Azerbaijan, located on the Apsheron Peninsula on the western shore of the Caspian Sea; population of the city (1997 est) 1,066,800; population of the metropolitan area (1997 est) 1,727,200. Baku is an important industrial city and port. It has been a major centre of oil extraction and refining since the 1870s...

Baker, Samuel White
English explorer, in 1864 the first European to sight Lake Albert Nyanza in central Africa, and discover that the River Nile flowed through it

Baja California
Click images to enlargeMountainous peninsula that forms the twin northwestern states of Lower (Spanish baja) California, Mexico; Baja California in the north, and Baja California Sur in the south

Baird, John Logie
Scottish electrical engineer who pioneered television. In 1925 he gave the first public demonstration of television, transmitting an image of a recognizable human face. The following year, he gave the world's first demonstration of true television before an audience of about 50 scientists at the Royal Institution, London. By 1928 Baird had succ...

Baile Átha Cliath
Official Irish name of Dublin, capital of the Republic of Ireland, from 1922

bail
The temporary setting at liberty of a person in legal custody on an undertaking (usually backed by some security, bonds or money, given either by that person or by someone else) to attend at a court at a stated time and place. If the person does not attend, the bail may be forfeited

Baikal, Lake
Freshwater lake in southern Siberia, Russia, the largest in Asia, and the eighth largest in the world (area 31,500 sq km/12,150 sq mi). Lake Baikal is also the world's deepest lake (up to 1,640 m/5,700 ft) and its oldest, having existed for over 25 million years. It extends for some 636 km/395 mi, and has an average width of 48 km&#...

Bahawalpur
City in Punjab, Pakistan, situated on the Sutlej River 350 km/220 mi southwest of Lahore; population (1998) 408,400, (2007 calc) 600,700. Once the capital of the former Indian princely state of Bahawalpur, it is now an industrial city relying on cotton ginning, rice and flour milling, and the production of hand-woven textiles. Other ind...

Bahadur Shah II
Last of the Mogul emperors of India. He reigned, though in name only, as king of Delhi 1837–57, when he was hailed by the mutineers of the Indian Mutiny as an independent emperor at Delhi. After the rebellion he was exiled to Burma (now Myanmar) with his family

Bagehot, Walter
British writer and economist. His English Constitution published in 1867, a classic analysis of the British political system, is still a standard work

Baffin Island
Island in the Canadian territory of Nunavut, situated across the entrance to Hudson Bay; area 507,451 sq km/195,927 sq mi; population (2001 est) 14,400. The island's principal town is Iqaluit. Baffin Island is the largest island in Canadia, and the fifth-largest in the world. Its ...

Baffin, William
English explorer and navigator. In 1616 he and Robert Bylot explored Baffin Bay, northeastern Canada, and reached latitude 77° 45' N, which for 236 years remained the `furthest north`

Badoglio, Pietro
Italian soldier and fascist politician. He served as a general in World War I and subsequently in the campaigns against the peoples of Tripoli and Cyrenaica. In 1935 he became commander-in-chief in Ethiopia, adopting ruthless measures to break patriot resistance. He was created viceroy of Ethiopia and duke of Addis Ababa in 1936. He resigne...

Baden
(Germany) Former state of southwestern Germany, which had Karlsruhe as its capital. Baden was captured from the Romans in 282 by the Alemanni; later it became a margravate and, in 1806, a grand duchy. A state of the German empire 1871–1918, then a republic, and under Hitler a ...

Baden
(Switzerland) Town in Aargau canton, Switzerland, near Zürich, at an altitude of 388 m/1,273 ft; population (1990) 14,800. Its hot sulphur springs and mineral waters have been visited since Roman times

Bach, Johann Sebastian
German composer. A master of counterpoint, his music represents the final stage of the baroque polyphonic style. His orchestral music includes the six Brandenburg Concertos (1721), other concertos for keyboard instrument and violin, four orchestral suites, sonatas for various instr...

Babylon
Click images to enlargeCapital of ancient Babylonia, on the bank of the lower Euphrates River. The site is now in Iraq, 88 km/55 mi south of Baghdad and 8 km/5 mi north of Hillah,

Babur
First Great Mogul of India from 1526. He was the great-grandson of the Mogul conqueror Tamerlane and, at the age of 11, succeeded his father, Omar Sheikh Mirza, as ruler of Fergana (Turkestan). In 1526 he defeated the emperor of Delhi at Panipat in the Punjab, captured Delhi and Agra (the site of the Taj Mahal), and established a dynasty that l...

