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Lot, in the Bible

(Encyclopedia)Lot, in the Book of Genesis, the son of Abraham's brother Haran. Lot settled in Sodom and received a warning of its destruction. As he fled with his family, his wife, disobeying God's orders, looked b...

Vignola, Giacomo da

(Encyclopedia)Vignola, Giacomo da jäˈkōmō dä vēnyōˈlä [key], 1507–73, one of the foremost late Renaissance architects in Italy. His real name was Giacomo Barozzi or Barocchio. Appointed (1550) papal arch...

Wright, Sewall

(Encyclopedia)Wright, Sewall, 1889–1988, American geneticist, b. Melrose, Mass., B.S. Lombard College, 1911, M.S. Univ. of Illinois, 1912, D.Sc. Harvard, 1915. From 1915 to 1925 he worked in the Bureau of Animal ...

Planck's constant

(Encyclopedia)Planck's constant plängks [key], fundamental constant of the quantum theory. It is represented by the letter h and has a value of 6.62607 × 10−34 joule-second. The combination h/2π, denoted by h ...

Pfeffer, Wilhelm

(Encyclopedia)Pfeffer, Wilhelm vĭlˈhĕlm pfĕˈfər [key], 1845–1920, German plant physiologist. He was professor of botany successively at the universities of Bonn, Basel, Tübingen, and Leipzig (from 1887). W...

Carus, Paul

(Encyclopedia)Carus, Paul, 1852–1919, American philosopher, born and educated in Germany. For many years he was editor of the Open Court and the Monist, periodicals devoted to philosophy and religion. His philoso...

pillar

(Encyclopedia)pillar, freestanding columnar supporting member. It is a general term, little used as an exact architectural definition except as applied to an upright support in the medieval styles, consisting of an...

John Bosco, Saint

(Encyclopedia)John Bosco, Saint, 1815–88, Italian priest, b. Piedmont. As a priest at Turin he was very successful in work with boys. He founded (1841) the Salesian order (i.e., order of St. Francis de Sales) for...

Alberti, Leone Battista

(Encyclopedia)Alberti, Leone Battista, 1404–72, Italian architect, musician, painter, and humanist, active at the papal court, Florence, Rimini, and Mantua. Alberti was the first architect to argue for the correc...

chord, in music

(Encyclopedia)chord, in music, two or more simultaneously sounding pitches. In tonal music the fundamental chord is called the triad. It consists of three pitches, two a perfect fifth apart and a third pitch a majo...