Penzias, Arno

In full  Arno Allan Penzias  German-American astrophysicist who shared one-half of the 1978 Nobel Prize for Physics with Robert Woodrow Wilson for their discovery of a faint electromagnetic radiation throughout the universe. Their detection of this radiation lent strong support to the big-bang model of cosmic evolution. (The other half of the Nobel Prize was awarded to the Soviet

Paneth's Cell

Also called  Davidoff's Cell,  specialized type of epithelial cell found in the mucous-membrane lining of the small intestine and of the appendix, at the base of tubelike depressions known as Lieberkühn glands. Named for the 19th-century Austrian physiologist Joseph Paneth, the cell has one nucleus at its base and densely packed secretory granules throughout the rest of its body. The cells' function

Great Abaco

Island, The Bahamas, located about 55 miles (86 km) north of the capital city, Nassau, on New Providence island. It is separated from Little Abaco to the northwest by a narrow, shallow channel. Great Abaco occupies an area of 372 square miles (963 square km). It is shaped like a right angle, with one side of the angle pointing northwest and the other southwest. Its major city, Marsh Harbour,

Tsinling Mountains

Wade-Giles romanization  Ch'in Ling,  Pinyin  Qin Ling,   mountain range in North China, extending east-west from southeast Kansu province into Shensi and Honan provinces. It is considered to be an extension of the Kunlun Mountains. It constitutes a watershed between the Wei and Han rivers and reaches a height of 12,359 feet (3,767 m) at T'ai-pai (mount). The range forms a sharp physical divide, of climatic as well as topographic significance,

Melioidosis

A bacterial infection in humans and animals caused by Pseudomonas pseudomallei. Transmission to humans occurs through contact of a skin abrasion with contaminated water or soil rather than through direct contact with a contaminated animal. Inhalation of the pathogen also is suspected as a route of infection. The term melioidosis, from the Greek, means “a similarity

Anthropomorphism

The attribution of human form or other human characteristics to any nonhuman object. In religion, the term is applied to any statement that depicts the deity as having a bodily form resembling that of human beings, or as possessing qualities of thought, will, or emotion that are continuous with those experienced by humans. Any reference to the divine as having a human

Bruni, Leonardo

Bruni was secretary to the papal chancery from 1405 and served as chancellor of Florence from 1427 until his death in 1444. His Historiarum Florentini populi libri XII (1610; “Twelve Books of Histories of the Florentine People”) is the first history of Florence based on a critical examination of the