Britannica Student Encyclopedia - 2010

more than 7,000 Ute living in the

United States.

#More to explore

Native Americans

Utopia

A utopia is an ideal, or perfect, place.

The word first appeared in a book written

by Sir Thomas More in the 1500s.

More came up with “utopia” by combining

Greek words meaning “no place.”

Some people have thought that though

no ideal community exists, people can

create one by working together.

In More’s book, Utopia is an imaginary

kingdom that is free from all cares, anxieties,

and miseries. Everyone lives in a

pleasant home surrounded by a garden.

More’s Utopia was not the first book of

its kind, and it was not the last. The

ancient Greeks wrote about utopias

more than 2,000 years ago. Utopian

books were especially common in the

1800s, when new scientific ideas made

people think about a better future. Utopias

became a common theme in science

fiction.

People have tried many times to establish

utopian communities. In North

America alone, more than 130 utopian

settlements were started between 1663

and 1858. Most failed.

#More to explore

Science Fiction

The Ute often carved pictures on rocks.

These carvings are known as petroglyphs.

46 Ute BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA

 

Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan is a country in central Asia.

The capital is Tashkent.

Uzbekistan shares borders with Kazakhstan,

Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan,

and Turkmenistan. The only

mountains are in the far eastern part of

the country. The Aral Sea is in the

northwest. Uzbekistan has a dry climate

with hot summers and cool winters.

Uzbekistan has few forests. Grasses grow

in much of the country. Rodents, foxes,

wolves, and gazelles live in the west.

Boars, deer, bears, wolves, goats, and

lynx live in the mountains.

About three fourths of the people are

Uzbeks. There are also small groups of

Russians, Tajiks, and Kazaks. Islam is the

main religion.

Many of Uzbekistan’s people work in

agriculture. Uzbekistan is one of the

largest cotton growers in the world.

Other crops include wheat, vegetables,

and grapes. Farmers also raise cattle,

sheep, and goats. The land provides

natural gas, oil, gold, copper, and other

minerals.

In ancient times a trade route called the

Silk Road ran through the area. In the

700s Arabs brought in the religion of

Islam. Uzbeks came from the north in

the early 1500s.

The Uzbeks ruled until the 1800s, when

Russians took control. In 1924 the

Soviet Union made Uzbekistan one of

its republics, or states. Uzbekistan

gained independence in 1991.

..More to explore

Aral Sea • Tashkent • Union of Soviet

Socialist Republics

Ichan-Kala, or Royal Court, is a

historic area of Khiva, Uzbekistan.

It has many ancient buildings.

Facts About

UZBEKISTAN

Population

(2008 estimate)

27,345,000

Area

172,700 sq mi

(447,400 sq km)

Capital

Tashkent

Form of

government

Republic

Major cities

Tashkent, Namangan,

Samarkand,

Andijon,

Bukhara

BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Uzbekistan 47

 

The English scientist Edward

Jenner created the first vaccine,

a vaccine against smallpox, in

1796.

(See Vaccine.)

During his lifetime the Dutch

artist Vincent van Gogh sold

only one painting.

(See Van Gogh, Vincent.)

Vatican City, which is inside the

city of Rome, Italy, is the smallest

country in the world.

(See Vatican City.)

Queen Victoria was queen of

the United Kingdom from 1837

to 1901. She reigned over her

country longer than any other

British king or queen before

her.

(See Victoria, Queen.)

Fresh lava may be as hot as

2,200°F (1,200° C).

(See Volcano.)

V v

 

Vaccine

Vaccines are substances that prevent the

spread of disease. Giving people vaccines

can save millions of lives. For example,

smallpox killed some 2 million people in

1967. By 1979 the disease had disappeared.

This change resulted from a

worldwide program of vaccination.

How VaccinesWork

Many diseases are caused by tiny germs

called bacteria or viruses. When people

are vaccinated against a disease, they are

purposely given the bacteria or virus that

causes the disease. They can receive the

vaccine in a shot, by mouth, or by a

nose spray.

The bacteria or virus in a vaccine is dead

or weakened. It causes little if any sickness

in the person who receives it.

Instead it causes the body’s immune

system to make proteins called antibodies,

which fight disease. If the same bacteria

or virus enters the body later on,

the immune system will know how to

fight it off.

History

An English doctor named Edward Jenner

created the first vaccine in 1796. He

saw that people who got the mild disease

called cowpox rarely got smallpox,

which is more serious. He did experiments

to find out why. He scratched

material from a cowpox sore into the

skin of a healthy boy. The boy got cowpox.

Then Jenner scratched material

from a smallpox sore into the boy’s arm.

The boy stayed healthy. The cowpox

material was a vaccine against smallpox.

The French scientist Louis Pasteur was

another important researcher. In the

1880s he developed a vaccine against

rabies. He used a weakened form of the

rabies virus to protect against a full

attack by the same virus.

Since Pasteur’s time, scientists have produced

vaccines against many diseases. In

the middle of the 1900s Jonas Salk created

a vaccine that almost wiped out