A nanostructure is an atomic structure whose size is between that of a molecule (a billionth of a metre, i.e. a nanometre) and that of a bacterium (100 nanometres). They exist in nature but they can also be manufactured. This is the case of carbon nanotubes, for instance.

See also the article 'Nanotubes in outline'

Accounts framework whereby a country’s economic activity and the various economic agents composing it can be systematically described. These accounts are elaborated according to international conventions decreed by the United Nations and reflected in European law. In Belgium, the Institute of National Accounts entrusts the elaboration of the national accounts to the National Bank of Belgium.

One of the four modes of identification for humans in relation to the non-human, according to the theory proposed by Philippe Descola. Naturalism is the paradigm which cradles Western thought. It is governed by the idea that there exists a physical and material continuity between the human and non-human, but that between them there exists a mental discontinuity.

Famous for her legendary beauty (her name means ‘the beautiful one has arrived’), Nefertiti lived in the 14th century B.C. An Egyptian queen, she was the wife of the Pharaoh Amenhotep IV, more commonly known by the name Akhenaton, at whose side she played an important role in the representation of pharaonic power. She gave birth to six daughters, who for the most part died quite young. We do not know exactly when Nefertiti died, her remains have never been discovered or definitely identified, even if the English archaeologist Joanne Fletcher thinks that a mummy found in a tomb in the Valley of Kings in 1898 could indeed be that of Nefertiti.

Positively considered identity is an ensemble of the cultural features specific to a given group, and which confers its individuality on it; in the case of francophone Belgium, it is negative in the sense which the existence of an identity discourse does not necessarily postulate the presence of a positive and strong identity, from which springs the notion of a ‘lack’ in this area, and the themes of emptiness and bastardy.

The name for new tissue formation which develops through cellular pathological proliferation, generally in the form of a tumour. This tumour can be one of two types: Benign: its evolution is slow and limited. It can be surgically removed (ablation). Malignant: its evolution is gradual, prolific and especially recurrent. This type of tumour is more difficult to treat and can even be fatal.

Creation of the neurones during the embryonic period.

Drugs used to treat the central nervous system. They are administered to reduce psychotic symptoms such as delusions, hallucinations and anxiety.

A semaphorin receptor involved in axon guidance, where it acts as repulsion system. In blood vessels, neuropilin acts as co-receptor of VEGF, particularly VEGF-A165.

Neurosciences encompasses all the disciplines that study the nervous system (brain, nerves, spinal chord, sense organs and the autonomic nervous system that controls homeostasis) and its illnesses. Historically, the neurosciences appeared as a branch of biology and medicine, before other scientific disciplines – such as chemistry, psychology, physics or information technology – also contributed to their development. More recently, the cognitive sciences have also contributed to their success. Approaches to the study of the nervous system have greatly increased over the past few years, but they all follow two key areas: those that favour the study of the constitutive elements of the nervous system in an attempt to reconstitute the whole and those that attempt to understand organisation and functioning by studying external signs.

Chemical substance secreted in the synapse, which maintains the propagation of the nervous influx between one neurone and another or between a neurone and a muscle cell.

Coming to power in 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt engaged the United States in a New Deal in an attempt to emerge from the depression into which the country had fallen, particularly since 1929. He initially took a series of emergency measures. On the 10th of March 1933 the banks were closed for four days, transactions in gold were forbidden and exchange control restrictions were imposed. This enabled the banking system, which had been paralysed by bankruptcy and savers’ panic, to function once again. It was also at this time that a clear distinction had to be made between deposit banks and investment banks and an that a federal insurance organisation was created in order to guarantee a minimum of deposits made by savers.

The President also adopted a series of longer-term measures: incentives to reduce agricultural production, suspension of anti-trust laws and price-fixing of industrial products, and the creation of public utility re-employment programmes. Two years later, in 1935, Roosevelt put the finishing touches to his edifice by taking measures in favour of freedom of organisation, and the creation of a federal pension scheme for the over 65s and compulsory unemployment insurance.

These measures did significantly improved the country’s economic situation but did not succeed in recreating full employment, which only became a reality with the military orders sparked by the war in Europe and with the United States’ entry into war.

An English philosopher, mathematician, physicist, alchemist and astronomer. An emblematic figure in the sciences, Isaac Newton is above all known for his universal theory of gravitation. Gravitation is the force of attraction one body exerts over another. When it is exerted by the Earth this force is called ‘gravity’ or ‘weight’. According to Newton’s law of gravitation, the force of attraction grows when mass increases. Legend has it that Newton came to understand the principle when he saw an apple falling from a tree. Isaac Newton is also behind the three universal laws of motion. The first takes note of the principle of inertia: ‘A body on which no force is acting does not change its quality of motion.’ The second evokes the basic principle of dynamics: ‘The variation in the quantity of motion is proportional to the forces exercised on it,’ and the last one, the principle of action and reaction: ‘Two bodies exert on each other forces of equal intensity and in the opposite direction,’ takes into account the fact that to a force (F) which is exerted on a body there corresponds a second force (F') of the same intensity but working in the opposite direction. His work Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, written in 1686, is considered as a major work in the history of science. It is in this book that he describes universal gravitation, formulates the three laws of motion and lays the foundations of classical mechanics.

N.G.O. or NGO : an acronym for Non-Governmental Organization. An organism financed partly or largely by private donations and dedicated to causes of public interest and humanitarian aid in different forms (medical or technical assistance in developing countries, relief for the disadvantaged in developed countries, assistance in the case of natural catastrophies or wars, etc.).

Process within the nitrogen cycle during which ammonia is transformed into nitrites and then nitrates, thanks to the intervention of so-called nitrifying bacteria.