Babel, Isaak Emmanuilovich
Russian writer. Born in Odessa, he was an ardent supporter of the Revolution and fought with Budyenny's cavalry in the Polish campaign of 1921–22, an experience which inspired Red Cavalry (1926). His other works include Stories from Odessa (1924), which portrays the life of the Odessa Jews

Babel
Hebrew name for the city of Babylon, chiefly associated with the Tower of Babel which, in the Genesis story in the Old Testament, was erected in the plain of Shinar by the descendants of Noah. It was a ziggurat, or staged temple, seven storeys high (100 m/328 ft) with a shrine of Marduk on the summit. It was built by Nabopolassar, father of Neb...

Baal
Divine title given to their chief male gods by the Phoenicians, or Canaanites, of the eastern Mediterranean coast about 1200–332 BC. Their worship as fertility gods, often orgiastic and of a phallic character, was strongly denounced by the Hebrew prophets

Baalbek
City of ancient Syria, now in Lebanon, 60 km/36 mi northeast of Beirut. It was originally a centre of Baal worship. The Greeks identified Baal with Helios, the Sun, and renamed Baalbek Heliopolis. Its ruins, including Roman temples, survive, notably the Temple of Jupiter Heliopolitanus and the Temple of Bacchus, built in the 2nd century AD, whi...

Bayonne
River port in the French département of Pyrénées-Atlantique in southwest France, situated at the confluence of the Adour and Nive rivers, 5 km/3 mi from the sea; population (1999) 40,100. Historically a centre for the making of swords and knives, the town claims the invention of the bayonet. Bayonne is ...

balance of nature
In ecology, the idea that there is an inherent equilibrium in most ecosystems, with plants and animals interacting so as to produce a stable, continuing system of life on Earth. The activities of human beings can, and frequently do, disrupt the balance of nature. In general, organisms in the ecosystem are adapted to each other – for example, w...

basalt
Click images to enlargeCommonest volcanic igneous rock in the Solar System. Basalt is an extrusive rock, created by the outpouring of volcanic magma. The magma cools quickly, allowing only small crystals to form. Much of the surfaces of the terrestrial planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, as well as the Moon, are comp...

bauxite
Principal ore of aluminium, consisting of a mixture of hydrated aluminium oxides and hydroxides, generally contaminated with compounds of iron, which give it a red colour. It is formed by the chemical weathering of rocks in tropical climates. Chief producers of bauxite are Australia, Guinea, Jamaica, Russia, Kazakhstan, Suriname, and Brazil. To ext...

ballistics
Study of the motion and impact of projectiles such as bullets, bombs, and missiles. For projectiles from a gun, relevant exterior factors include temperature, barometric pressure, and wind strength; and for nuclear missiles these extend to such factors as the speed at which the Earth turns

baryon
In nuclear physics, a heavy subatomic particle made up of three indivisible elementary particles called quarks. The baryons form a subclass of the hadrons and comprise the nucleons (protons and neutrons) and hyperons

Ball, Lucille
(Désirée) US comedy actor. From 1951 to 1957 she starred with her husband, the Cuban bandleader Desi Arnaz (1917–1986), in the television sitcom I Love Lucy, the first US television show filmed before an audience. It was followed by The Lucy Show
ball valve
Valve that works by the action of external pressure raising a ball and thereby opening a hole

Babbit metal
Soft, white metal, an alloy of tin, lead, copper, and antimony, used to reduce friction in bearings, developed by the US inventor Isaac Babbit in 1839

Bakelite
First synthetic plastic, created by Belgian-born US chemist Leo Baekeland in 1909. Bakelite is hard, tough, and heatproof, and is used as an electrical insulator. It is made by the reaction of phenol with methanal (formaldehyde), producing a powdery resin that sets solid when heated. Objects are made by subjecting the resin to compression mould...

barrel
(unit) Unit of liquid capacity, the value of which depends on the liquid being measured. It is used for petroleum, a barrel of which contains 159 litres/35 imperial gallons; a barrel of alcohol contains 189 litres/41.5 imperial gallons

bascule bridge
Type of drawbridge in which one or two counterweighted deck members pivot upwards to allow shipping to pass underneath. One example is the double bascule Tower Bridge, London

basic–oxygen process
Most widely used method of steelmaking, involving the blasting of oxygen at high pressure into molten pig iron. Pig iron from a blast furnace, together with steel scrap, is poured into a converter, and a jet of oxygen is then projected into the mixture. The excess carbon in the mix and other impuriti...

balance
Apparatus for weighing or measuring mass. The various types include the beam balance, consisting of a centrally pivoted lever with pans hanging from each end, and the spring balance, in which the object to be weighed stretches (or compresses) a vertical coil spring fitted with a pointer that indicates the weight on a scale. Kitchen and bathroom sca...

