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Broecker, Wallace Smith

(Encyclopedia)Broecker, Wallace Smith brōkˈər [key], 1931–2019, American geophysicist, b. Chicago, Ph.D. Columbia, 1958. He was a member of Columbia's faculty from 1959. In the 1970s he predicted rising temper...

Brongniart, Alexandre

(Encyclopedia)Brongniart, Alexandre brôNyärˈ [key], 1770–1847, French geologist, mineralogist, and chemist. As director of the Sèvres porcelain factory from 1800, he was responsible for its international fam...

repartimiento

(Encyclopedia)repartimiento rāpärtēmyĕnˈtō [key], in Spanish colonial practice, usually, the distribution of indigenous people for forced labor. In a broader sense it referred to any official distribution of ...

Robbins, John Bennet

(Encyclopedia)Robbins, John Bennet, 1932–2019, American physician and microbiologist, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., M.D. New York Univ., 1959. He did research at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel and taught at the...

air navigation

(Encyclopedia)air navigation, science and technology of determining the position of an aircraft with respect to the surface of the earth and accurately maintaining a desired course (see navigation). Basic to air ...

refrigeration

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Compression system of refrigeration refrigeration, process for drawing heat from substances to lower their temperature, often for purposes of preservation. Refrigeration in its modern, portabl...

Farm Credit Administration

(Encyclopedia)Farm Credit Administration (FCA), an independent agency of the executive branch of the federal government that supervises and regulates the Farm Credit System (FCS) for American agriculture. The Farm ...

ignition

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Ignition system ignition, apparatus for igniting a combustible mixture. The German engineer Nikolaus A. Otto, in his first gas engine, used flame ignition; another method was heating a metal t...

national parks and monuments

(Encyclopedia)CE5 national parks and monuments. The National Park Service, a bureau of the U.S. Dept. of the Interior, was established in 1916 to oversee the administration of 40 national parks and monuments und...

dendrite

(Encyclopedia)dendrite: see nervous system; synapse. ...