17-letter words containing h, o, m, a, l
- margaret hamilton — (person) (born 1936-08-17) A computer scientist, systems engineer and business owner, credited with coining the term software engineering. Margaret Hamilton published over 130 papers, proceedings and reports about the 60 projects and six major programs in which she has been involved. In 1965 she became Director of Software Programming at MIT's Charles Stark Draper Laboratory and Director of the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, which developed on-board flight software for the Apollo space program. At NASA, Hamilton pioneered the Apollo on-board guidance software that navigated to and landed on the Moon and formed the basis for software used in later missions. At the time, programming was a hands-on, engineering descipline; computer science and software engineering barely existed. Hamilton produced innovations in system design and software development, enterprise and process modelling, development paradigms, formal systems modelling languages, system-oriented objects for systems modelling and development, automated life-cycle environments, software reliability, software reuse, domain analysis, correctness by built-in language properties, open architecture techniques for robust systems, full life-cycle automation, quality assurance, seamless integration, error detection and recovery, man-machine interface systems, operating systems, end-to-end testing and life-cycle management. She developed concepts of asynchronous software, priority scheduling and Human-in-the-loop decision capability, which became the foundation for modern, ultra-reliable software design. The Apollo 11 moon landing would have aborted when spurious data threatened to overload the computer, but thanks to the innovative asynchronous, priority based scheduling, it eliminated the unnecessary processing and completed the landing successfully. In 1986, she founded Hamilton Technologies, Inc., developed around the Universal Systems Language and her systems and software design paradigm of Development Before the Fact (DBTF).
- mechanoelectrical — Describing the production of electricity by mechanical motion; especially in a transducer.
- medicochirurgical — pertaining to medicine and surgery.
- meech lake accord — the agreement reached in 1987 at Meech Lake, Quebec, at a Canadian federal-provincial conference that accepted Quebec's conditions for signing the Constitution Act of 1982. The Accord lapsed when the legislatures of two provinces, Newfoundland and Quebec, failed to ratify it by the deadline of June 23, 1990
- memetic algorithm — (algorithm) A genetic algorithm or evolutionary algorithm which includes a non-genetic local search to improve genotypes. The term comes from the Richard Dawkin's term "meme". One big difference between memes and genes is that memes are processed and possibly improved by the people that hold them - something that cannot happen to genes. It is this advantage that the memetic algorithm has over simple genetic or evolutionary algorithms. These algorithms are useful in solving complex problems, such as the "Travelling Salesman Problem," which involves finding the shortest path through a large number of nodes, or in creating artificial life to test evolutionary theories. Memetic algorithms are one kind of metaheuristic. (07 July 1997)
- metabolic pathway — biochemistry: sequence of reactions within a cell or organism
- methemoglobinemia — (medicine) A form of toxic anemia characterized by the presence of methemoglobin in the blood.
- methyl isocyanate — Chemistry. a highly toxic, flammable, colorless liquid, CH 3 NCO, used as an intermediate in the manufacture of pesticides: in 1984, the accidental release of a cloud of this gas in Bhopal, India, killed more than 1700 people and injured over 200,000.
- michigan bankroll — a large roll of paper money in small denominations.
- mikhail gorbachev — Mikhail S(ergeyevich) [mi-kahyl sur-gey-uh-vich,, mi-keyl;; Russian myi-khuh-yeel syir-gye-yi-vyich] /mɪˈkaɪl sɜrˈgeɪ ə vɪtʃ,, mɪˈkeɪl;; Russian myɪ xʌˈyil syɪrˈgyɛ yɪ vyɪtʃ/ (Show IPA), born 1931, Soviet political leader: general secretary of the Communist Party 1985–91; president of the Soviet Union 1988–91; Nobel Peace Prize 1990.
- minion of the law — a policeman.
- miss lonelyhearts — a novel (1933) by Nathanael West.
- mitochondrial dna — DNA found in mitochondria, which contains some structural genes and is generally inherited only through the female line
- modern pentathlon — an athletic contest consisting of five different events: horse riding with jumps, fencing with electric épée, freestyle swimming, pistol shooting, and cross-country running
- modulo arithmetic — modular arithmetic
- monarch butterfly — a large, deep-orange butterfly, Danaus plexippus, having black and white markings, the larvae of which feed on the leaves of milkweed.
- mongolian hot pot — a stewlike dish of sliced meat, seafood, and vegetables cooked together in hot broth, often in a clay pot, and seasoned with a hot sauce.
- monochromatically — of or having one color.
- monolith catalyst — A monolith catalyst is a type of catalyst whose surface is flat.
- mont-saint-michel — a rocky islet near the coast of NW France, in an inlet of the Gulf of St. Malo: famous abbey and fortress.
- more than usually — You use more than usually to show that something shows even more of a particular quality than it normally does.
- muscle dysmorphia — a mental disorder primarily affecting males, characterized by obsessions about a perceived lack of muscularity, leading to compulsive exercising, use of anabolic steroids, etc. Compare body dysmorphic disorder.
- mystical theology — the branch of theology dealing with mysticism and mystical experiences.
- natural harmonics — harmonics of a note produced on a stringed instrument by lightly touching an open or unstopped sounded string.
- natural logarithm — a logarithm having e as a base. Symbol: ln.
- neo-malthusianism — a view or doctrine advocating population control, especially by contraception.
- neo-scholasticism — a contemporary application of Scholasticism to modern problems and life.
- nephelometrically — By means of nephelometry.
- neuropharmacology — the branch of pharmacology concerned with the effects of drugs on the nervous system.
- non-thermoplastic — soft and pliable when heated, as some plastics, without any change of the inherent properties.
- nonaccomplishment — Something that does not achieve the intended goal.
- normal orthogonal — orthonormal.
- north-wall hammer — a type of ice axe that has a hammer as part of its head
- old norman french — Norman French (sense 1)
- omphalomesenteric — (anatomy) Of or pertaining to the umbilicus and mesentery.
- orthogonal matrix — a matrix that is the inverse of its transpose so that any two rows or any two columns are orthogonal vectors
- paleobiochemistry — the study of biochemical processes that occurred in fossil life forms.
- pashmina politics — the adoption of political policies immediately after they have gone out of fashion
- pastoral symphony — the Symphony No. 6 in F major (1807–08) by Ludwig van Beethoven.
- peer of the realm — any of a class of peers in Great Britain and Ireland entitled by heredity to sit in the House of Lords.
- phantom limb pain — a phenomenon characterized by the experience of pain, discomfort, or other sensation in the area of a missing limb or other body part, as a breast.
- pharmacologically — the science dealing with the preparation, uses, and especially the effects of drugs.
- phenylformic acid — benzoic acid.
- phumiphon aduldet — (Phumiphon Aduldet; Bhumibol Adulyadej) born 1927, king of Thailand since 1946.
- plains of abraham — a high plain adjoining the city of Quebec, Canada: battlefield where the English under Wolfe defeated the French under Montcalm in 1759.
- ploughman's lunch — a light lunch consisting of bread and cheese, and sometimes pickled onions.
- polymorphonuclear — (of a leukocyte) having a lobulate nucleus.
- roman catholicism — the faith, practice, and system of government of the Roman Catholic Church.
- semi-biographical — of or relating to a person's life: He's gathering biographical data for his book on Milton.
- sexual dimorphism — the condition in which the males and females in a species are morphologically different, as with many birds.