Baptist
Member of any of several Protestant and evangelical Christian sects that practise baptism by immersion only upon profession of faith. Baptists seek their authority in the Bible. They originated among English Dissenters who took refuge in the Netherlands in the early 17th century, and spread by emigration and, later, missionary activity. Of the worl...

Barnabas, St
In the New Testament, a `fellow labourer` with St Paul; he went with St Mark on a missionary journey to Cyprus, his birthplace. Feast day 11 June

Basildon
Industrial town in Essex, eastern England, 19 km/12 mi southwest of Chelmsford; population (2001) 99,900. It was designated a new town in 1949 to accommodate overspill population from London. Industries include printing, engineering, and the manufacture of chemicals and clothing

Basingstoke
Town in Hampshire, England, 72 km/45 mi west-southwest of London; population (2001) 90,200. It is a financial centre, containing the headquarters of the Automobile Association and Sun Life Insurance. Industries include light engineering, food processing, printing, publishing, and the manufacture of cosmetics (Wella, Alberto-Culver),...

Basle
Alternative form of Basel, a city in Switzerland

Basra
(city) Principal city in southeast Iraq, 97 km/60 mi from the Gulf; population (2002 est) 1,337,600. Basra lies at the head of the tidal Shatt al-Arab waterway (formed by the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers). Founded in the 7th century and now Iraq's main port on ...

basset horn
Musical woodwind instrument, a wide-bore alto clarinet pitched in F, invented about 1765 and used by Mozart in his Masonic Funeral Music (1785), for example, and by Richard Strauss. It was revived in 1981 by Karlheinz Stockhausen and features prominently as a solo in his opera cycle LICHT. Performers includ...

bassoon
Double-reed woodwind instrument in C. It is the bass of the oboe family and lowest sounding of the four main orchestral woodwinds (the flute, clarinet, oboe, and bassoon). It doubles back on itself in a conical tube about 2.5 m/7.5 ft long and has a rich, deep tone. The bassoon concert repert...

Bath, Order of the
British order of knighthood (see knighthood, orders of), believed to have been founded in 1399 by Henry IV. The order now consists of three classes: Knights of the Grand Cross (GCB), Knights Commanders (KCB), and Knights Companions (CB)

Battersea
District of the inner London borough of Wandsworth, London, England; on the south bank of the Thames. It has a park (including a funfair 1951–74), Battersea Dogs' Home (opened 1860) for strays, and is the site of Battersea Power Station (designed by Giles Gilbert Scott in 1937, with an art deco interior), which closed in 1983. In Augus...

Bayern
German name for Bavaria, a region of Germany

Barcelona
(city) Click images to enlargePort and capital of Barcelona province and of the autonomous community of Cataluña, northeast Spain; population (2001 est) 1,505,300; conurbation (2003 est) 3,889,200. Barcelona is Spain's second-lar...

Barents, Willem
Dutch explorer and navigator. He made three expeditions to seek the Northeast Passage; he died on the last voyage. The Barents Sea, part of the Arctic Ocean north of Norway, is named after him

baron
Rank in the peerage of the UK, above a baronet and below a viscount. Historically, any member of the higher nobility, a direct vassal (feudal servant) of the king, not bearing other titles such as duke or count. The term originally meant the vassal of a lord, but acquired its present meaning in the 12th century

Barrault, Jean-Louis
French actor, stage director, and producer. He was producer and director to the Comédie Française 1940–46, and set up the Compagnie Renaud-Barrault in 1946 with his wife Madeleine Renaud. He appeared in such films as La Symphonie fantastique (1942) and La Ronde (1950), and as the mime Baptist...

Bartók, Béla
Hungarian composer. His works are influenced by folk music and often use modality. His music is highly dissonant and contrapuntal, but not atonal(see atonality). His large output includes six string quartets, a Divertimento for string orchestra (1939), concertos for piano, violin, and viola, the Concerto for Orchestra<...

