Crimethink
See Thoughtcrime.
Crisis on Infinite Earths
DC Comics’ graphic novel involving two mysterious beings: the Anti-Monitor and the Monitor. The Monitor quickly assembles a team of super-heroes from across time and space to battle his counterpart and stop the destruction after the Anti-Monitor begins a crusade across time to bring about the end of all existence. As alternate Earths are systematically destroyed, DC’s greatest heroes, including Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and Aquaman, assemble to stop the menace, but The Flash and Supergirl die in battle, and the heroes begin to wonder if even all of the heroes in the world can stop this destructive force. This story is said to have changed the DC Universe forever.
Crossover
In fiction, and in particular, in comic book and graphic novel series, a story that incorporates characters and plot lines from two separate series into one tale.
Crow, The (graphic novel)
Created by James O’Barr (writing as J. O’Barr) following the death of his girlfriend, who was killed by a drunk driver, the cult classic graphic novel was first published in the spring of 1989 by Caliber Press, a small Detroit-based comics company. Four issues of the grim gothic tale. which centered on a rock guitarist who rises from the dead to seek revenge on his and his fiancée’s murderers, were released before Caliber was forced to put the comic series on hold. O’Barr finished the first part of the comic in 1981 and planned to end the series with a double-sized chapter entitled “Death,” but it was never published by Caliber. Instead, the author turned to Tundra Publishing Ltd. to complete the story. Tundra repackaged the out-of-print Caliber books as a three-volume graphic novel. In 1993, Kitchen Sink Press Inc. acquired The Crow, and released the three Tundra Press volumes as a single 244-page graphic novel.
Cryogenics
Defined literally as “the production of icy cold,” cryogenics is the study of the production of very low temperatures and the behavior of materials at those temperatures. A number of researchers define cryogenic temperatures as those ranging from -150°C (equal to −238°F or 123 Kelvin, expressed as “123 K”) down to absolute zero (-273.15°C, -460°F or 0 K), the temperature at which molecular motion comes as close as theoretically possible to ceasing completely. To achieve such extremely low temperatures, liquefied gases known as cryogens may be used. Examples of cryogens include liquid nitrogen and liquid helium.
Cryogenics had its genesis in 1877, the year in which oxygen was first cooled to the point at which it became a liquid (−297.67°F or 183°C or 90 K). Since then, the theoretical development of cryogenics has been connected to growth in refrigeration systems and food preservation, as well as the storage and transportation of liquefied natural gas (LNG), a mixture largely composed of methane, ethane and other combustible gases. Cryogenic fuels, mainly oxygen and hydrogen, have been used to power NASA rockets on space vehicles. Russia’s space program has also utilized cryogenic propellants.
Cryogenics are central to what is known as “cryosurgery.” A low-temperature scalpel or probe can be used to freeze unhealthy tissue. The resulting dead cells are then removed through normal bodily processes. The advantage to this method is that freezing the tissue rather than cutting it produces less bleeding. Cryosurgery has proven successful in removing tonsils, hemorrhoids, warts, cataracts and even some tumors. In addition, sufferers of Parkinson’s disease have been treated with the freezing of small areas of the brain believed to be responsible for the affliction.
Controlled cryogenic treatment of metals and other materials has been known to increase their strength and resistance to wear, and cryogenic oxygen and hydrogen can also be used as fuels in space flight. In the late 1990s, the applications of cryogenics developed, achieving more than just increasing the life of a product. Examples include musical instruments (improved sound quality), baseball bats and golf clubs (greater sweet spot), racing engines (greater performance under stress), firearms (less warping after continuous shooting), knives, razor blades, brake rotors, and even pantyhose.
Not to be confused with cryonics or suspended animation.
Cryonics
The theoretical practice of deep-freezing and storing a human body or other animal or biological organism, either before or after death, to be preserved and revived at some future time. Potential hopes for the theory are that humans with terminal illnesses and conditions may be frozen until such time as a cure for their condition has been developed. Though it has been widely used as a useful tool in the literary/film genre of science fiction, cryonics is an as-yet unproven theory seen by many as a “false science.” Still, some evidence supports the possibility that brain features which encode memories and determine behavior can be preserved during and after cryopreservation, which has been used successfully in laboratories to maintain animal cells, human embryos and some organized tissues for periods as long as three decades.
When a biological sample is cryopreserved, cryoprotective chemicals such as dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) or propylene glycol (C3H8O2) are added, lowering the temperature to below the glass transition temperature (the temperature at which a polymer turns from a ductile material to a hard, brittle material, typically about −120°C). At these temperatures, molecular activities are slowed to the degree that it effectively stops biological time/aging. Researchers have successfully cryopreserved and later transplanted sheep ovaries and rat limbs, and have routinely recovered rabbit kidneys after cooling to -45°C. Efforts to improve these technologies provide indirect support for the idea that the brain, like any other organ, may be adequately cryopreserved by current methods or methods under development.
