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humus

(Encyclopedia)humus hyo͞oˈməs [key], organic matter that has decayed to a relatively stable, amorphous state. It is an important biological constituent of fertile soil. Humus is formed by the decomposing action ...

Huskisson, William

(Encyclopedia)Huskisson, William hŭsˈkĭsən [key], 1770–1830, British statesman. First elected to Parliament in 1796, he was secretary of the treasury (1804–5, 1807–9) but resigned with his close associate...

happening

(Encyclopedia)happening, an artistic event of a theatrical nature, but usually improvised spontaneously without the framework of a plot. The term originated with the creation and performance in 1959 of Allan Kaprow...

Gibbs, Josiah Willard

(Encyclopedia)Gibbs, Josiah Willard, 1839–1903, American mathematical physicist, b. New Haven, Conn., grad. Yale, 1858. He studied abroad and was professor of mathematical physics at Yale from 1871. His great con...

Fuller, John Frederick Charles

(Encyclopedia)Fuller, John Frederick Charles, 1878–1966, British soldier. In World War I, he recognized the importance of mechanized warfare and, as general staff officer of the tank corps, planned the stunning t...

Jacobi, Friedrich Heinrich

(Encyclopedia)Jacobi, Friedrich Heinrich, 1743–1819, German philosopher. Although educated for commerce, he early gave up business and became in 1770 a member of the council for the duchies of Berg and Jülich. A...

Ma Yüan

(Encyclopedia)Ma Yüan mä yüän [key], fl. c.1190–1225, Chinese painter of the Sung dynasty and foremost of the Ma family of painters. He became one of the most important landscape painters of the 12th and 13th...

Lorenz, Edward Norton

(Encyclopedia)Lorenz, Edward Norton, 1917–2008, American meteorologist and pioneer of chaos theory, b. West Hartford, Conn., Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1948. Lorenz became interested in meteorol...

nitrogen mustard

(Encyclopedia)nitrogen mustard, any of various poisonous compounds originally developed for military use (see poison gas). Like mustard gas and lewisite, it is a vesicant (blistering agent). In the form of its crys...

Paley Center for Media

(Encyclopedia)Paley Center for Media, American archive of radio and television programs, and forum for the discussion of the role and evolution of electronic media as well as the intersections of media and society;...