A-Z Browse

  • early wood (wood)
    ...woody angiosperms are usually annual, but under environmental fluctuations, such as drought, more than one can form, or none at all. Growth rings result from the difference in density between the early wood (spring wood) and the late wood (summer wood); early wood is less dense because the cells are larger and their walls are thinner. Although the transition of early wood to late wood within......
  • earlywood (wood)
    ...woody angiosperms are usually annual, but under environmental fluctuations, such as drought, more than one can form, or none at all. Growth rings result from the difference in density between the early wood (spring wood) and the late wood (summer wood); early wood is less dense because the cells are larger and their walls are thinner. Although the transition of early wood to late wood within......
  • Earn (lake and river, Scotland, United Kingdom)
    loch (lake) and river, central Scotland. Loch Earn lies on the boundary between the council area of Stirling and the council area of Perth and Kinross, and the River Earn flows through Perth and Kinross. Loch Earn is 6.5 miles (10.5 km) from east to west with a maximum width of 0.5 mile (0.8 km). Lochearnhead is situated at the western end of the loch and St. Fillan’s vil...
  • Earn, Lake (lake, Scotland, United Kingdom)
    loch (lake) and river, central Scotland. Loch Earn lies on the boundary between the council area of Stirling and the council area of Perth and Kinross, and the River Earn flows through Perth and Kinross. Loch Earn is 6.5 miles (10.5 km) from east to west with a maximum width of 0.5 mile (0.8 km). Lochearnhead is situated at the western end of the loch and St. Fillan’s village at the eastern...
  • Earn, Loch (lake, Scotland, United Kingdom)
    loch (lake) and river, central Scotland. Loch Earn lies on the boundary between the council area of Stirling and the council area of Perth and Kinross, and the River Earn flows through Perth and Kinross. Loch Earn is 6.5 miles (10.5 km) from east to west with a maximum width of 0.5 mile (0.8 km). Lochearnhead is situated at the western end of the loch and St. Fillan’s village at the eastern...
  • Earn, River (river, Scotland, United Kingdom)
    loch (lake) and river, central Scotland. Loch Earn lies on the boundary between the council area of Stirling and the council area of Perth and Kinross, and the River Earn flows through Perth and Kinross. Loch Earn is 6.5 miles (10.5 km) from east to west with a maximum width of 0.5 mile (0.8 km). Lochearnhead is situated at the western end of the loch and St. Fillan’s village at the eastern...
  • Earnhardt, Dale (American race–car driver)
    American stock-car racer who was the dominant driver in the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) during the 1980s and ’90s....
  • Earnhardt, Ralph Dale (American race–car driver)
    American stock-car racer who was the dominant driver in the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) during the 1980s and ’90s....
  • Earnshaw, Thomas (English watchmaker)
    English watchmaker, the first to simplify and economize in producing chronometers so as to make them available to the general public....
  • EAROM (computing)
    EPROM (erasable programmable ROM), EAROM (electrically alterable ROM), and flash memory are types of nonvolatile memories that are rewritable, though the rewriting is far more time-consuming than reading. They are thus used as special-purpose memories where writing is seldom necessary—if used for the BIOS, for example, they may be changed to correct errors or update features....
  • Earp, Wyatt Berry Stapp (American frontiersman)
    legendary frontiersman of the American West, who was an itinerant saloonkeeper, gambler, lawman, gunslinger, and confidence man. The first major biography, Stuart N. Lake’s Wyatt Earp, Frontier Marshal (1931), written with Earp’s collaboration, established the rather fictionalized portrait of a fearless lawman....
  • earphone
    small loudspeaker held or worn close to the listener’s ear or within the outer ear. Common forms include the hand-held telephone receiver; the headphone, in which one or two earphones are held in place by a band worn over the head; and the plug earphone, which is inserted in the outer opening of the ear. The conversion of electrical to acoustical signals is effected by an...