As to the preservation of memory following extreme freezing, studies of emergency resuscitation prove that information loss occurs not at the moment heart or brain activity stops, but when the chemistry or structure of life becomes irreversibly damaged, which is often significantly after clinical death has been established. For instance, survivors of profound hypothermia have sustained no permanent brain damage. Similarly, direct evidence that memories can survive cryopreservation comes from experiments which proved that a cryopreserved and revived roundworm C. elegans retained learned behaviors acquired before cryopreservation. Similarly, it has been shown that long-term potentiation of neurons, a mechanism of memory, remains intact in rabbit brain tissue following cryopreservation.
The theoretical practice of cryonics should not be confused with cryogenics or suspended animation.
Cryopreservation
See Cryonics.
Cryosurgery
See Cryogenics.
Cryptography
The science or study of the procedures, processes, methods and techniques of codes and cipher systems.
Cthulhu
Cthulhu (pronounced most commonly “kah-thoo-loo” or “kah-thool-hoo”) is a monstrous entity with the facial appearance of an octopus or squid who lies “dead but dreaming” in the city of R’lyeh, a place presently (and mercifully) sunken below the depths of the Pacific Ocean. Cthulhu appears in various monstrous and demonic forms in early myths of the human race. Cthulhu is the high priest of the Great Old Ones, unnatural alien beings who ruled the Earth before humanity formed, worshipped as gods by some misguided people. The powerful fictional entity was created by H.P. Lovecraft and introduced in the story “The Call of Cthulhu,” which was published in the American pulp magazine Weird Tales in 1928.
Cube root
In relation to a given numeric value, the number which, when multiplied by itself three times, equals the given value. For example, the cube root of 8 is 2 because 2 x 2 x 2 = 8.
Cutter John
A semi-regular character in Berkeley Breathed’s popular comic strip Bloom County (1980-89, 2015- ), John was a paraplegic Vietnam veteran, new to the fictional county in the early days of the strip. Popular with readers, John’s wheelchair doubled in his and his friends’ imagined adventures as the starship Enterpoop and the spaceship Aluminum Falcon. One of cartoonist Breathed’s oldest characters, John first appeared as “Saigon John” in Breathed’s first strip, The Academia Waltz, which ran from 1978 to 1979. After Breathed originally retired Bloom County, John made a cameo appearance in the Sundays-only strip Outland.
Cyber
- In general, of or relating to computers and computer networks, as in “the cyber marketplace.”
- In the realm of chat rooms and instant messages, “cyber” took on the qualities of a verb, where to “cyber” with someone else was to have conversations involving adult and/or sexual topics.
Cybercrime
Criminal activity involving the use of the internet, a computer system, or computer technology.
Cybercriminal
One who engages in cybercrime.
Cyborg
A human whose body contains mechanical and/or electrical parts or devices, giving the person abilities beyond a normal human being. One well-known example of this in pop culture was the character of Steve Austin in the 1970s TV show The Six Million Dollar Man.
Cyborg Superman
See Henshaw, Hank.
Cyclops
- In Greek mythology, a member of a race of one-eyed giants, such as the one encountered by Odysseus in The Odyssey.
2. In the Marvel Comics universe, Cyclops is the alter-ego of Scott Summers. First appearing in X-Men #1 in 1963, Cyclops was one of the original mutant members of the X-Men. Before a plane crashed, tragically killing his parents, Scott and his brother were thrust out, attached to a parachute. Scott hit his head, putting him into a coma and causing brain damage. No long able to control his mutant powers, Scott unleashed an uncontrollable blast of optic force that blew a crane apart. Another blast from Scott saved the nearby crowd, but instead of praise, Scott received their anger and fear as they tried to pursue him. As a teenager, Scott was sent to a specialist who discovered that lenses made of ruby quartz corrected the problem. Charles Xavier asked Scott to become the first in his new school for gifted youngsters, which was actually a school/haven for mutants. When Xavier’s other original recruits left the fold following an encounter with the sentient island-being Krakoa, Cyclops stayed on as deputy leader of the new team.
Cylon
In the original 1978-79 television series Battlestar Galactica and its follow-up 1980 series Galactica 1980, the Cylons were originally an intelligent race of serpentlike aliens. They created super-intelligent robotic “centurions,” programmed to exterminate all humans. According to the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica (2004-09), Cylons were originally machines created by a human weapons technologist to serve in the military. The automatons were eventually enslaved by the humans until they rose up in a great rebellion. During the war that followed, the mechanical Cylons encountered the last five members of a distant, highly evolved race of Cylons, who resembled humans in practically every way. Several different “models” of these humanoid Cylons were created to infiltrate the enemy, while the metallic Cylons were used as military troops.
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