Bartolommeo, Fra
Italian religious painter of the High Renaissance, active in Florence. He introduced Venetian artists to the Florentine High Renaissance style during a visit to Venice in 1508, and took back with him to Florence a Venetian sense of colour. His style is one of classic simplicity and order, as in The Mystical Marriage of St Catherine
banding
In UK education, the division of school pupils into broad streams by ability. Banding is used by some local authorities to ensure that comprehensive schools receive an intake of children spread right across the ability range. It is used internally by some schools as a means of avoiding groups of widely mixed ability

bar mitzvah
In Judaism, initiation of a boy, which takes place at the age of 13, into the adult Jewish community; less common is the bat mitzvah for girls, an identical ceremony conducted mainly in Reform and Liberal congregations. The child is called up to the bimah to read a passage from the Torah in the s...

Baker, Kenneth Wilfrid
British Conservative politician, home secretary 1990–92. He was environment secretary 1985–86, education secretary 1986–89, and chair of the Conservative Party 1989–90, retaining his cabinet seat, before becoming home secretary in John Major's government. After his dismissal in 1992, he became a frequent government critic. H...

bagatelle
(music) In music, a short character piece, often for piano

baritone
Male voice pitched between bass and tenor, of approximate range G2–F4. It is also used before the name of an instrument, for example baritone saxophone, and indicates that the instrument sounds in approximately the same range. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Hermann Prey are well-known Germ...

bass
(music) Lowest male voice, of approximate range C2–D4. It is also used before the name of an instrument and indicates that the instrument sounds in approximately the same range. Well-known bass singers include the Russian Fyo...

Basie, Count
US jazz band leader and pianist. He developed the big-band jazz sound and a simplified, swinging style of music. He led impressive groups of musicians in a career spanning more than 50 years. Basie's compositions include `One O'Clock Jump` (1937) and `Jumpin' at the Woodside` (1938). Basie's solo piano techni...

ballroom dancing
Collective term for social dances such as the foxtrot, quickstep, tango, and waltz

Baryshnikov, Mikhail
(Nikolayevich) Latvian-born dancer, now based in the USA. He joined the Kirov Ballet in 1966 and, after defecting from the USSR in 1974, joined the American Ballet Theater (ABT) as principal dancer, partnering Gelsey Kirkland. He left to join the New York City Ballet (1978–80), but re...

Basho
Japanese poet. He was a master of the haiku, a 17-syllable poetic form with lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables, which he infused with subtle allusiveness. His Oku-no-hosomichi/The Narrow Road to the Deep North (1694), an account of a visit to northern and western Honshu, consists of haiku interspersed with prose passa...

Baudelaire, Charles Pierre
French poet. His immensely influential work combined rhythmical and musical perfection with a morbid romanticism and eroticism, finding beauty in decadence and evil. His first and best-known book of verse was Les Fleurs du mal/Flowers of Evil (1857). He was one of the main figures in the development of Symbolism

Barbarossa, Operation
In World War II, German code name for the plan to invade the USSR, launched on 22 June 1941. The plan was initially successful but by the end of 1941, the German advance had stalled. Large sections of the USSR, particularly the Ukraine, remained in German hands until 1944 and fighting continued elsewhere until then, notably the sieges of Leningrad ...

Barbie, Klaus
German Nazi, a member of the SS paramilitary organization from 1936. During World War II he was involved in the deportation of Jews from the occupied Netherlands from 1940 to 1942 and in tracking down Jews and Resistance workers in France from 1942 to 1945. He was arrested in 1983 and convicted of crimes against humanity in France in 1987. His work...

Bali
Click images to enlargeIsland of Indonesia, east of Java, one of the Lesser Sunda Islands; area 5,800 sq km/2,240 sq mi; population (2000 est) 3,151,200. The capital is Denpasar. The island has many volcanic mountains, and the highest peak is Gunung Agaung (3,142 m/10,308 ft). Tourism is a major source of ...

Bahamas
Country comprising a group of about 700 islands and about 2,400 uninhabited islets and cays in the Caribbean, 80 km/50 mi from the southeast coast of Florida. They extend for about 1,223 km/760 mi from northwest to southeast, but only 22 of the islands are inhabited. Government The Bahamas are an independent sovereign nation within the Comm...

Bahrain
Country comprising a group of islands in the Gulf, between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Government Since 2002, Bahrain has been a constitutional monarchy, with a king, Sheikh Hamad, as head of state, but with an elected lower house of parliament. The legislature comprises two chambers: a lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, with 40 members directly ...