  • earplug (ornament)
    type of ear ornament usually inserted in pierced and distended earlobes and generally worn by traditional peoples. Earplugs were the direct forerunners of today’s pierced earrings....
  • Earp’s Corner (Virginia, United States)
    city, seat (1779) of Fairfax county (though administratively independent of it), northeastern Virginia, U.S., about 15 miles (24 km) southwest of Washington, D.C. It developed after 1799 with the construction of the county courthouse and relocation of the county seat from Alexandria. The wills of George and Martha Washington...
  • Earraghaidheal (former county, Scotland, United Kingdom)
    historic county in western Scotland. Argyllshire lies mainly within the Argyll and Bute council area, but northern Argyllshire extends as far as Lochs Shiel, Eil, and Leven in southern Highland council area....
  • earring (jewelry)
    a personal ornament worn pendent from the ear, usually suspended by means of a ring or hook passing through a pierced hole in the lobe of the ear or, in modern times, often by means of a screwed clip on the lobe. The impulse to decorate or to modify the appearance of the ear seems to be almost universal. In general, usage appears to call for wearing earrings in pairs, the two ornaments in all res...
  • earth (electronics)
    in electricity, electrical contact with the Earth, which remains essentially at a constant potential. A grounded wire on a lightning rod leads large electric charges from the atmosphere directly to Earth, preventing them from taking other paths that might result in damage to property or injury to persons. Since people are themselves often grounded (standing on a moist basement floor or leaning ag...
  • Earth (novel by Zola)
    ...writings, in later years, it can be said, rather, that controversy sought out the reluctant novelist. His publication of a particularly grim and sordid portrait of peasant life in La Terre in 1887 led a group of five so-called disciples to repudiate Zola in a manifesto published in the important newspaper Le Figaro. His novel ......
  • Earth (film by Dovzhenko)
    ...Ukrainian history; Arsenal (1929), an epic film poem about the effects of revolution and civil war upon the Ukraine; and Zemlya (Earth, 1930), which is considered to be his masterpiece. Earth tells the story of the conflict between a family of wealthy landowning peasants (kulaks) and the young......
  • Earth (planet)
    third planet from the Sun and the fifth in the solar system in terms of size and mass. Its single most outstanding feature is that its near-surface environments are the only places in the universe known to harbour life. It is designated by the symbol ♁. Earth’s name in English, the international language of astronomy, derives from Old English and Germanic words for...
  • earth almond (plant)
    ...also called earth-nut pea. Cyperus esculentus, nut sedge or yellow nut grass, is a papyrus relative (family Cyperaceae) that also bears edible tubers, especially in the variety called chufa or earth almond....
  • Earth and Its Inhabitants, The (work by Reclus)
    His great work, La Nouvelle Géographie universelle, la terre et les hommes, 19 vol. (1875–94; The Earth and Its Inhabitants, 1878–94), is profusely illustrated with maps, plans, and engravings and characterized by a brillance of exposition that gives his work permanent scientific value....
  • Earth art
    ...figures of horses cut out of turf; ridge and scarp-foot trackways that focus on megalithic monuments, such as Avebury and Stonehenge in Wiltshire; innumerable burial mounds or barrows; defensive earthworks; and ring encampments, such as Maiden Castle in Dorset....
  • earth auger (rotary drill)
    The simplest rotary drill is the earth auger, which is hand-operated and resembles the wood auger used in carpentry. The earth auger, used principally for drilling holes in relatively soft earth, is armed with either a spiral drill or a pod-type drill and is attached to a shaft by a socket joint. Successive sections are added to the shaft as the hole deepens. ...
  • earth bow (musical instrument)
    While all the above types of musical bow are simple forms of the zither, the so-called ground bow or earth bow of equatorial Africa, which has one end planted in the ground, qualifies as a ground harp....
  • Earth current (geophysics)
    natural electric current flowing on and beneath the surface of the Earth and generally following a direction parallel to the Earth’s surface. Telluric currents arise from charges moving to attain equilibrium between regions of differing electric potentials; these differences in potential are set up by several conditions, including very low-frequency electromagnetic waves from space, particu...
