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galactosemia

(Encyclopedia)galactosemia gəlăkˌtəsēˈmēə [key], inherited metabolic disorder caused by an enzyme deficiency and transmitted as a recessive trait; it results in the accumulation of the sugar galactose in th...

magnitude

(Encyclopedia)magnitude, in astronomy, measure of the brightness of a star or other celestial object. The stars cataloged by Ptolemy (2d cent. a.d.), all visible with the unaided eye, were ranked on a brightness sc...

tuatara

(Encyclopedia)tuatara –tāˈrə [key], lizardlike reptile, Sphenodon punctatus, last survivor of the reptilian order Rhynchocephalia, which flourished in the early Mesozoic era before the rise of the dinosaurs. A...

Hawkes, John

(Encyclopedia)Hawkes, John (John Clendennin Burne Hawkes, Jr.), 1925–98, American writer, b. Stamford, Conn., grad. Harvard, 1949. He taught English at Brown Univ. after 1958. Hawkes is considered one of the most...

hurricane

(Encyclopedia)CE5 View into the eye of a hurricane showing the structure of the surrounding cloud wall hurricane, tropical cyclone in which winds attain speeds greater than 74 mi (119 km) per hr. Wind speeds gu...

illusionism

(Encyclopedia)illusionism, in art, a kind of visual trickery in which painted forms seem to be real. It is sometimes called trompe l'oeil [Fr.,=fool the eye]. The development of one-point perspective in the Renaiss...

hex

(Encyclopedia)hex, witchcraft or one who works it. The word is of German origin, and beliefs connected with it spread from Europe to the United States, especially to the Pennsylvania Dutch country. The hex can be w...

dispersion, in chemistry

(Encyclopedia)dispersion, in chemistry, mixture in which fine particles of one substance are scattered throughout another substance. A dispersion is classed as a suspension, colloid, or solution. Generally, the par...

proper motion

(Encyclopedia)proper motion, in astronomy, apparent movement of a star on the celestial sphere, usually measured as seconds of arc per year; it is due both to the actual relative motions of the sun and the star thr...

panda

(Encyclopedia)panda, name for two unrelated nocturnal Asian mammals of the order Carnivora, red pandas, genus Ailurus, and the giant panda, Ailuropoda melanoleuca. Red pandas, also known as lesser pandas and cat be...