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Ventris, Michael George Francis

(Encyclopedia)Ventris, Michael George Francis, 1922–56, English linguist. Ventris was a student of architecture, but he became interested in the untranslated Mycenaean scripts, particularly Linear B, which was fo...

Wells, David Ames

(Encyclopedia)Wells, David Ames, 1828–98, American economist, b. Springfield, Mass., grad. Williams, 1847, and Lawrence Scientific School, Cambridge, Mass., 1851. Early in life he wrote several popular books on s...

Waterloo, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Waterloo, city (1990 pop. 66,467), seat of Black Hawk co., NE Iowa, on the Cedar River; inc. 1868. Originally a center for sawmills and flour mills, Waterloo is a trade and industrial center in a farm...

Selkirk, Alexander

(Encyclopedia)Selkirk, Alexander sĕlˈkərk [key], 1676–1721, Scottish sailor whose adventures suggested to Daniel Defoe the story of Robinson Crusoe (1719). In 1704, as a sailing master, Selkirk quarreled with ...

fructose

(Encyclopedia)CE5 fructose lĕvˈyəlōsˌ [key], or fruit sugar, simple sugar found in honey and in the fruit and other parts of plants. It is much sweeter than sucrose (cane sugar). It is best obtained by hydr...

elasmobranch

(Encyclopedia)elasmobranch ĭlăsˈməbrăngk [key], cartilaginous fish, member of the subclass Elasmobranchii of the vertebrate class Chondrichthyes (see Chordata). This group includes sharks, skates, and rays. ...

Gasser, Herbert Spencer

(Encyclopedia)Gasser, Herbert Spencer găsˈər [key], 1888–1963, American physiologist, b. Platteville, Wis., grad. Univ. of Wisconsin (B.A., 1910; M.A., 1911), M.D. Johns Hopkins, 1915. From 1931 to 1935 he was...

pentimento

(Encyclopedia)pentimento pĕnˌtəmĕnˈtō [key], painter's term for the evidence in a work that the original composition has been changed. Often the opaque pigment with which the artist covered a mistake or unwan...

Lipscomb, William Nunn, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Lipscomb, William Nunn, Jr. lĭpˈskəm [key], 1919–2011, American physical chemist, b. Cleveland, Ph.D. California Institute of Technology, 1946. A professor of chemistry at the Univ. of Minnesota ...

Jones, James

(Encyclopedia)Jones, James, 1921–77, American novelist, b. Robinson, Ill. Written in the tradition of naturalism, his novels often celebrate the endurance of man. From Here to Eternity (1951), his best-known work...