  • earth dam (engineering)
    dam built up by compacting successive layers of earth, using the most impervious materials to form a core and placing more permeable substances on the upstream and downstream sides. A facing of crushed stone prevents erosion by wind or rain, and an ample spillway, usually of concrete, protects against catastrophic washout should the water overtop the dam....
  • Earth Day
    annual celebration honouring the achievements of the environmental movement and raising awareness of the importance of long-term ecological sustainability. Earth Day is celebrated in the United States on April 22; throughout the rest of the world it is celebrated on either April 22 or the day the vernal equinox occurs....
  • Earth Dragon (Chinese mythological character)
    ...Chinese cosmogonists defined four types of dragons: the Celestial Dragon (T’ien Lung), who guards the heavenly dwellings of the gods; the Dragon of Hidden Treasure (Fu Tsang Lung); the Earth Dragon (Ti Lung), who controls the waterways; and the Spiritual Dragon (Shen Lung), who controls the rain and winds. In popular belief, only the latter two were significant; they were transformed int...
  • Earth exploration
    the investigation of the surface of the Earth and of its interior....
  • earth, flower of the (plant)
    The single species of Lennoa is quite variable. Flor de tierra (“flower of the earth”; L. madreporoides) usually grows on roots of the Mexican sunflower (Tithonia). The oval, mushroomlike stem is 5–15 cm (2–6 inches) tall, yellowish or brownish in colour, and covered with oval to lance-shaped scales. The plant’s domelike head is covere...
  • Earth, geologic history of
    evolution of the continents, oceans, atmosphere, and biosphere. The layers of rock at the Earth’s surface contain evidence of the evolutionary processes undergone by these components of the terrestrial environment during the times at which each layer was formed. By studying this rock record from the very beginning, it is thus possible to trace their development and the resultant changes thr...
  • Earth impact hazard (astronomy)
    the danger of collision posed by astronomical small bodies whose orbits around the Sun carry them near Earth. These objects include the rocky asteroids and their larger fragments and the icy nuclei of comets....
  • earth lodge (housing)
    The earth lodge, the dwelling used by most village tribes, was much larger than a tepee. Earth lodges averaged 40 to 60 feet (12 to 18 metres) in diameter, encompassing approximately 1,250 to 2,825 square feet (116 to 263 square metres), and generally housed three-generation families. Like tepees, they had a roughly circular floor plan; unlike tepees, they were dome-shaped, roofed and walled......
  • Earth Mother (religion)
    in ancient and modern nonliterate religions, an eternally fruitful source of everything. Unlike the variety of female fertility deities called mother goddesses, the Earth Mother is not a specific source of vitality who must periodically undergo sexual intercourse. She is simply the mother; there is nothing separate from her. All things come from her, return to her, and are her....
  • Earth Observing System (satellite)
    in ancient and modern nonliterate religions, an eternally fruitful source of everything. Unlike the variety of female fertility deities called mother goddesses, the Earth Mother is not a specific source of vitality who must periodically undergo sexual intercourse. She is simply the mother; there is nothing separate from her. All things come from her, return to her, and are her....
  • earth python (snake)
    ...Rica. Usually less than 1 metre long, it is reported to reach nearly 1.5 metres. It seems to be predominantly nocturnal, foraging on the ground for a variety of small vertebrates. The so-called earth, or burrowing, python (Calabaria reinhardtii or Charina reinhardtii) of West Africa appears to be a member of the boa family (Boidae)....
  • Earth Resources Technology Satellite (satellite)
    any of a series of unmanned U.S. scientific satellites. The first three Landsat satellites were launched in 1972, 1975, and 1978. These satellites were primarily designed to collect information about the Earth’s natural resources, including the location of mineral deposits and the condition of forests and farming regions. They were also equipped to monitor atmospheric and oceanic conditions...
