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sacrifice

(Encyclopedia)sacrifice [Lat. sacrificare=to make holy], a type of religious offering, or gift to a superior or supreme being, in which the offering is consecrated through its destruction. The Paleolithic evidenc...

heredity

(Encyclopedia)heredity, transmission from generation to generation through the process of reproduction in plants and animals of factors which cause the offspring to resemble their parents. That like begets like has...

natural law

(Encyclopedia)natural law, theory that some laws are basic and fundamental to human nature and are discoverable by human reason without reference to specific legislative enactments or judicial decisions. Natural la...

artificial intelligence

(Encyclopedia)artificial intelligence (AI), the use of computers to model the behavioral aspects of human reasoning and learning. Research in AI is concentrated in some half-dozen areas. In problem solving, one mus...

nix

(Encyclopedia)nix or nixie, in Germanic mythology, water sprite. The nixes could assume various shapes, most frequently as half human and half fish. They could do favors for humans, particularly in teaching them be...

Triton , in Greek mythology

(Encyclopedia)Triton, in Greek mythology, son of Poseidon. He was a creature of the sea, the upper half of his body being human, the lower fishlike. Later legends speak of many Tritons, sometimes described as ridin...

Eddington, Sir Arthur Stanley

(Encyclopedia)Eddington, Sir Arthur Stanley, 1882–1944, British astronomer and physicist. He was chief assistant (1906–13) at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, and was from 1913 Plumian professor of astronomy a...

Haldane, John Burdon Sanderson

(Encyclopedia)Haldane, John Burdon Sanderson hôlˈdān, –dən [key], 1892–1964, British geneticist, biologist, and popularizer of science; son of John Scott Haldane. He studied at Oxford until his studies were...

Anaximander

(Encyclopedia)Anaximander ənăkˌsĭmănˈdər [key], c.611–c.547 b.c., Greek philosopher, b. Miletus; pupil of Thales. He made the first attempt to offer a detailed explanation of all aspects of nature. Anaxima...

Gaster, Moses

(Encyclopedia)Gaster, Moses gäsˈtər [key], 1856–1939, Romanian Jewish scholar and writer, b. Bucharest. Expelled (1885) from Romania for championing the Jewish cause, he went to England and was lecturer at Oxf...