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libel and slander

(Encyclopedia)libel and slander, in law, types of defamation. In common law, written defamation was libel and spoken defamation was slander. Today, however, there are no such clear definitions. Permanent forms of d...

Yukon, territory, Canada

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Yukon, territory (2001 pop. 28,674), 207,076 sq mi (536,327 sq km), NW Canada. The territory's history began with the explorations in the 1840s of Robert Campbell and John Bell, fur traders f...

Securities and Exchange Commission

(Encyclopedia)Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), agency of the U.S. government created by the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and charged with protecting the interests of the public and investors in connecti...

nervous system

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Nerve cell CE5 Nervous system nervous system, network of specialized tissue that controls actions and reactions of the body and its adjustment to the environment. Virtually all members of ...

euthanasia

(Encyclopedia)euthanasia yo͞oˌthənāˈzhə [key], either painlessly putting to death or failing to prevent death from natural causes in cases of terminal illness or irreversible coma. The term comes from the Gre...

glacier

(Encyclopedia)glacier, moving mass of ice that survives year to year, formed by the compacting of snow into névé and then into granular ice and set in motion outward and downward by the force of gravity and the s...

meteorite

(Encyclopedia)meteorite, meteor that survives the intense heat of atmospheric friction and reaches the earth's surface. Because of the destructive effects of this friction, only the very largest meteors become mete...

Northwest Passage

(Encyclopedia)Northwest Passage, water routes through the Arctic Archipelago, N Canada, and along the northern coast of Alaska between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Even though the explorers of the 16th cent. de...

Pacific Ocean

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Pacific Ocean, largest and deepest ocean, c.70,000,000 sq mi (181,300,000 sq km), occupying about one third of the earth's surface; named by the explorer Ferdinand Magellan; the southern part i...

lens, in optics

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Lenses lens, device for forming an image of an object by the refraction of light. In its simplest form it is a disk of transparent substance, commonly glass, with its two surfaces curved or wi...