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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 ...

julep

(Encyclopedia)julep jo͞olĭp [key] or mint julep, alcoholic beverage of the S United States. Its basis is properly bourbon whiskey, which is combined with water, sugar, crushed ice, and mint leaves. Juleps are som...

varve

(Encyclopedia)varve, in geology, pair of thin sedimentary layers formed annually by seasonal climatic changes. Usually found in glacial lake deposits, varves consist of a coarse-grained, light-colored summer deposi...

Scoresby Sound

(Encyclopedia)Scoresby Sound, arm of the Greenland Sea, E Greenland. It has numerous fjords that branch out generally westward to the ice cap. Some of the branches extend more than 180 mi (290 km) inland. At its mo...

erosion

(Encyclopedia)erosion ĭrōˈzhən [key], general term for the processes by which the surface of the earth is constantly being worn away. The principal agents are gravity, running water, near-shore waves, ice (most...

Condorcet, Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas Caritat, marquis de

(Encyclopedia)Condorcet, Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas Caritat, marquis de märēˈ zhäN äNtwänˈ nēkôläˈ kärētäˈ märkēˈ də kôNdôrsāˈ [key], 1743–94, French mathematician, philosopher, and politic...

Scott, Robert Falcon

(Encyclopedia)Scott, Robert Falcon, 1868–1912, British naval officer and antarctic explorer. He commanded two noted expeditions to Antarctica. The first expedition (1901–4), in the Discovery, organized jointly ...

Foxe Basin

(Encyclopedia)Foxe Basin, a widening of the waterway between Baffin Island and the Melville Peninsula, c.340 mi (550 km) long and c.225 mi (360 km) wide, Nunavut Territory, Canada. The basin is shallow and is ice-c...

Isfjorden

(Encyclopedia)Isfjorden ēsˌfyôrˈdən [key] [Ice Fjord], inlet of the Greenland Sea and largest fjord of Spitsbergen island, Svalbard, Norway, 65 mi (105 km) long and from 8 to 20 mi (12.8–32 km) wide. It rece...

Widsith

(Encyclopedia)Widsith wĭdˈsĭth [key], 7th-century Anglo-Saxon poem found in the Exeter Book. It is an account of the wanderings of a Germanic minstrel and of the legends he relates. The poem gives an excellent d...