  • Earth satellite (instrument)
    man-made object launched into a temporary or permanent orbit around the Earth. Spacecraft of this type may be either manned or unmanned, the latter being the most common....
  • Earth sciences
    the fields of study concerned with the solid Earth, its waters, and the air that envelops it. Included are the geologic, hydrologic, and atmospheric sciences....
  • Earth Simulator (computer)
    While the massively multiprocessing approach prevailed in the United States, in Japan the NEC Corporation returned to the older approach of custom designing the computer chip—for its Earth Simulator, which surprised many computer scientists by debuting in first place on the industry’s TOP500 supercomputer speed list in 2002. It did not hold this position for long, however, as in 2004...
  • Earth Spirit (play by Wedekind)
    ...of Duty (1953) and Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962). Almost equally influential as a turn-of-the-century master of the grotesque is Frank Wedekind, whose Earth Spirit (1895) and its sequel, Pandora’s Box (written 1892–1901), though both are termed tragedies by their author, are as much burlesques of tragedy as The D...
  • Earth Summit (international organization)
    conference held at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (June 3–14, 1992), to reconcile worldwide economic development with protection of the environment. The Earth Summit was the largest gathering of world leaders in history, with 117 heads of state and representatives of 178 nations in all attending. By means of treaties and other documents signed at the conference, most of the world’s nations n...
  • Earth tide (geophysics)
    deformation of the solid Earth as it rotates within the gravitational fields of the Sun and Moon. Earth tides are similar to ocean tides. The Earth deforms because it has a certain degree of elasticity; were it perfectly rigid, there would be no Earth tides. Several tidal components mathematically can be shown to exist, but only four are large enough to be generally measurable; these are the luna...
  • earth tongue (fungus genus)
    ...fruiting structure with a bright orange head, or cap. A related genus, Claviceps, includes C. purpurea, the cause of ergot of rye and ergotism in humans and domestic animals. Earth tongue is the common name for the 22 Geoglossum species of the order Helotiales. They produce black to brown, club-shaped fruiting structures on soil or decaying wood....
  • Earth Trembles, The (film by Visconti)
    ...realism, this film foreshadowed the postwar Neorealist work of such internationally important filmmakers as Roberto Rossellini and Vittorio De Sica. Six years later La terra trema (1948; The Earth Trembles), a documentary-style study of Sicilian fishermen filmed entirely on location and without actors, won the Grand Prize at the Venice Film Festival. Visconti’s other widely...
  • earth tremor (geology)
    any sudden shaking of the ground caused by the passage of seismic waves through the Earth’s rocks. Seismic waves are produced when some form of energy stored in the Earth’s crust is suddenly released, usually when masses of rock straining against one another suddenly fracture and “slip.” Earthquakes occur most often along geologic faults...
  • Earth Visitors (work by Slessor)
    ...journal Smith’s Weekly for a time, and then was a World War II correspondent (1940–44). He continued as an editor and literary critic after the war. His earliest poetry, collected in Earth Visitors (1926), is characterized by gaiety and technical experimentation. The influence of the poets T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound is evident in the sophisticated Cuckooz Country...
  • Earth, Wind and Fire (American music group)
    American pop, soul, and jazz-fusion band that became one of the best-selling and most influential black groups of the 1970s. The principal members were Maurice White (b. December 19, 1941Chicago, Illinois, U.S.), Philip Bailey ...
  • Earth-approaching asteroid (astronomy)
    Asteroids that can come close to Earth are called near-Earth asteroids (NEAs), although only some NEAs actually cross Earth’s orbit. NEAs are divided into several classes. Asteroids belonging to the class most distant from Earth—those asteroids that can cross the orbit of Mars but that have perihelion distances greater than 1.3 AU—are dubbed Mars crossers. This class is furthe...
  • earth-boring dung beetle (insect genus)
    ...that is used during feeding or for depositing eggs. The aphodian dung beetle is small (4 to 6 mm, or about 15 inch) and usually black with yellow wing covers. The earth-boring dung beetle (e.g., Geotrupes) is about 14 to 20 mm (about 12 to 34 inch) long and brown or black in colour......
