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Microsoft Scientific Dictionary

The Encyclopedia Britannica 2009

The Encyclopedia Britannica 2009 (established in 1768), both in its Ultimate (now also called "Student and Home") and Deluxe versions, builds on the success of its completely revamped previous editions in 2006-8. The rate of innovation in the last three versions was impressive and welcome. It continues apace in this rendition with Britannica Biographies (Great Minds and Leaders), Classical Music (500 audio files arranged by composer), and a great Workspace for Project Management (a kind of friendly digital den). Generous 6-12 months of free access to the myriad riches of the Britannica Online complete the package.

The Britannica comes bundled with an atlas (close to 1800 maps linked to articles and 287 World Data Profiles of individual countries and territories); the Merriam-Webster Dictionary and Thesaurus, augmented by a Spanish-English translation dictionary; classic articles from previous editions; eleven yearbooks; an Interactive Timeline with 4000+ indexed timeline entries; a Research Organizer; and a Knowledge Navigator (called The Brain or BrainStormer). All told, it offers a directory of more than 166,000 reviewed and vetted links to online content.

In its new form, the Britannica is as user-friendly as the Encarta. With a new A to Z Quick Search feature, monthly updates and the aforementioned 6-12 months of free access to its impressive powerhouse online Web site, it is bound to give the former tough competition.

The Britannica's newest interface is even more intuitive and uncluttered than previously and is great fun to use. It offers morsels of knowledge, some of it date-specific, appetizingly presented through a ticker tape of visuals that leisurely scrolls across the bottom of the screen plus highly edifying interactive tours of articles and attendant media.

When you enter even the first few letters of a term in the search box, it offers various options and is persistent: no need to click on the toolbar's "search" button every time you want to find something in this vast storehouse of knowledge. Moreover, the user can save search results onto handy "Virtual Notecards". Whole articles can be copied onto the seemingly inexhaustible Workspace.

The new Britannica's display is tab-based, avoiding the erstwhile confusing proliferation of windows with every move. Most importantly, articles appear in full, not in sections. This major improvement facilitates the finding of relevant keywords in and the printing of entire texts. These are only a few of the numerous alterations and enhancements.

Perhaps the most refreshing change is the Britannica's Update Center. Dozens of monthly updates and new, timely articles are made available online (subject to free registration). A special button alerts the user when an entry in the base product has been updated.

Regrettably, unlike in the Encarta, the updates cannot be downloaded to the user's computer or otherwise incorporated into the vast encyclopedia. Moreover, the product does not alert its user to the existence of completely new articles, only to updated ones. It takes a manual scan of the monthly lists to reveal newly added content.

Speaking of updates, one must not forget to dwell on the Britannica's unequalled yearbooks. Each annual volume contains the year in events, scientific developments, and everything you wanted to know about the latest in any and every conceivable field of human endeavor or nature. About 10,500 articles culled from the last 11 editions buttress and update the Encyclopedia's anyhow impressive offerings.

The Britannica provides considerably more text than any other extant encyclopedia, print or digital. But it has noticeably enhanced its non-textual content over the years (the 1994-7 editions had nothing or very little but words, words, and more words): it now boasts in excess of 22-30,000 images and illustrations (depending on the version) and 900 video and audio clips. This is not to mention the Britannica Classics: articles from Britannica's most famous contributors-from Sigmund Freud to Harry Houdini, Marie Curie to Orville Wright.

The Britannica fully supports serious research. It is a sober assemblage of first-rate essays, up to date bibliographies, and relevant multimedia. It is a desktop university library: thorough, well-researched, comprehensive, trustworthy.

The Britannica's 84-103,000 articles (depending on the version) are long and thorough, supported by impressive bibliographies, and written by the best scholars in their respective fields. The company's Editorial Board of Advisors reads like the who's who of the global intellectual and scientific community.

The Britannica is an embarrassment of riches. Users often find the wealth and breadth of information daunting and data mining is fast becoming an art form. This is why the Britannica incorporated the BrainStormer to cope with this predicament. But an informal poll I conducted online shows that few know how to deploy it effectively.

The Britannica also sports Student and Elementary versions of its venerable flagship product, replete with a Homework Helpdesk and interactive tutorials, but it is far better geared to tackle the information needs of adults and, even more so, professionals. It provides unequalled coverage of its topics. Ironically, this is precisely why the market positioning of the Britannica's Elementary and Student Encyclopedias is problematic: with Wikipedia and even the Encarta around, the Britannica's brand is distinctly adult and scholarly.

