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Smithsonian Institution

(Encyclopedia)Smithsonian Institution, research and education center, mainly at Washington, D.C.; founded 1846 under the terms of the will of James Smithson of London, who in 1829 bequeathed his fortune to the Unit...

Work Projects Administration

(Encyclopedia)Work Projects Administration (WPA), former U.S. government agency, established in 1935 by executive order of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt as the Works Progress Administration; it was renamed th...

xenon

(Encyclopedia)xenon zēˈnŏn [key] [Gr.,=strange], gaseous chemical element; symbol Xe; at. no. 54; at. wt. 131.293; m.p. −111.9℃; b.p. −107.1℃; density 5.86 grams per liter at STP; valence usually 0. Xeno...

Bhopal

(Encyclopedia)Bhopal bōˈpäl [key], former principality, Madhya Pradesh state, central India. A region of rolling downs and thickly forested hills, it is predominantly agricultural. Its Buddhist monuments include...

Shenyang

(Encyclopedia)Shenyang mo͞okˈdŭn [key], city (1994 est. pop. 3,762,000), capital of Liaoning prov., NE China, on the Hun River. It is China's fourth largest city and the leading manufacturing hub in a highly ind...

Petraeus, David Howell

(Encyclopedia)Petraeus, David Howell pĕtrāˈəs [key], 1952–, American military officer and government official, b. Cornwall, N.Y., studied West Point (B.S., 1974), U.S. Army Command and General Staff College (...

population

(Encyclopedia)population, the inhabitants of a given area, but perhaps most importantly, the human inhabitants of the earth (numbering about 7.5 billion in 2017), who by their increasing numbers and corresponding i...

solid waste

(Encyclopedia)solid waste, discarded materials other than fluids. In the United States in 1996, nearly 210 million tons—about 4.3 lb. (2 kg) per person daily (up from 2.7 lb./1.2 kg in 1960)—were collected and ...

Down syndrome

(Encyclopedia)Down syndrome, congenital disorder characterized by mild to severe mental retardation, slow physical development, and characteristic physical features. Down syndrome affects about 1 in every 730 live ...

consumption

(Encyclopedia)consumption, in economics, direct utilization of goods and services by consumers, not including the use of means of production, such as machinery and factories (see capital). Consumption can be divide...