  • earth-coloured mouse (rodent)
    ...at northern latitudes, and rice fields in the Asian tropics. Four of these species, including the house mouse, have dispersed beyond their natural ranges as a result of human settlement. The earth-coloured mouse (M. terricolor) is native to peninsular India, Nepal, and Pakistan, but it has been introduced into northern Sumatra. The fawn-coloured mouse has a......
  • Earth-crossing asteroid (astronomy)
    Asteroids that can come close to Earth are called near-Earth asteroids (NEAs), although only some NEAs actually cross Earth’s orbit. NEAs are divided into several classes. Asteroids belonging to the class most distant from Earth—those asteroids that can cross the orbit of Mars but that have perihelion distances greater than 1.3 AU—are dubbed Mars crossers. This class is furthe...
  • earth-diver myth
    ...a handful of sand to be brought up from the bottom of the sea and created the land from it. Usually, it is the Devil who brings up the sand; in only one case, in Slovenia, is it God himself. This earth-diver myth is diffused throughout practically all of Eurasia and is found in ancient India as well....
  • Earth-Moon system (astronomy)
    ...laws of planetary motion. The orbital geometry of the Moon, Earth, and the Sun gives rise to the Moon’s phases and to the phenomena of lunar and solar eclipses. The geometry and motions of the Earth-Moon system are illustrated in the figure. ...
  • earth-nut pea (plant)
    ...the fruit of which is a legume or pod rather than a true nut; Apois americana, also called wild bean and potato bean, the tubers of which are edible; and Lathyrus tuberosa, also called earth-nut pea. Cyperus esculentus, nut sedge or yellow nut grass, is a papyrus relative (family Cyperaceae) that also bears edible tubers, especially in the variety called chufa or earth......
  • Earth-observation satellite
    ...and data on a global basis. Satellites operated by the United States and Russia give precision navigation, positioning, and timing information that has become essential to many terrestrial users. Earth-observation satellites have also become extremely useful to the military authorities of several countries as complements to their land, sea, and air forces. (For a list of significant......
  • Earth-orbiting radio telescope
    Most radio waves pass relatively undistorted through Earth’s atmosphere, and so there is little need to place radio telescopes in space. The exceptions are for observations at very long wavelengths that are distorted by Earth’s ionosphere, for observations at very short wavelengths that are affected by water vapour and oxygen in the atmosphere, and for precision observations at all w...
  • Earth-Sun system (astronomy)
    To extend the idea further, consider the Earth and the Sun not as two separate bodies but as a single system of two bodies interacting with one another by means of the force of gravity. In the previous discussion of circular orbits, the Sun was assumed to be at rest at the centre of the orbit, but, according to Newton’s third law, it must actually be accelerated by a force due to the......
  • earth-wall community (Chinese history)
    ...real cause of their strength was supposed to be the people’s support and sympathy for their leaders, but creating a power centre proved to be difficult because the Nian’s basic social unit was the earth-wall community, where a powerful master exercised autonomy. In 1856 Zhang Luoxing received the title “lord of the alliance” of the Nian, but he was far too weak to fo...
  • earthenware (pottery)
    pottery that has not been fired to the point of vitrification and is thus slightly porous and coarser than stoneware and porcelain. The body can be covered completely or decorated with slip (a liquid clay mixture applied before firing) or it can be glazed. For both practical and decorative reasons, earthenware is usually glazed. To overcome its porosity (which makes it impracticable for storing l...
  • earthfill dam (engineering)
    dam built up by compacting successive layers of earth, using the most impervious materials to form a core and placing more permeable substances on the upstream and downstream sides. A facing of crushed stone prevents erosion by wind or rain, and an ample spillway, usually of concrete, protects against catastrophic washout should the water overtop the dam....
