In Latin, the term literally means "after death." In a medical context, postmortem refers to a thorough examination of a dead body in order to determine the cause and circumstances of death. Autopsy, which is the surgical dissection of the body, can be part of this examination, but it is not always necessary.
A type of photography where light is used in combination with special paper to create instant photographs. The Polaroid camera was invented by Edwin H. Land, who studied synthetic polarizers. In the 1940’s, at the behest of his 3-year old daughter, Land industrialized a way to instantly develop a picture. The first Polaroid camera, known as the Land Camera, was put on the market beginning in 1948.
A wood panel that is manufactured by gluing thin sheets of wood together. Although the wood sheets are thin, the combination of multiple layers of wood and resin (glue) combine to create a relatively light-weight, strong, and inexpensive building material.
An architectural feature found in the built environments of many cultures around the world, plazas are open spaces for public functions around which structures form an almost amphitheater-like setting. In Native American traditions in the U.S. Southwest, plazas are created by the terraced clustering of a pueblo community around usually one of several open spaces significant to the community. The early Spanish explorers in the region believed that they recognized in these open spaces the plazas of their own secular and religious built environments, and therefore called them plazas, which is the term still in use today. Puebloan plazas have social, secular, and spiritual functions, and are oriented in space to accommodate seasonal and diurnal solar patterns, as well as the ceremonial needs of a linked system of spiritual fraternities. Plazas are often associated with prominent kiva societies and ceremonies; because of this, the Catholic church appropriated Puebloan plazas as locations upon which to site their mission compounds as they evangelized the northern perimeters of New Spain in the Americas during the sixteenth, seventeenth , and eighteenth centuries. Over time, Puebloan plazas came to accommodate both indigenous and Catholic practices, revealing the syncretic use of space still in practice today in many Pueblo communities.
A type of high quality glass, characterized by its exceptionally smooth surface, which is produced by the grinding and polishing of large sheets of rolled glass. Plate glass is often used in large windows and mirrors.
A mixture of lime or gypsum, sand, and water that is applied to the walls of structures as a sealant. In the Southwest, many pueblos are made of adobe, which comes from the Spanish verb adobar, meaning “to plaster.” Part of the annual maintenance cycle of pueblo structures can include the ritual of whitewashing, or plastering, interior and exterior walls with a local derivative of plaster.
Also known as an air gun. A weapon that uses compressed gas to fire a projectile, as opposed to a firearm which uses a propellant, such as gunpowder, in order to fire.
A central component in many engines and mechanisms, a piston is short, cylindrical part that moves up and down inside a fitting tube as a result of expanding gas or liquid, usually the result of an applied heating process, such as combustion. As the gas or liquid expands, forcing the piston through its cylinder, the piston transfers its movement to other parts of the mechanism via a rod that connects the piston to a crankshaft or flywheel.
A shallow, see-through container used to cultivate living organisms in a laboratory setting.
In the context of oil drilling, perforation means punching a hole in the cemented casing tube of the oil well in order to reach down to the reservoir. This is normally done by lowering perforating guns with explosive charges into the well. Once a hole has been punched in the casing, a pipe is inserted into it that allows for oil to flow up through the well.