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Orbiting Astronomical Observatory

(Encyclopedia)Orbiting Astronomical Observatory (OAO), series of four orbiting observatories (see observatory, orbiting) launched between 1966 and 1972 by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to...

string theory

(Encyclopedia)string theory, description of elementary particles based on one-dimensional curves, or “strings,” instead of point particles. Superstring theory, which is string theory that contains a kind of sym...

Calypso, in astronomy

(Encyclopedia)Calypso, in astronomy, one of the named moons, or natural satellites, of Saturn. Also known as Saturn XIV (or S14), Calypso is a small, irregularly shaped (nonspherical) body measuring about 21 mi (34...

vertigo

(Encyclopedia)vertigo vûrˈtĭgō [key], sensations of moving in space or of objects moving about a person and the resultant difficulty in maintaining equilibrium. True vertigo, as distinguished from faintness, li...

dredging

(Encyclopedia)dredging, process of excavating materials underwater. It is used to deepen waterways, harbors, and docks and for mining alluvial mineral deposits, including tin, gold, and diamonds. The Dutch at an ea...

Levittown

(Encyclopedia)Levittown lĕvˈət-tounˌ [key]. 1 Uninc. residential city (1990 pop. 53,286), Nassau co., SE N.Y., on Long Island; founded 1947. Originally about 7 sq mi (18 sq km) of potato fields, it was develope...

Gabo, Naum

(Encyclopedia)Gabo, Naum noum gäˈbō [key], 1890–1977, Russian sculptor, architect, theorist, and teacher, brother of Antoine Pevsner. Gabo lived in Munich and Norway until the end of the revolution, when he re...

Hou Hsiao-hsien

(Encyclopedia)Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1947–, Taiwanese film director, b. Guangdong, China. His first feature film, Cute Girl (1980), and subsequent ones were generally saccharine romances until the semibiographical A Ti...

selection

(Encyclopedia)selection. In Darwinism, the mechanism of natural selection is considered of major importance in the process of evolution. Popular formulations sometimes envisage a struggle for existence in which dir...

plateresque

(Encyclopedia)plateresque plătərĕskˈ [key] [Span.,=silversmith], earliest phase of Spanish Renaissance architecture and decoration, in the early 16th cent. Its richness of effect was primarily based upon the wo...