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exobiology

(Encyclopedia)exobiology or astrobiology, search for extraterrestrial life within the solar system and throughout the universe. Philosophical speculation that there might be other worlds similar to ours dates back ...

Great Awakening

(Encyclopedia)Great Awakening, series of religious revivals that swept over the American colonies about the middle of the 18th cent. It resulted in doctrinal changes and influenced social and political thought. In ...

Williams, Roger

(Encyclopedia)Williams, Roger, c.1603–1683, clergyman, advocate of religious freedom, founder of Rhode Island, b. London. A protégé of Sir Edward Coke, he graduated from Pembroke College, Cambridge, in 1627 and...

Trebizond, empire of

(Encyclopedia)Trebizond, empire of, 1204–1461. When the army of the Fourth Crusade overthrew (1204) the Byzantine Empire and established the Latin Empire of Constantinople, several Greek successor states sprang u...

Dominican Republic

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Dominican Republic dəmĭnˈĭkən [key], republic (2015 est. pop. 10,528,000), 18,700 sq mi (48,442 sq km), West Indies, on the eastern two thirds of the island of Hispaniola. The capital and ...

Disney, Walt

(Encyclopedia)Disney, Walt (Walter Elias Disney) dĭzˈnē [key], 1901–66, American movie producer and pioneer in animated cartoons, b. Chicago. He grew up in Missouri, in the small town of Marceline and in Kansa...

Fuller, Margaret

(Encyclopedia)Fuller, Margaret, 1810–50, American writer, lecturer, and public intellectual, b. Cambridgeport (now part of Cambridge), Mass. She was one of the most influential personalities in the American liter...

New England

(Encyclopedia)New England, name applied to the region comprising six states of the NE United States—Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. The region is thought to have been ...

transcendentalism , American literary and philosophical movement

(Encyclopedia)transcendentalism trănˌsĕndĕnˈtəlĭzəm [key] [Lat.,=overpassing], in literature, philosophical and literary movement that flourished in New England from about 1836 to 1860. It originated among ...

schizophrenia

(Encyclopedia)schizophrenia skĭtˌsəfrēˈnēə [key], group of severe mental disorders characterized by reality distortions resulting in unusual thought patterns and behaviors. Because there is often little or n...