Word: alkaloid
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...their prospering industrial corner of north central Spain, some 2,000,000 dour, strong-willed Basques-"the alkaloid of the Spaniard," Philosopher Miguel de Unamuno called them -fret that hard work and efficiency have not brought them the recognition and cultural elbowroom that they feel they deserve in a still-autocratic society. In France, which enjoys Western Europe's fastest-growing economy, young Bretons in search of a job and a future still gravitate to Paris. There they gather nightly, like so many expatriates, in the bars around Montparnasse to raise their glasses to a murmured Breiz atao-Brittany...
...Japanese call the foul brown sludge hedoro, combining the words for "vomit" and "muck." Like an indisposed pagan god, the port bottom belches huge bubbles of methane gas and alkaloid matter to the surface. In July, the hydrosulfide stench caused workers aboard a dredger to faint. Naked fishermen diving for abalone near by broke out in a mysterious rash attributed to the tainted water. As a result, Fuji's problems seized Japan's headlines...
Mescaline is an alkaloid produced by the peyote cactus which is native to the Rio Grande regions of Mexico and Texas. As peyote, this curious compound has been used for many years; indeed, the Aztecs worshipped this plant as the chief of three great deities. More recently, the ingestion of peyote for its drug effect has spread among Indians of Mexico and the United States. There is a Christian sect (The Native American Church) based on sacramental use of peyote wafers, and there is also an impressive black market that ships quantities of the cactus to American students, beatniks...
...produce other new flower strains, Burpee technicians have used X rays to alter the genes of calendula seeds, created a large double-petaled variety. They have treated seeds with colchicine. a chromosome-multiplying alkaloid that increases a plant's size and changes its characteristics. Colchicine has made possible giant marigolds and snapdragons, and fluffy, ruffled zinnias...
...that he had been assigned by a Communist diplomat to replace the normal cafeteria salt shakers with others that he was told contained "a mild laxative." When contents of two suspect shakers were analyzed, their salt was found mixed with 2.36% by weight of atropine, a deadly white, crystalline alkaloid poison made of the nightshade plant. For adults, as little as 10 mg. of atropine can cause coma, and a salt-hungry canteen customer might presumably have shaken enough on his food to make himself pretty sick. "Tragedies were prevented," said Hazelhoff...