If you’re tired of telling youngsters to hurry up and close the refrigerator, try this admonishing them with this phrase or one like it: “Stop letting the penguins out!” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
Mesmerize, meaning to attract strongly or hold spellbound, comes from Franz Mesmer, an 18th-century German doctor who promoted a theory he called animal magnetism. After completing a medical thesis in Vienna in 1766, Mesmer treated patients with...
hot money n.— «Rather than simply wooing local customers, they have turned to out-of-state brokers who deliver billions of dollars in bulk deposits, widely known as “hot money,” from investors nationwide. In fast-growing regions like this...
quench n.— «During a power test, the very last before collisions could start in the machine (to the annoyance of engineers), a fault led to a warming of the busbar. As superconductivity was lost, the temperature soared in a “quench...
fossil group n.— «All that dark matter makes astronomers think that NGC 1132 grew up through the mergers of many smaller galaxies in an entire group, drawn in by the dark matter. That’s why the galaxy is sometimes called a “fossil...
high touch adj.— «“If we go high tech, we’re also going to go high touch,” he said, referring to what he said would be an increased contact between pupil and teacher.» —“Alexandria Proposes Elementary Magnet School in...