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tree surgery

(Encyclopedia)tree surgery, practice of repairing damaged trees to restore their appearance and to arrest disease. Injured or diseased parts are first removed (even small cavities in the bark may harbor injurious f...

Villavicencio

(Encyclopedia)Villavicencio vēlyävēsānˈsyō [key], city (1993 pop. 219,976), capital of Meta dept., central Colombia, on the Meta River. Located in the eastern foothills of the Andes, it is the chief urban cen...

Kelvin, William Thomson, 1st Baron

(Encyclopedia)Kelvin, William Thomson, 1st Baron, 1824–1907, British mathematician and physicist, b. Belfast. He was professor of natural philosophy at the Univ. of Glasgow (1846–99). He is known especially for...

spoils system

(Encyclopedia)spoils system, in U.S. history, the practice of giving appointive offices to loyal members of the party in power. The name supposedly derived from a speech by Senator William Learned Marcy in which he...

thermometer

(Encyclopedia)thermometer, instrument for measuring temperature. Galileo and Sanctorius devised thermometers consisting essentially of a bulb with a tubular projection, the open end of which was immersed in a liqui...

Anthropocene

(Encyclopedia)Anthropocene Epoch, an unofficial term used by scientists to describe a period of time—up to the present—in which humanity has impacted the planet on a global scale. The phrase was fir...

intelligence

(Encyclopedia)intelligence, in psychology, the general mental ability involved in calculating, reasoning, perceiving relationships and analogies, learning quickly, storing and retrieving information, using language...

ammeter

(Encyclopedia)ammeter ămˈmēˌtər [key], instrument used to measure the magnitude of an electric current of several amperes or more. An ammeter is usually combined with a voltmeter and an ohmmeter in a multipurp...

Wilson, Kenneth Geddes

(Encyclopedia)Wilson, Kenneth Geddes, 1936–2013, American physicist, b. Waltham, Mass., Ph.D. California Institute of Technology, 1961. A professor at Cornell (1963–88) and Ohio State Univ. (1988–2008), Wilso...

Corn Belt

(Encyclopedia)Corn Belt, major agricultural region of the U.S. Midwest where corn acreage once exceeded that of any other crop. It is now commonly called the Feed Grains and Livestock Belt. Located in the north cen...