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Agassiz, Alexander

(Encyclopedia)Agassiz, Alexander ăgˈəsē [key], 1835–1910, American naturalist and industrialist, b. Neuchâtel, Switzerland; son of Louis Agassiz, stepson of Elizabeth Cary Agassiz. He came to the United Stat...

refining

(Encyclopedia)refining, any of various processes for separating impurities from crude or semifinished materials. It includes the finer processes of metallurgy, the fractional distillation of petroleum into its comm...

bead test

(Encyclopedia)bead test, test used in the identification of certain metals. Some metallic ions that cannot be identified by a flame test are identified by a bead test. The test can also be used to confirm the resul...

herbicide

(Encyclopedia)herbicide hrˈbəsīdˌ [key], chemical compound that kills plants or inhibits their normal growth. A herbicide in a particular formulation and application can be described as selective or nonselectiv...

Hamburg, city, Germany

(Encyclopedia)Hamburg hämˈbo͝orkh [key], officially Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg (Free and Hanseatic Cit...

New Guinea

(Encyclopedia)New Guinea gĭnˈē [key], island, c.342,000 sq mi (885,780 sq km), SW Pacific, N of Australia; the world's second largest island after Greenland. Politically it is divided into two sections: the Indo...

manganese

(Encyclopedia)manganese măngˈgənēs, mănˈ– [key] [Lat.,=magnet], metallic chemical element; symbol Mn; at. no. 25; at. wt. 54.93805; m.p. about 1,244℃; b.p. about 1,962℃; sp. gr. 7.2 to 7.45, depending o...

beryllium

(Encyclopedia)beryllium bərĭlˈēəm [key] [from beryl ], metallic chemical element; symbol Be; at. no. 4; at. wt. 9.01218; m.p. about 1,278℃; b.p. 2,970℃ (estimated); sp. gr. 1.85 at 20℃; valence +2. Ber...

oxidation and reduction

(Encyclopedia)oxidation and reduction, complementary chemical reactions characterized by the loss or gain, respectively, of one or more electrons by an atom or molecule. Originally the term oxidation was used to re...

Chile

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Chile chĭlˈē, Span. chēˈlā [key], officially Republic of Chile, republic (2020 est. pop. 19,116,201), ...