  • earthflow (geology)
    sheet or stream of soil and rock material saturated with water and flowing downslope under the pull of gravity; it represents the intermediate stage between creep and mudflow. Earthflows usually begin in a large basin on the upper part of a slope where debris and weathered material accumulate; the movement, usually set off by heavy rainfall, may be relatively...
  • Earthly Mute (Chinese mythological character)
    In representations, Wen Ti usually sits, wears a mandarin robe, and holds a sceptre. He is flanked by a male and a female servant, one called T’ien-Lung (Heavenly Deaf One), the other Ti Ya (Earthly Mute). The names suggest that Wen Ti must turn a deaf ear to those who inquire about the secrets of literature, for such a topic necessarily leaves one speechless....
  • earthly paradise (religion)
    in religion, a place of exceptional happiness and delight. The term paradise is often used as a synonym for the Garden of Eden before the expulsion of Adam and Eve. An earthly paradise is often conceived of as existing in a time when heaven and earth were very close together or actually touching, and when humans and gods had free and happy association. Many religions also include the notion of......
  • Earthly Paradise, The (poems by Morris)
    As a poet, Morris first achieved fame and success with the romantic narrative The Life and Death of Jason (1867), which was soon followed by The Earthly Paradise (1868–70), a series of narrative poems based on classical and medieval sources. The best parts of The Earthly Paradise are the introductory poems on......
  • earthnut (plant)
    the pod, or legume, of Arachis hypogaea (family Fabaceae), which has the peculiar habit of ripening underground. (Despite its several common names, it is not a true nut.) It is a concentrated food; pound for pound, peanuts have more protein, minerals, and vitamins than beef liver; more fat than heavy cream; and more food energy (calories) than sugar. The plant is an annual, ranging from an ...
  • earthnut (Conopodium majus)
    (Conopodium majus), European plant of the carrot family (Apiaceae), so called because of its edible tubers. It grows in woods and fields in the British Isles and from Norway, France, Spain, and Portugal to Italy and Corsica. The slender, smooth perennial, growing 750 mm to 1 m (30 to 39 inches) high, has much-divided leaves and small, white flowers in compound umbels. The tubers, reaching ...
  • earthquake (geology)
    any sudden shaking of the ground caused by the passage of seismic waves through the Earth’s rocks. Seismic waves are produced when some form of energy stored in the Earth’s crust is suddenly released, usually when masses of rock straining against one another suddenly fracture and “slip.” Earthquakes occur most often along geologic faults...
  • earthquake hazard map (seismology)
    To avoid weaknesses found in earlier earthquake hazard maps, the following general principles are usually adopted today: The map should take into account not only the size but also the frequency of earthquakes.The broad regionalization pattern should use historical seismicity as a database, including the following factors: major tectonic trends, acceleration attenuation curves, and intensity......
  • earthquake magnitude (geology)
    Earthquake magnitude is a measure of the “size,” or amplitude, of the seismic waves generated by an earthquake source and recorded by seismographs. (The types and nature of these waves are described in the section Seismic waves.) Because the size of earthquakes varies enormously, it is necessary for purposes of comparison to compress the range of wave amplitudes measured on......
  • Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (Pakistani government agency)
    ...the devastating 2005 earthquake in the northern areas, where more than half a million houses were destroyed or severely damaged over a vast area. The Pakistani government quickly established the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA), which received funding from the World Bank and a large number of other sources. In addition to constructing new earthquake-resistant......
  • earthquake swarm (geology)
    ...sufficiently strong (up to Richter magnitude 5) to cause property damage but no casualties. The maximum frequency was 6,780 small earthquakes on April 17, 1966. Such series of earthquakes are called earthquake swarms. Earthquakes associated with volcanic activity often occur in swarms, though swarms also have been observed in many nonvolcanic regions....
  • Earth’s core (geology)
    The evidence for the composition of the core is all indirect because no means have yet been devised for directly sampling the deep interior of the Earth. The moment of inertia of the Earth indicates that there is a concentration of mass around the centre, and seismic data have shown that below the Wiechert–Gutenberg Discontinuity the density of the material is high, ranging upwards from......