The term ‘non alignment’ to indicate the refusal to choose, at the height of the Cold War, between the spheres of influence of the two great powers of the day, the USA and the USSR, was first used by the Indian Prime Minister Nehru in 1954. The founding moment of the Non Aligned Movement is generally considered to be the Bandung Conference (Indonesia) in 1955. Even if the world today is no longer bipolar, the Movement is still very active, claiming the defence of the interests, notably economic ones, of the most disadvantaged countries. It numbers 118 member states, essentially the emerging powers such as India and South Africa, the countries of the South, amongst them practically all the countries of the African continent.

Non-Rapid Eye Movement or slow wave sleep. It is composed of light (stage 2) and deep (3 and 4) Stages. It is marked by characteristic elements of EEG recording: cylindrical shapes and large slow waves.

A part of a gene which does not directly define the amino acid sequence of the corresponding protein. In higher organisms these sequences are ten times more numerous than coding sequences. Certain non-coding sequences are zones regulating gene activity, which allows for the corresponding protein synthesis to be activated, or on the contrary to inhibit it. But, beyond these regions, the roles of the majority of non-coding sequences remain unknown.

On an international level, this national accounts term covers organisations in the private sector that do not distribute any profits to the people who control and direct them. Within the Belgian context, various associative forms can be considered as NPI, i.e. non-profit-making associations, professional federations, foundations, but also de facto associations, the most well-known being political parties and unions.

A term deprived of meaning, such as ‘tincheluche’ or ‘mupfteux’

NATO, also called the Atlantic Alliance or North Atlantic Pact, was signed on 4th of April 1949 as a response to the Berlin blockade in 1948. A unified High Command of the allied forces was put in place in 1950. At the beginning 12 countries were signatories; the USA and Canada and 10 European countries: Belgium, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Iceland, Italy, Luxemburg, Norway, the Netherlands and Portugal. Turkey and Greece followed in 1952 and the Federal Republic of Germany in 1955. The latter’s membership provoked the birth of the Warsaw Pact, on 14th May 1955. France left the unified command in 1966 (but remains a member of the Alliance), which led Belgium since then to house the Organisation’s headquarters (Brussels) and the military command (SHAPE at Casteau, close to Mons). France rejoined the unified command in 2009. Today NATO numbers 28 members and has expanded to the East following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The first of the Eastern bloc’s nations to join, on 3rd October 1990, was the ex-East Germany, when it reunified with the Federal Republic of Germany. NATO has been the heart of the defence policy of countries who opposed the expansion of communist regimes. Since the implosion of The USSR in 1991, it has been confronted with new threats it has had had to respond to. It is thus that it intervened militarily when faced with the rise of nationalisms in Eastern Europe (Bosnia in 1994 and Kosovo in 1999) and international terrorism (Afghanistan today).

Belgian politician and writer. During the First Wold War, he was involved in managing publicity for the Belgian government. He founded the movement for La Grande Belgique [the Greater Belgium], which demanded the annexation of Dutch Limbourg and a part of Germany.

A trained scientist (he was a biochemist and spent all of his career in a medical laboratory), Paul Nougé was a Belgian poet, considered as the theorist of surrealism in Belgium, a movement he joined on its being founded in 1924. In the same year he founded the ‘review-pamphlet’ Correspondance. He subsequently continually took up official positions on art in all of its forms, wrote poems (for example ‘detourning’ a grammar textbook or the catalogue of a fur trader), took photographs and put his pen to work in the service of his friend René Magritte. But he always rejected the aestheticising form of poetry in particular, and of art in general. For him a poet must recreate reality and poetry is also a form of action. That is why he distrusted pure political action, preferring subversion through art.

French poet. In his youth he joined the Vivants group, the second circle to have participated in the writing of the ‘Zutic’ album. His work was to have a lot of influence on the surrealists, including Aragon.

Spectroscopy through magnetic resonance allows for a non invasive and in vivo exploration of the molecular composition of tissues. It allows for the identification of certain molecular constituents, the metabolites, involved in pathological or physiological processes. (source : www.e-mri.org)

These are the structural units of nucleic acids, consisting of a sugar (ribose for RNA and deoxyribose for DNA), a phosphate group and a nitrogenous base. Four different nucleotides exist for DNA: adenine (A), guanine (G), thymine (T) and cytosine (C). They have the particular feature that they combine two by two in complementary pairs: adenine with thymine, guanine with cytosine. Uracil (U) is a nucleotide which is only found in RNA, replacing thymine, which is only found in DNA. Uracil matches up with adenine.

Nulling interferometry consists of causing a phase difference of half a wavelength in the beams of light collected by two telescopes, in order to eclipse the light from an object situated on the optical axis and thus render visible anything that is slightly to the side. This technology could soon be used in space research for exoplanets: nulling interferometry allows the stars signal to be blocked out in order to reveal a possible planetary companion. Furthermore, by playing on the distance between the telescopes, it is possible to choose the wavelength at which the transmission is at its maximum to study the planet.

A numerical model contains a gridline of cubes which are units of measurement. We can compare them to the pixels of a photograph. As a unit of measurement these cubes only represent a single piece of information which is the average of the phenomena found within it. For example if, in an oceanographic model, within the same cube there is body of water with a temperature of 5° and another of the same volume but with a temperature of 10°, the information which results will state that the whole of the water in the cube has a temperature of 7.5°. It is exactly the same as a pixel in a photograph. If a pixel contains red, orange and yellow in an initial image it will finally only show the orange, arising from a numerical mixing. For this reason the finer the meshing is in a model the more precise will be the study of the phenomena observed.

Numismatics is the science which studies the origins and the dating of coins.

A period of 24 hours made up of a day and a night and corresponding to a circadian biological cycle