Still, the 2009 editions of both the Student and Elementary encyclopedias improve on the past in terms of both coverage and facilities: the Homework Helpdesk is a collection of useful homework resources including a video subject browse, online learning games and activities, online subject spotlights, and how-to documents on topics such as writing a book review. There are also Learning Games and Activities: hundreds of fun and interactive games and activities to help students with subjects like Math, Science, and Social Studies.

The current edition is fully integrated with the Internet. Apart from the updates, it offers additional and timely content and revisions on a dedicated Web site. The digital product includes a staggering number of links (165,808!) to third party content and articles on the Web. The GeoAnalyzer, which compares national statistical data and generates charts and graphs, is now Web-based and greatly enhanced.

The Britannica would do well to offer a browser add-on search bar and to integrate with desktop search tools from Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and others. Currently it offers search results through Google but this requires the user to install add-ons or plug-ins and to go through a convoluted rite of passage. A seamless experience is in the cards. Users must and will be able to ferret content from all over - their desktop, their encyclopedias, and the Web - using a single, intuitive interface.

Some minor gripes:

The atlas, dictionary, and thesaurus incorporated in the Britannica are still surprisingly outdated. Why not use a more current - and dynamically updated - offering? What about dictionaries for specialty terms (medical or computer glossaries, for instance)?

Despite considerable improvement over the previous edition, the Britannica still consumes (not to say hogs) computer resource far in excess of the official specifications. This makes it less suitable for installation on older PCs and on many laptops. If you own a machine with anything earlier than Pentium 3 and less than 4 Gb of really free space - forget it!

The Britannica uses a new graphic and text renderer. On some systems, the user needs to modify his or her desktop settings to get rid of jagged fonts and blurry photos. The software also seriously conflicts with security applications (especially anti-virus and firewall products). This edition, though, is finally compatible with the latest QuickTime.

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How can I make Microsoft Word spell check scientific words/papers correctly?

I'm sick of words like dehydrogenase coming up as mispelled. Does anyone know of a dictionary or something like that that I could install so word won't be so stupid when it comes to scientific words???
I'm sick of words like dehydrogenase coming up as mispelled. Does anyone know of a dictionary or something like that that I could install so word won't be so stupid when it comes to scientific words???

I know that I can add words individually but I want a complete database to add to it from the start

Microsoft lets you add words to the dictionary. When it comes up as misspelled, just like 'add word' and it won't do it again.

Microsoft Scientific Dictionary
Newspeak: A Principled Dynamic Language

Skull Size. Does It Matter?

For centuries, archaeologists have been unearthing and analyzing primitive human skulls of various sizes and shapes. Since the dimensions of these ancient skulls vary immensely, scientists have presented critically opposing theories regarding the connection between skull dimensions and brain function. This paper proposes that skull dimensions have no merit in the determination of reasoning capability or intelligence quotients of ancient or modern humans. Furthermore, this paper will illustrate that the theory of skull dimension as being a true indicator of intelligence or reasoning ability encourages the unethical use of eugenics, promotes discrimination, and encourages further segregation of the human race.

Our first example of skull measurements used to determine intelligence and reasoning ability begins in 1913. Two farmers from Boskop, South Africa discovered abnormally large ancient humanoid skulls scattered throughout their field. (Lynch, Granger) The farmers delivered these skull fragments to the local museum and by 1915, an official report was made to the Royal Society of South Africa. The discovery was so amazing that England became involved and excavated more skulls from the area, later naming theses ancient ancestors Boskop man. (Lynch, Granger)

Boskop skulls measure 1750 cc. on average, as compared to the average human skull today, which measures approximately 1350 cc. The size and shape of the Boskop brain is about 23-30% larger than the average human skull. (Lynch, Granger) To add perspective, we can note that the size of a human brain today is about 25% larger than the size of homo-erectus. (Lynch, Granger) Scientists theorize that judging by the shape and size of the skull, the Boskop man had a 53% larger prefrontal cortex, the area that registers cognitive, forward thinking ability. (Lynch, Granger) According to Lynch and Granger, the Boskop brain would have had an "inconceivably large prefrontal cortex". (Lynch, Granger) Due to this new assessment of these large and strangely shaped ancient skulls, neuroscientists Richard Granger and Gary Lynch concluded that the unusually larger dimensions of these skulls proved their theory; some of our ancient relatives had higher IQ's, as well as superior reasoning abilities than today's modern humans. (Lynch, Granger) In fact, Lynch and Granger went so far as to state that due to the skull measurements, these ancient Boskop men had "an average intelligence of around 150, making them geniuses among Homo sapiens. (Lynch, Granger) However, although this theory may seem intriguing, many researchers and scientists disagree with Granger and Lynch's theory, "scientists agree that there is absolutely no evidence showing that either brain size or brains to weight ratios are reliable indicators of intelligence or rational." (Lavender)