  • Earth’s crust (geology)
    The average thickness of the terrestrial crust for both East and West Antarctica approximates that of other continents. Although it has been postulated that West Antarctica might be an oceanic island archipelago if the ice were to melt, its crustal thickness of about 20 miles indicates an absence of oceanic structure. This thickness is similar to that of coastal parts of other continents. The......
  • Earth’s magnetic field (geophysics)
    magnetic field associated with the Earth. It primarily is dipolar (i.e., it has two poles, these being the north and south magnetic poles) on the Earth’s surface. Away from the surface the dipole becomes distorted....
  • Earth’s mantle
    The mantle comprises that part of the Earth between the Mohorovičić and the Wiechert–Gutenberg discontinuities. It makes up 83 percent of the volume of the Earth and 67 percent of its mass and is thus of decisive importance in determining the bulk composition of the planet. In estimating elemental abundances in the mantle, however, the same difficulty as with the core......
  • Earth’s structure and composition
    Some estimates suggest that as much as 70 percent of all rocks outcropping from the Earth’s surface are sedimentary. Preserved in these rocks is the complex record of the many transgressions and regressions of the sea, as well as the fossil remains or other indications of now extinct organisms and the petrified sands and gravels of ancient beaches, sand dunes, and rivers....
  • earthshine (astronomy)
    sunlight reflected from the Earth, especially that reflected to the Moon and back again. For a few days before and after New Moon, this doubly reflected earthshine is powerful enough to make the whole Moon visible....
  • earthstar (fungus)
    family of fungi in the order Agaricales (phylum Basidiomycota, kingdom Fungi) that includes about 160 species, among them earthstars and puffballs, which are found in soil or on decaying wood in grassy areas and woods. Many puffballs, named for the features of the fruiting body (basidiocarp), are edible before maturity, at which time the internal tissues become dry and powdery. Puffs of spores......
  • Earthwatch (international program)
    One of UNEP’s most widely recognized activities is Earthwatch, an international monitoring system designed to facilitate the exchange of environmental information among governments. Participation in this enterprise enables members to assess significant environmental risks and to act accordingly. UNEP played a major role in initiating negotiations on reducing ozone-depleting chemicals. UNEP....
  • Earthworks
    ...figures of horses cut out of turf; ridge and scarp-foot trackways that focus on megalithic monuments, such as Avebury and Stonehenge in Wiltshire; innumerable burial mounds or barrows; defensive earthworks; and ring encampments, such as Maiden Castle in Dorset....
  • earthworm (annelid)
    any one of more than 1,800 species of terrestrial worms of the class Oligochaeta (phylum Annelida)—in particular, members of the genus Lumbricus. Seventeen native species and 13 introduced species (from Europe) occur in the eastern United States, L. terrestris being the most common. Earthworms occur in virtually all soils of the world in which the moisture a...
  • earwax
    filling of the external auditory canal with earwax, or cerumen. Normally the wax produced by skin glands in the outer ear migrates outward. If the earwax is produced too rapidly, it may become hardened and accumulate, thus plugging the outer ear canal and preventing sound passage to the tympanic (eardrum) membrane. This hearing impairment is painless. Impacted earwax is often found in infants,......
  • earwax impaction (physiology)
    filling of the external auditory canal with earwax, or cerumen. Normally the wax produced by skin glands in the outer ear migrates outward. If the earwax is produced too rapidly, it may become hardened and accumulate, thus plugging the outer ear canal and preventing sound passage to the tympanic (eardrum) membrane. This hearing impairment is painless. Impacted earwax is often found in infants, be...
  • earwig (insect)
    any of approximately 1,800 species of insects that are characterized by large membranous hindwings that lie hidden under short, leathery forewings. The name earwig is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word meaning “ear creature,” probably because of a widespread ancient superstition that earwigs crawl into the ears of sleeping people. The earwig varies from 5 to 50 mm (0.2 to 2 inches) in...
