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Baskin, Leonard

(Encyclopedia)Baskin, Leonard, 1922–2000, American sculptor, graphic artist, and teacher, b. New Brunswick, N.J. In sculptural and graphic works that are figurative in style, Baskin's images of a corrupt, bloated...

semiotics

(Encyclopedia)semiotics or semiology, discipline deriving from the American logician C. S. Peirce and the French linguist Ferdinand de Saussure. It has come to mean generally the study of any cultural product (e.g....

electronics industry

(Encyclopedia)electronics industry, the business of creating, designing, producing, and selling devices such as radios, televisions, stereos, computers, semiconductors, transistors, and integrated circuits (see ele...

hydrocarbon

(Encyclopedia)hydrocarbon hīˌdrōkärˈbən [key], any organic compound composed solely of the elements hydrogen and carbon. The hydrocarbons differ both in the total number of carbon and hydrogen atoms in their ...

plutonium

(Encyclopedia)plutonium plo͞otōˈnēəm [key], radioactive chemical element; symbol Pu; at. no. 94; mass no. of most stable isotope 244; m.p. 641℃; b.p. 3,232℃; sp. gr. 19.84 at 20℃; valence +3, +4, +5, or ...

oxygen

(Encyclopedia)oxygen, gaseous chemical element; symbol O; at. no. 8; interval in which at. wt. ranges 15.99903–15.99977; m.p. −218.4℃; b.p. −182.962℃; density 1.429 grams per liter at STP; valence −2. T...

calcium

(Encyclopedia)calcium kălˈsēəm [key] [Lat.,=lime], metallic chemical element; symbol Ca; at. no. 20; at. wt. 40.078; m.p. about 839℃; b.p. 1,484℃; sp. gr. 1.55 at 20℃; valence +2. Calcium is a malleable, ...

formula, in chemistry

(Encyclopedia)formula, in chemistry, an expression showing the chemical composition of a compound. Formulas of compounds are used in writing the equations (see chemical equations) that represent chemical reactions....

Amado, Jorge

(Encyclopedia)Amado, Jorge zhôrˈzhĭ əmäˈdo͝o [key], 1912–2001, Brazilian novelist. Amado's works deal largely with the poor urban black and mulatto communities of Bahia. His early novels, such as The Viole...

Maxwell, William Keepers, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Maxwell, William Keepers, Jr., 1908–2000, American novelist, short-story writer, and editor, b. Lincoln, Ill. Educated at the Univ. of Illinois and Harvard, he began his career as a teacher, but soo...