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Wright, Harry

(Encyclopedia)Wright, Harry (Wiliam Henry Wright), 1835–95, English-American baseball player and manager, b. Sheffield, England. His father, a professional cricket player, moved the family to New York to join the...

brazilwood

(Encyclopedia)brazilwood, common name for several trees of the family Leguminosae (pulse family) whose wood yields a red dye. The dye has largely been replaced by synthetic dyes for fabrics, but it is still used in...

Porter, Rodney Robert

(Encyclopedia)Porter, Rodney Robert, 1917–85, British biochemist, Ph.D. Cambridge, 1948. He was a researcher at the National Institute of Medical Research, England (1949–1960), and a professor at St. Mary's Hos...

Wilson, Robert Woodrow

(Encyclopedia)Wilson, Robert Woodrow, 1936–, American radio astronomer, b. Houston, Tex., Ph.D. California Institute of Technology, 1962. In 1964 he and co-researcher Arno Penzias began monitoring radio waves in ...

color

(Encyclopedia)color, effect produced on the eye and its associated nerves by light waves of different wavelength or frequency. Light transmitted from an object to the eye stimulates the different color cones of the...

color blindness

(Encyclopedia)color blindness, visual defect resulting in the inability to distinguish colors. About 8% of men and 0.5% of women experience some difficulty in color perception. Color blindness is usually an inherit...

spleen

(Encyclopedia)spleen, soft, purplish-red organ that lies under the diaphragm on the left side of the abdominal cavity. The spleen acts as a filter against foreign organisms that infect the bloodstream, and also fil...

Riel, Louis

(Encyclopedia)Riel, Louis lwē rēĕlˈ [key], 1844–85, Canadian insurgent, leader of two rebellions, b. Manitoba, of French and Métis parentage. In 1869–70 he led the rebels of the Red River settlements, main...

dodo, extinct bird

(Encyclopedia)dodo, a flightless forest-dwelling bird of Mauritius, extinct since the late 17th cent. The dodo was closely related to the Rodrigues solitaire, extinct flightless giant found on another island in the...

Dean, James

(Encyclopedia)Dean, James (James Byron Dean), 1931–55, American film actor, b. Marion, Ind. After a few stage and television roles, Dean was chosen to play the moody, rebellious son in the film East of Eden (1953...