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HandWiki is the world's largest wiki-style encyclopedia dedicated to science, technology and computing. It allows you to create and edit articles as long as you have external citations and login account. In addition, this is a content management environment that can be used for collaborative editing of original scholarly content, such as books, manuals, monographs and tutorials.

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Right-Wing Authoritarianism
In psychology, the right-wing authoritarian (RWA) is a personality type that describes somebody who is naturally submissive to their authority figures, acts aggressively in the name of said authorities, and is conformist in thought and behavior. The prevalence of this personality type in a population varies from culture to culture, as a person's upbringing and education play a strong role in determining whether somebody develops this sort of personality. The right-wing authoritarian personality was defined by Bob Altemeyer as a refinement of the research of Theodor Adorno. Adorno was the first to propose the existence of an authoritarian personality as part of an attempt to explain the rise of fascism and the Holocaust, but his theory fell into disfavor because it was based on Freudian pseudo-science. Altemeyer nonetheless felt that Adorno was on to something, and so developed a more scientifically-rigorous theory now known as the RWA scale. The RWA scale was designed to measure authoritarianism in North America. It has proven to be reasonably reliable in English-speaking countries such as Australia, but less so in other countries such as France due to cultural differences and translation issues.
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  • 08 Oct 2022
Topic Review
88 Modern Constellations
In contemporary astronomy, the sky is divided into 88 regions called constellations, generally based on the asterisms (which are also called "constellations") of Greek and Roman mythology. The number of 88, along with the contemporary scientific notion of "constellation", was conventioned in 1922 by the International Astronomical Union in order to establish a universal pattern for professional astronomers, who defined constellations from then on as regions of the sky separated by arcs of right ascensions and declinations and grouped by asterisms of their historically most important stars, which cover the entire celestial sphere. The constellations along the ecliptic are called the zodiac. The ancient Sumerians, and later the Greeks (as recorded by Ptolemy), established most of the northern constellations in international use today. When explorers mapped the stars of the southern skies, European and American astronomers proposed new constellations for that region, as well as ones to fill gaps between the traditional constellations. Not all of these proposals caught on, but in 1922, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) adopted the modern list of 88 constellations. After this, Eugène Joseph Delporte drew up precise boundaries for each constellation, so that every point in the sky belonged to exactly one constellation.
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  • 08 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Phanerozoic
The Phanerozoic Eon is the current geologic eon in the geologic time scale, and the one during which abundant animal and plant life has existed. It covers 541 million years to the present and began with the Cambrian Period when animals first developed hard shells preserved in the fossil record. The time before the Phanerozoic, called the Precambrian, is now divided into the Hadean, Archaean and Proterozoic eons. The time span of the Phanerozoic starts with the sudden appearance of fossilized evidence of a number of animal phyla; the evolution of those phyla into diverse forms; the emergence and development of complex plants; the evolution of fish; the emergence of insects and tetrapods; and the development of modern fauna. Plant life on land appeared in the early Phanerozoic eon. During this time span, tectonic forces caused the continents to move and eventually collect into a single landmass known as Pangaea (the most recent supercontinent), which then separated into the current continental landmasses.
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  • 08 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Atmospheric Models
Static atmospheric models describe how the ideal gas properties (namely: pressure, temperature, density, and molecular weight) of an atmosphere change, primarily as a function of altitude. The World Meteorological Organization defines a standard atmosphere as "a hypothetical vertical distribution of atmospheric temperature, pressure and density which, by international agreement, is roughly representative of year-round, midlatitude conditions. Typical usages are as a basis for pressure altimeter calibrations, aircraft performance calculations, aircraft and rocket design, ballistic tables, and meteorological diagrams." For example, the U.S. Standard Atmosphere derives the values for air temperature, pressure, and mass density, as a function of altitude above sea level. Other static atmospheric models may have other outputs, or depend on inputs besides altitude.