Bangladesh
Click images to enlargeCountry in southern Asia, bounded north, west, and east by India, southeast by Myanmar, and south by the Bay of Bengal. Government Bangladesh has a parliamentary democracy, under its 1972 constitution (which was suspended 1982–91). There is a single-chamber legislature, the house of the nat...

Barbados
Island country in the Caribbean, one of the Lesser Antilles. It is about 483 km/300 mi north of Venezuela. Government Barbados is a multiparty parliamentary democracy. Its ceremonial head of state is Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, represented by a governor general. Its constitution dat...

Barthes, Roland
French critic and theorist of semiology, the science of signs and symbols. One of the French `new critics` and an exponent of structuralism, he attacked traditional literary criticism in his first collection of essays, Le Degré zéro de l'écriture/Writing Degree Zero (1953). Barthes's main aim ...

Basse-Terre
(Guadeloupe) One of two main islands of the French overseas département of Guadeloupe in the Leeward Islands, West Indies; area 848 sq km/327 sq mi; population (1995 est) 169,000. A narrow stretch of water, the Rivière Salée, divides it from Grande...

barograph
Device for recording variations in atmospheric pressure. A pen, governed by the movements of an aneroid barometer, makes a continuous line on a paper strip on a cylinder that rotates over a day or week to create a barogram, or permanent record of variations in atmospheric pressure. Some instruments record the measurements in the form of electronic ...

bacteriophage
Virus that attacks bacteria, commonly called a phage. Such viruses are now useful vectors in genetic engineering for introducing modified DNA

bacteriology
Study of bacteria and archaea; a major part of microbiology

Bairiki
Port and capital of Kiribati on Tarawa atoll; population (2002 est) 25,900. Mother-of-pearl and copra are exported

Barnet, Battle of
In the Wars of the Roses, the defeat of Lancaster by York on 14 April 1471 in Barnet (now in northwest London)

Barbuda
One of the islands that form the state of Antigua and Barbuda

BA
In education, abbreviation for the degree of Bachelor of Arts

badminton
Racket game similar to lawn tennis but played on a smaller court and with a shuttlecock (a half sphere of cork or plastic with a feather or nylon skirt) instead of a ball. The object of the game is to prevent the opponent from being able to return the shuttlecock. Badminton is played by two or four players. The court measures 6.1 m/20 ft by 13....

Ballesteros, Seve(riano)
Spanish golfer. He came to prominence in 1976, and has won more than 60 leading tournaments around the world, including the US Masters in 1980 and 1983, and the British Open in 1979, 1984, and 1988. As non-playing captain he led Europe to victory in the 1997 Ryder Cup. A flamboyant character, he was one of the most popular golfers of his genera...

Bannister, Roger Gilbert
English track and field athlete. He was the first person to run a mile in under four minutes. He achieved this feat at Iffley Road, Oxford, England, on 6 May 1954, in a time of 3 minutes 59.4 seconds. Career highlights World records 4 × 1-mile relay (member of GB & NI squad) 1953; 1 mile 1954 Commonwealth Games gold 1 mile 1954 Eur...

basketball
Ball game between two teams of five players on an indoor enclosed court. The object is, via a series of passing moves, to throw the large inflated ball through a circular hoop and net positioned at each end of the court, 3.05 m/10 ft above the in ground. The first world championship for men was held in 1950, and 1953 for women. They are now hel...

base rate
In economics, interest rate set by banks to determine the cost of borrowing. In the UK the base rate is the rate at which the Bank of England lends to other financial institutions. The base rate is set by the Monetary Policy Committee according to economic conditions. Retails banks usually follow the lead of the Bank of England by adopting the base...

Bayliss, William Maddock
English physiologist who discovered the digestive hormone secretin, the first hormone to be found, with Ernest Starling in 1902. During World War I, Bayliss introduced the use of saline (salt water) injections to help the injured recover from shock. Knighted in 1922

Barnard, Christiaan Neethling
South African surgeon who performed the first human heart transplant in 1967 at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town. The 54-year-old patient lived for 18 days. Barnard also discovered that intestinal artresia – a congenital deformity in the form of a hole in the small intestine – is the result of an insufficient supply of blood to...

barn
Farm building traditionally used for the storage and processing of cereal crops and hay. On older farmsteads, the barn is usually the largest building. It is often characterized by ventilation openings rather than windows and has at least one set of big double doors for access. Before mechanization, wheat was threshed by hand on a specially prepare...