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boomerang

(Encyclopedia)boomerang bo͞oˈmərăngˌ [key], special form of throwing stick, used mainly by the aborigines of Australia. Other forms of throwing sticks were used by the peoples of ancient Egypt, Ethiopia, and I...

Bourke-White, Margaret

(Encyclopedia)Bourke-White, Margaret bûrkˈ hwīt [key], 1904–71, American photo-journalist, b. New York City. One of the original staff photographers at Fortune, Life, and Time magazines, Bourke-White was noted...

Muller, Hermann Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Muller, Hermann Joseph mŭlˈər [key], 1890–1967, American geneticist and educator, b. New York City, grad. Columbia (B.A., 1910; Ph.D., 1916). A student of Thomas Hunt Morgan, he taught (1915–18...

Tinbergen, Nikolaas

(Encyclopedia)Tinbergen, Nikolaas, 1907–88, Anglo-Dutch zoologist, b. Netherlands. He received his Ph.D. in 1932 from the Univ. of Leiden, where he became professor of zoology in 1947. In 1949 he joined the facul...

chloramphenicol

(Encyclopedia)chloramphenicol klōrˌămfĕnˈəkŏlˌ [key], antibiotic effective against a wide range of gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria (see Gram's stain). It was originally isolated from a species of S...

entomology

(Encyclopedia)entomology, study of insects, an arthropod class that comprises about 900,000 known species, representing about three fourths of all the classified animal species. Insects are studied because of their...

Hall, Jeffrey Connor

(Encyclopedia)Hall, Jeffrey Connor, 1945–, American geneticist, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., Ph.D. Univ. of Washington, Seattle, 1971. Hall was a professor at Brandeis Univ. from 1974 to 2008; he also taught (2004–12) at...

pineal gland

(Encyclopedia)pineal gland pĭnˈeəl [key], small organ (about the size of a pea) situated in the brain. Long considered vestigial in humans, the structure, which is also called the pineal body or the epiphysis, i...

biometrics, in security and personal identification

(Encyclopedia)biometrics, in security and personal identification, the electronic verification of individuals using biological traits, such as iris or retinal scanning, fingerprints, or face recognition, and the te...

Marine Corps, United States

(Encyclopedia)Marine Corps, United States, military corps that forms a separate service within the U.S. Dept. of the Navy. The commandant of the Marine Corps is a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. During conflic...