                 The skulls found by the two farmers in Boskop, South Africa are indeed a remarkable discovery for anthropologists; however, it is common knowledge that over the last two centuries, archaeologists have unearthed abnormally shaped skulls from various ancient civilization dig sites. While some of these skulls are large, similar to the Boskop skulls, many of these skulls are comparatively small. To date, none of the smaller skulls compare with the astonishing tiny size of the humanoid "hobbit" skulls, found in 2003 by Australian and Indonesian explorers in an Indonesian cave, 20 feet into the cave floor (Leigh). Hobbit was the name given to this race of peculiarly diminutive ancient beings, due to their tiny skulls and undersized skeletal remains. The oldest hobbit bones have been estimated to be anywhere from 12,000 to around 95,000 years old. What's more, tools found on the island suggest that hominids have been on Flores for 800,000 years. (Zimmer) Keep in mind that thesepeople were only three feet tall (Strickland), "weighed only around 55 pounds and had startlingly small brains." (Roach) "Brown calculated its [hobbit brain] volume at less than a third of a modern human's. Hobbit had by far the smallest brain of any member of the genus Homo." ("The People Time Forgot: Flores Find.") Amazingly, the Hobbits were quite sophisticated regardless of the fact that their brains were "small, even for a chimpanzee". (Roach) As mentioned by Carl Zimmer in an issue of Discover Magazine, by examination of the hobbit skull it is clear that similar to the larger Boskop skull, the frontal lobe area of the hobbit skull is also enlarged. This frontal area is "known to be important in planning and other complex kinds of thought". (Zimmer) 

                 Noting that archaeologists found "sophisticated tools and evidence of a fire near the remains", ("Hobbits a breed apart - Brain proves island people are separate species.") one must realize that these small skulled humanoids have much to offer in the debate surrounding skull size and its relationship to reasoning and intelligence. Since the discovery of the hobbit skeletal fossils, scientists have scrutinized these skulls, as well as the fossilized artifacts and complicated tools that surround the prehistoric hobbit colonies, yet there is still additional research required to evaluate the true nature and intelligence of these ancient people. In a March 2010 interview, Richard Potts, paleoanthropologist and curator of anthropology at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, re-iterated the relevance of ongoing research and exploration by stating, "One of our Smithsonian researchers is also returning to Flores, Indonesia to continue digging for evidence of Homo floresiensis, the so-called hobbit". (Richard)

Another aspect in determining intelligence by examination of the skull, is the question of whether skull measurement is an accurate gauge of the size of the brain that it houses. In 2007, Reuters published a scientific article detailing an incredible phenomenon discovered by Dr. Lionel Feuillet and his colleagues at University de la Mediterranee in Marseille. Dr. Feuillet reported that a 44-year-old man had come to them complaining of weakness in his leg, when Dr. Feuillet's staff requested the man's medical history; they discovered that he had received a shunt in his skull as an infant, to drain water from the brain. ("Tiny Brain, No Obstacle to French Civil Servant.") The man's brain had shrunk to nearly a sliver of a normal sized brain and yet he maintained an IQ of 75. The man's IQ was below average, bearing in mind that the average IQ is 100, yet he was able to function in society with only a tiny fraction of the average sized brain. The man was married, held a fulltime job as a civil servant and helped raise his family with two children. According to doctors, he was not mentally disabled. ("Tiny Brain, No Obstacle to French Civil Servant.") "What I find amazing to this day is how the brain can deal with something which you think should not be compatible with life," commented Dr. Max Muenke, a pediatric brain defect specialist at the National Human Genome Research Institute." ("Tiny Brain, No Obstacle to French Civil Servant.")

Scientific research involving the relationship between skull dimension and brain function is not a new concept. The early 1800's was a thriving time for Entrepreneurial Phrenologists. As defined by the Encarta World English Dictionary, "Phrenology" is "the study of the bumps on the outside of the skull, based on the now discredited theory that these bumps reflect somebody's character." (Encarta® World English Dictionary [North American Edition]) The pseudoscience of phrenology began in the early 1800's based on the ideas of a Viennese physician, Franz Joseph Gall. Gall theorized that the size, shape, and placement of bumps on the skull could determine the intelligence and the disposition of an individual. (Wyhe) For nearly one hundred years, phrenology blossomed into an entrepreneurial pseudoscience, causing a great deal of discrimination and unjust practices. For example, employers hired phrenologists to examine the skulls of job applicants in order to determine the candidate's character, integrity, and intelligence. (Wyhe) Due to unreasonable phrenologist reports, countless hopeful interviewees were victims of discrimination and denied employment, due to the size and shape of their skulls. (Wyhe)