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  • 08 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Beta (Plasma Physics)
The beta of a plasma, symbolized by β, is the ratio of the plasma pressure (p = n kB T) to the magnetic pressure (pmag = B²/2μ0). The term is commonly used in studies of the Sun and Earth's magnetic field, and in the field of fusion power designs. In the fusion power field, plasma is often confined using strong magnets. Since the temperature of the fuel scales with pressure, reactors attempt to reach the highest pressures possible. The costs of large magnets roughly scales like β½. Therefore, beta can be thought of as a ratio of money out to money in for a reactor, and beta can be thought of (very approximately) as an economic indicator of reactor efficiency. For tokamaks, betas of larger than 0.05 or 5% are desired for economically viable electrical production. The same term is also used when discussing the interactions of the solar wind with various magnetic fields. For example, beta in the corona of the Sun is about 0.01.
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  • 08 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Fat-tailed Gerbil
The fat-tailed gerbil (Pachyuromys duprasi), also called the duprasi gerbil, is a rodent belonging to subfamily Gerbillinae. It is the only member of the genus Pachyuromys. These rodents are the most docile species of the gerbil subfamily. They have fluffy and soft fur. Fat-tailed gerbils have been available on the pet market for decades, but in the 21st century breeders can be hard to find. They are sometimes considered as pocket pets. Other common English names are: fat-tailed jird, fat-tailed rat, and beer mat gerbil. Names in other languages are: abu lya (أبو ليه) in Egyptian Arabic, and adhal alyan (عضل أليان) in Standard Arabic, souris à grosse queue (French), Fettschwanzrennmaus (German), fedthale mus (Danish), rasvahäntägerbiili (Finnish), and dikstaartgerbil (Dutch).
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  • 08 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Marie-Anne Libert
Marie-Anne Libert, (born 7 April 1782 in Malmedy, province of Liège, died 14 January 1865 in Malmedy) was a Belgian botanist and mycologist. She was one of the first women plant pathologists. She is sometimes referred to as "Anne-Marie Libert."
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  • 08 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Base-16 Floating Point
IBM System/360 computers, and subsequent machines based on that architecture (mainframes), support a hexadecimal floating-point format (HFP). In comparison to IEEE 754 floating-point, the IBM floating-point format has a longer significand, and a shorter exponent. All IBM floating-point formats have 7 bits of exponent with a bias of 64. The normalized range of representable numbers is from 16−65 to 1663 (approx. 5.39761 × 10−79 to 7.237005 × 1075). The number is represented as the following formula: (−1)sign × 0.significand × 16exponent−64.
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  • 08 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Disinvestment from Israel Controversy
The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) adopted a policy of "phased, selective divestment" from certain American corporations operating in Israel beginning in 2004, as a means of influencing the government of Israel. This policy has been controversial both within and outside of the denomination, even resulting in charges of antisemitism. The policy was changed in 2006 by another vote of the General Assembly.
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Topic Review
Genetically Modified Food Controversies
Genetically modified food controversies are disputes over the use of foods and other goods derived from genetically modified crops instead of conventional crops, and other uses of genetic engineering in food production. The disputes involve consumers, farmers, biotechnology companies, governmental regulators, non-governmental organizations, and scientists. The key areas of controversy related to genetically modified food (GM food or GMO food) are whether such food should be labeled, the role of government regulators, the objectivity of scientific research and publication, the effect of genetically modified crops on health and the environment, the effect on pesticide resistance, the impact of such crops for farmers, and the role of the crops in feeding the world population. In addition, products derived from GMO organisms play a role in the production of ethanol fuels and pharmaceuticals. Specific concerns include mixing of genetically modified and non-genetically modified products in the food supply, effects of GMOs on the environment, the rigor of the regulatory process, and consolidation of control of the food supply in companies that make and sell GMOs. Advocacy groups such as the Center for Food Safety, Organic Consumers Association, Union of Concerned Scientists, and Greenpeace say risks have not been adequately identified and managed, and they have questioned the objectivity of regulatory authorities. The safety assessment of genetically engineered food products by regulatory bodies starts with an evaluation of whether or not the food is substantially equivalent to non-genetically engineered counterparts that are already deemed fit for human consumption. No reports of ill effects have been documented in the human population from genetically modified food. There is a scientific consensus that currently available food derived from GM crops poses no greater risk to human health than conventional food, but that each GM food needs to be tested on a case-by-case basis before introduction. Nonetheless, members of the public are much less likely than scientists to perceive GM foods as safe. The legal and regulatory status of GM foods varies by country, with some nations banning or restricting them, and others permitting them with widely differing degrees of regulation.
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  • 08 Oct 2022
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