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Reuchlin, Johann

(Encyclopedia)Reuchlin, Johann yōˈhän roikhˈlən [key], 1455–1522, German humanist and lawyer, a scholar of Greek and Hebrew, b. Baden. He taught jurisprudence at Tübingen. In 1492 he began the study of Hebr...

protoplasm

(Encyclopedia)protoplasm, term once used for the fundamental material of which all living things were thought to be composed. It was studied by a number of early scientists, especially by Félix Dujardin, J. E. Pur...

crane, in zoology

(Encyclopedia)crane, large wading bird found in marshes in the Northern Hemisphere and in Africa. Although sometimes confused with herons, cranes are more closely related to rails and limpkins. Cranes are known for...

convection

(Encyclopedia)convection, mode of heat transfer in fluids (liquids and gases). Convection depends on the fact that, in general, fluids expand when heated and thus undergo a decrease in density (since a given volume...

gas

(Encyclopedia)gas, in physics, one of the three commonly recognized states of matter, the other two being solid and liquid. A substance in the gaseous state has neither definite shape nor definite volume. Like liqu...

appendix

(Encyclopedia)appendix, small, worm-shaped blind tube, about 3 in. (7.6 cm) long and 1⁄4 in. to 1 in. (.64–2.54 cm) thick, projecting from the cecum (part of the large intestine) on the right side of the lower ...

mold

(Encyclopedia)mold, name for certain multicellular organisms of the various classes of the kingdom Fungi, characteristically having bodies composed of a cottony mycelium. The colors of molds are caused by the spore...

New Hampshire Grants

(Encyclopedia)New Hampshire Grants, early name (1749–77) for Vermont, given because most of the early settlers came in under land grants from Benning Wentworth, the colonial governor of New Hampshire. Although th...

Olbers, Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus

(Encyclopedia)Olbers, Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus hīnˈrĭkh vĭlˈhĕlm mätĕˈo͝os ôlˈbərs [key], 1758–1840, German astronomer and physician. He originated (1797) the first satisfactory method for calculat...

Pérez, Antonio

(Encyclopedia)Pérez, Antonio äntôˈnyō pāˈrĕth [key], b. 1534 or 1539, d. 1611, Spanish politician. Ambitious and unscrupulous, he became secretary to King Philip II and was, with the princesa de Éboli, a c...