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period, in geologic time

(Encyclopedia)period, unit of time on the geologic timescale. Periods are shorter than an era and longer than an epoch. Periods are of variable length, generally lasting tens of millions of years, with characterist...

Schönbein, Christian Friedrich

(Encyclopedia)Schönbein, Christian Friedrich krĭsˈtyän frēˈdrĭkh shönˈbīn [key], 1799–1868, German chemist. From 1828 he taught at the Univ. of Basel (as professor from 1835). He discovered ozone (1840)...

abstract art

(Encyclopedia)abstract art: see abstract expressionism; modern art. ...

museums of art

(Encyclopedia)museums of art, institutions or buildings where works of art are kept for display or safekeeping. The word museum derives from the Greek mouseion, meaning temple to the works of the Muses. This articl...

Christian of Anhalt

(Encyclopedia)Christian of Anhalt, 1568–1630, prince of Anhalt (1603–30). He was a firm Calvinist and a skilled diplomat. As adviser to Frederick IV, elector palatine, he sought to build a strong Protestant all...

Rove, Karl Christian

(Encyclopedia)Rove, Karl Christian, 1950–, U.S. political consultant and government official, b. Denver, Colo. Politically active in high school, he joined College Republicans while at the Univ. of Utah and becam...

Poggendorff, Johann Christian

(Encyclopedia)Poggendorff, Johann Christian yōˈhän krĭsˈtyän pôgˈəndôrfˌ [key], 1796–1877, German physicist and chemist. He founded (1824) and edited the important Annalen der Physik und Chemie and edi...

Rask, Rasmus Christian

(Encyclopedia)Rask, Rasmus Christian räsˈmo͝os krĭsˈtyän räsk [key], 1787–1832, Danish philologist. Rask was a major linguistic pioneer. He published one of the first usable Anglo-Saxon and Icelandic gramm...

Sprengel, Christian Konrad

(Encyclopedia)Sprengel, Christian Konrad krĭsˈtyän kônˈrät shprĕngˈəl [key], 1750–1816, German botanist. Although director of a school at Spandau and tutor in Berlin, he devoted himself chiefly to the st...

Diez, Friedrich Christian

(Encyclopedia)Diez, Friedrich Christian frēˈdrĭkh krĭsˈtyän dēts [key], 1794–1876, German philologist. A professor at Bonn, Diez is noted as one of the founders of the science of Romanic philology. His gre...