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genetics

(Encyclopedia)genetics, scientific study of the mechanism of heredity. While Gregor Mendel first presented his findings on the statistical laws governing the transmission of certain traits from generation to genera...

DES

(Encyclopedia)DES or diethylstilbestrol dīˌĕthˌəlstĭlbĕsˈtrôl [key], synthetic nonsteroid female sex hormone having the same physiological effects as estrogen. In the 1940s and 50s DES was mistakenly belie...

game laws

(Encyclopedia)game laws, restrictions on the hunting or capture of wild game, whether bird, beast, or fish. After the Norman Conquest (1066), England enacted stringent game laws, known as the Forest Laws, which mad...

O'Hara, John

(Encyclopedia)O'Hara, John, 1905–70, American novelist and short-story writer, b. Pottsville, Pa. He worked at a number of jobs and ultimately became a newspaperman before the appearance of his first novel, Appoi...

physical fitness

(Encyclopedia)physical fitness, combined good health and physical development. The object of any program of physical fitness is to maximize an individual's health, strength, endurance, and skill relative to age, se...

White, E. B.

(Encyclopedia)White, E. B. (Elwyn Brooks White), 1899–1985, American writer, b. Mt. Vernon, N.Y., grad. Cornell, 1921. A witty, satiric observer of contemporary society, White was a member of the staff of the ear...

United Methodist Church

(Encyclopedia)United Methodist Church, religious body formed by the union in 1968 of the Evangelical United Brethren Church and the Methodist Church (see Methodism), with churches in the United States, Africa, and ...

Turnbull, Malcolm Bligh

(Encyclopedia)Turnbull, Malcolm Bligh, 1954–, Australian political leader, b. Sidney. Educated at the Univ. of Sidney and, as a Rhodes scholar, at Oxford, he practised law and was a journalist and a successful bu...

Reik, Theodor

(Encyclopedia)Reik, Theodor tāˈōdōr rīk [key], 1888–1969, American psychologist and author, b. Vienna, Ph.D. Univ. of Vienna, 1912. He was one of Sigmund Freud's earliest and most brilliant students; their a...

impotence

(Encyclopedia)impotence imˈpətəns [key], inhibited sexual excitement in a man during sexual activity that, despite an unaffected desire for sex, results in inability to attain or maintain a penile erection. Know...