from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- adj. Of, involving, or acting as a catalyst: "Deregulation's catalytic power . . . is still reshaping the banking, communications, and transportation industries” ( Ellyn E. Spragins).
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- adj. Of or relating to a catalyst; having properties facilitating chemical reaction or change.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- adj. Relating to, or causing, catalysis.
- n. An agent employed in catalysis, as platinum black, aluminium chloride, etc.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Of, pertaining to, or characterized by catalysis; having the power of decomposing a compound body apparently by mere contact; resulting from catalysis.
- A term applied to evolutionary stages or conditions in which organisms are degenerating toward sterility, as a result either of too wide cross-breeding or of too narrow inbreeding. Aberrant or mutative hybrids and abrupt mutative variations or sports appear in the catalytic stages. Compare dialytic, 4, *hemilytic, and *prostholytic.
- n. Same as catalytic agent.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adj. relating to or causing or involving catalysis
The term catalytic is loosely used by RNA world enthusiasts who put forth the argument that RNA catalytic properties could have initially substituted for those of proteins.
It only treats, by way of analogy, the subject of the ability of RV+NS to rapidly acquire peaks of fitness, and if you extend the analogy (as I have done) to something like protein catalytic rates then you can understand how highly catalytic proteins could evolve and not need to be assembled tornado-in-a-junkyard fashion by random chance.
BTW - immigrants (be they illegal or legal) contribute to urban sprawl, increased pollution from cars, increased pollution from power plants, increased usage of water, increased usage of mined metals (in catalytic converters, cell phones, jewelry, etc) and deforastion.
The pace and style of political change is set by what might be called the catalytic nations, radiating their influence to their immediate neighbors, prompting also imitation among the more distant, and leaving only a few isolated regions impervious to the impact of new political fashions and ideas.
Platinum and palladium are widely used in car-exhaust filters, known as catalytic converters, with auto-catalyst demand accounting for about 46% of platinum and 61% of palladium consumption, according to specialty chemicals company Johnson Matthey PLC.
Platinum and palladium are primarily used in car exhaust filters, known as catalytic converters with auto-catalyst demand accounting for around 46% of platinum and 61% of palladium consumption, according to specialty chemicals company Johnson Matthey PLC.
Both metals are used to make car exhaust filters, known as catalytic converters, making their prices sensitive to fluctuations in automotive production.
The noble metals are widely used in car exhaust filters, known as catalytic converters, leaving their prices sensitive to disruptions in the automotive sector.
Platinum and palladium are heavily used in manufacturing car-exhaust filters known as catalytic converters, and prices tend to soften when demand falls.
Platinum is widely used in car exhaust filters, known as catalytic converters, and prices tend to be very sensitive to the automotive sector recovery in Japan, home to the world's largest car makers.