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Samara, city, Russia

(Encyclopedia)Samara səmäˈrə [key], formerly Kuybyshev, city (1989 pop. 1,254,000), capital of its region, E central European Russia, on the left bank of the Volga and at the mouth of the Samara River. It is a ...

Cape Canaveral

(Encyclopedia)Cape Canaveral kənăvˈərəl [key], low, sandy promontory extending E into the Atlantic Ocean from a barrier island, E Fla., separated from Merritt Island by the Banana River, a lagoon; named (1963)...

Bond, George Phillips

(Encyclopedia)Bond, George Phillips, 1825–65, American astronomer, b. near Boston, grad. Harvard, 1845. He became the assistant of his father, William Cranch Bond, and in 1859 succeeded him as director of the Har...

Lowell, Percival

(Encyclopedia)Lowell, Percival, 1855–1916, American astronomer, b. Boston, grad. Harvard, 1876; brother of Abbott Lawrence Lowell and Amy Lowell. He visited Korea and Japan, where he acted as counselor and foreig...

saccharin

(Encyclopedia)saccharin săkˈərĭn [key], C7H5NSO3, white, crystalline, aromatic compound. It was discovered accidentally by I. Remsen and C. Fahlberg in 1879. Pure saccharin tastes several hundred times as sweet...

Barnard, Christiaan Neethling

(Encyclopedia)Barnard, Christiaan Neethling krĭsˈtēänˌ nāˈᵺĭng bärˈnərd [key], 1922–2001, South African surgeon. The son of a Dutch Reformed minister, Barnard studied medicine at the Univ. of Cape To...

fetish

(Encyclopedia)fetish fĕtˈĭsh [key], inanimate object believed to possess some magical power. The fetish may be a natural thing, such as a stone, a feather, a shell, or the claw of an animal, or it may be artific...

Turing machine

(Encyclopedia)Turing machine, a mathematical model of a device that computes via a series of discrete steps and is not limited in use by a fixed maximum amount of data storage. Introduced by the British mathematici...

Pohnpei

(Encyclopedia)Pohnpei pōnˈpā [key], state and island (1991 est. pop. 52,000), 129 sq mi (334 sq km), W Pacific, in the E Caroline Islands. It is one of four states comprising the Federated States of Micronesia. ...

osprey

(Encyclopedia)osprey ŏsˈprē [key], common name for a fish-eating bird of prey found near water in most parts of the world. The osprey, or fish hawk, Pandion haliaetus, has brown upperparts and a grayish white he...