          Another discriminatory use of skull measurement developed in America around 1850 and lasted for well over fifty years. The pop-culture phenomenon "Cult of Domesticity" (Lavender) claimed that women were inferior to men, perpetuating discrimination against women. "During the mid to late 1800's women were considered intellectually inferior to men as well as physically inferior. (Lavender) On the average, women's stature is smaller than the average male, therefore women naturally have smaller skulls, but during the mid to late 19th century, scientists aided the discrimination against women by concluding that women were inferior to men, explaining that smaller brain size was associated with inferior intelligence. It is interesting to note that before scientists relied on phrenology to deduce women's inferior mental capabilities, they used ratios of brain size compared to body weight. Unexpectedly, scientists discovered that women had a larger brain to weight ratio, as opposed to men having a smaller brain to weight ratio, causing these pseudo-scientists change their method and rely solely on brain size when determining rationality and intelligence. (Lavender) After scientists measured the skulls of average sized women, they eloquently determined that women were inferior to men, stating:

 

"Woman is a constantly growing child, and in the brain, as in so many other parts of her body, she conforms to her childish type. (Lavender) "The same types of studies were used in the nineteenth century to show racial superiority and inferiority. One of the world's foremost authorities, Carl Vogt, professor of natural history at University of Geneva said, "The grown up Negro partakes, as regards his intellectual faculties, of the nature of the child, the female, and the senile white."(Lavender)

The abovementioned statement, linking inferiority with a specific race or gender, based on skull size and measurement, clearly confirms that this form of theorization should in no way stand for truth, carrying with it such broad discrimination based on physical characteristics. Bigotry and social injustice begins with the separation of humans by skin and hair color, physical size and stature, and various other outward appearance based prejudices. As Keyes stated in 2006, these types of discriminatory scientific theories began with Darwinism and climaxed with the Holocaust. (Keyes) "There was a clear and distinct starting point at which the radical race science movement was born. This starting point occurred at the end of the nineteenth century when scientists and intellectual theorists conjectured the racial theory of Social Darwinism." (Keyes)

Although other scientists similar to Lynch and Granger have authored books and published articles stating their findings and observations, theorizing the relationship between skull measurements and intelligence, we must remember that science is constantly evolving and expanding, lest we fall into the trap which many descended into during the late eighteen and early nineteen hundreds.

 

Works Cited

 

 

"Hobbits a breed apart - Brain proves island people are separate                     species." Daily Telegraph, The (Sydney) (n.d.): Newspaper    Source. EBSCO. Web. 24 Apr. 2010.

Keyes, David. "Race Science and Nazi Germany: Its Influence on."           Math.Colorado.Edu (2006): 01. Web. 24 Apr 2010.

Lavender, Catherine. "The Cult of Domesticity and True Womanhood."           Department of History (1998): n. pag. Web. 17 Apr 2010.

LEIGH DAYTON, SCIENCE WRITER. "Fossil finds give clues to ancestors    - HUMANITY'S ORIGINS." Australian, The (2010): 11. Newspaper      Source. EBSCO. Web. 24 Apr. 2010.

Lynch, Gary, and Richard Granger. "What Happened to the Hominids           Who May Have Been Smarter Than Us? ." Discover 28 Dec. 2009:   01. Web. 11 March 2010.

"Phrenology ." Encarta® World English Dictionary [North American           Edition] . Developed for Microsoft by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.,           2009. Web.

"Tiny Brain No Obstacle to French Civil Servant." Thomson Reuters 19       July 2007: n. pag. Web. 17 Apr 2010.

Richard, Potts. "Smithsonian Hall of Human Origins chronicles human           evolution." Washington Post, The, Retrieved from Newspaper           Source database.

Roach, John. ""Hobbits" Were Separate Species, Skull Suggests."     National Geographic News 23 Jan. 2009: Web. 3 Apr 2010.

Strickland, Eliza. "The Debate Continues: Another Skull Study Supports     the "Hobbit"." Discover 26 Jan. 2009: 01. Web. 16 April 2010.

"The People Time Forgot: Flores Find." National Geographic April. 2005:   01. Web. 16 Apr 2010.

Wyhe, John van. "The History of Phrenology." Victorian Web 20 Nov.           2003: n. pag. Web. 17 Apr 2010.

Zimmer, Carl. "The Hobbit's Brain." Discover 3 March 2005: 01. Web. 16   Apr 2010.

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