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innate ideas

(Encyclopedia)innate ideas, in philosophy, concepts present in the mind at birth as opposed to concepts arrived at through experience. The theory has been advanced at various times in the history of philosophy to s...

Haring, Keith

(Encyclopedia)Haring, Keith hârˈĭng [key], 1958–90, American artist, b. Kutztown, Pa. He moved to New York City in 1975 and studied at the School of Visual Arts (1978–79). Fascinated with the 1970s graffiti ...

function

(Encyclopedia)function, in mathematics, a relation f that assigns to each member x of some set X a corresponding member y of some set Y; y is said to be a function of x, usually denoted f(x) (read “f of x ”)....

narcolepsy

(Encyclopedia)narcolepsy, a sleep disorder characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness and recurring unwanted episodes of sleep (“sleep attacks”). People with narcolepsy may abruptly fall asleep at almost any...

narthex

(Encyclopedia)narthex närˈthĕks [key], entrance feature peculiar to early Christian and Byzantine churches, although also found in some Romanesque churches, especially in France and Italy. Usually extending acro...

New York Times Company v. Sullivan

(Encyclopedia)New York Times Company v. Sullivan, case decided in 1964 by the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1960, the Times ran a fundraising advertisement signed by civil-rights leaders that criticized, among other thing...

verdict

(Encyclopedia)verdict, in law, official decision of a jury respecting questions of fact that the judge has laid before it. In the United States, verdicts must be unanimous in federal courts; majority verdicts are c...

Sotomayor, Sonia

(Encyclopedia)Sotomayor, Sonia sōtōmīyôrˈ [key], 1954–, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (2009–), b. Bronx, N.Y., to Puerto Rican parents, grad. Princeton (B.A. 1976), Yale (J.D. 1979). She work...

beta particle

(Encyclopedia)beta particle, one of the three types of radiation resulting from natural radioactivity. Beta radiation (or beta rays) was identified and named by E. Rutherford, who found that it consists of high-spe...

scarlet fever

(Encyclopedia)scarlet fever or scarlatina, an acute, communicable infection, caused by group A hemolytic streptococcal bacteria (see streptococcus) that produce an erythrogenic toxin. The disease is now uncommon, p...