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hotbed

(Encyclopedia)hotbed, low, glass-covered frame structure for starting tender plants. It differs from a cold frame only in that the soil is heated—either artificially as by underground electric wiring or steampipe...

shape memory

(Encyclopedia)shape memory, property possessed by certain alloys that allows them to return, when heated, to their original shape after having been deformed. This effect results because, as the alloy is deformed, i...

prose

(Encyclopedia)prose [Lat. prosa oratio=straightforward, or direct, speech], meaningful and grammatical written or spoken language that does not utilize the metrical structure, word transposition, or rhyme character...

Rydberg, Johannes Robert

(Encyclopedia)Rydberg, Johannes Robert yo͞oˈhänəs rôˈbərt rüdˈbĕryə [key], 1854–1919, Swedish physicist. Rydberg was a professor at Lund from 1901 to 1919. He is best known for his grouping of the freq...

San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

(Encyclopedia)San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, double-decked structure, W Calif.; built 1933–36 and (eastern section replacement) 2002–13. It has a total length of 8.25 mi (13.2 km). From San Francisco it cr...

rhyolite

(Encyclopedia)rhyolite, fine-grained light-colored acidic volcanic rock. Rhyolite is chemically the equivalent of granite, and is thus composed primarily of quartz and orthoclase feldspar with subordinate amounts o...

Stigler, George Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Stigler, George Joseph, 1911–91, American economist, b. Renton, Wash., Ph.D. Univ. of Chicago, 1938. A professor at Univ. of Chicago from 1958, Stigler wrote about the economics of information. He e...

Centennial Exhibition, International

(Encyclopedia)Centennial Exhibition, International, held in Philadelphia from May to Nov., 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The buildings, in Fairmount Park, included the...

Wells

(Encyclopedia)Wells, town (1991 pop. 9,252), Somerset, SW England. Primarily a cathedral town, it has changed little since medieval times, although shopping and tourism have become important. The first church was e...

Lawrence, Ernest Orlando

(Encyclopedia)Lawrence, Ernest Orlando, 1901–58, American physicist, b. Canton, S. Dak., grad. Univ. of South Dakota, 1922, Ph.D. Yale, 1925. Affiliated with the Univ. of California from 1928 onward, he became a ...