  • EAS (physics)
    ...the positions of nearby active galaxies that contain black holes millions of times the mass of the Sun. These extremely high-energy particles are so rare that they can be detected only through the extensive air showers (EAS) that they produce in the atmosphere. An extensive air shower may consist of billions of secondaries (mostly electrons and muons) that arrive at ground level over areas of.....
  • EASA (European organization)
    ...accepted a chair in social anthropology in the Collège de France in 1959, and, when European anthropologists established a joint professional association in the late 1980s, it took the title European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA) and called its journal Social Anthropology....
  • Easdale, Brian (British composer)
    ...for Joan of ArcArt Direction, Black-and-White: Roger K. Furse for HamletArt Direction, Color: Hein Heckroth for The Red ShoesMusic Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture: Brian Easdale for The Red ShoesScoring of a Musical Picture: Roger Edens and Johnny Green for Easter ParadeSong:......
  • ease of articulation principle (linguistics)
    ...than three and the common pronunciation of “library” as if it were written “libry.” Both assimilation and dissimilation are commonly subsumed under the principle of “ease of articulation.” This is clearly applicable in typical instances of assimilation. It is less obvious how or why a succession of unlike sounds in contiguous syllables should be easier ...
  • ease of entry (economics)
    Industries vary with respect to the ease with which new sellers can enter them. The barriers to entry consist of the advantages that sellers already established in an industry have over the potential entrant. Such a barrier is generally measurable by the extent to which established sellers can persistently elevate their selling prices above minimal average costs without attracting new sellers.......
  • easel painting (art)
    painting executed on a portable support such as a panel or canvas, instead of on a wall. It is likely that easel paintings were known to the ancient Egyptians, and the 1st-century-ad Roman scholar Pliny the Elder refers to a large panel placed on an easel; it was not until the 13th century, however, that easel paintings became relatively common, finally superseding in popularity the ...
  • easement (law)
    in Anglo-American property law, a right granted by one property owner to another to use a part of his land for a specific purpose....
  • easement by implication (law)
    ...that the conveyee has no convenient means of access except across the land retained by the conveyor, the conveyor will be presumed to have given the conveyee a right-of-way across the retained land (easement by implication). The same will often be presumed where the conveyor has left himself totally landlocked (requiring an easement by necessity). (In a few jurisdictions statutes compel the sam...
  • easement by necessity (law)
    ...to have given the conveyee a right-of-way across the retained land (easement by implication). The same will often be presumed where the conveyor has left himself totally landlocked (requiring an easement by necessity). (In a few jurisdictions statutes compel the same result.) Implication will also be found where there were pipes or paths on the undivided parcel that suggest that the parties......
  • easement by prescription (law)
    ...in favour of another. Finally, the continuous and uncontested use of an easement for the period of prescription (normally, the statute of limitations for ejectment actions) can give rise to an easement by prescription....
  • Easington (district, England, United Kingdom)
    district, administrative and historic county of Durham, northeastern England, that extends north-south along the North Sea coast between the industrialized metropolitan areas of Tyne and Wear to the north and Teesside to the south. The district carries the name of the former mining village of Easington, located near its centre....
  • Easley v. Cromartie (law case)
    ...and sided with the court’s more liberal members in upholding the configuration of a congressional district in North Carolina created on the basis of variables including but not limited to race (EasleyCromartie [2001])....
  • East 100th Street (work by Davidson)
    ...produced a number of outstanding photo-essays on such subjects as a circus clown, a Brooklyn teenage gang, Welsh mining towns, and London life. Davidson’s first important published project was East 100th Street (1970), a book of 123 photographs of the inhabitants of a single block in East Harlem in New York City. Davidson selected these photos from the more than 1,000 he too...
  • East Africa (region, Africa)
    part of sub-Saharan Africa comprising two traditionally recognized regions: East Africa, made up of Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda; and the Horn of Africa, made up of Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea, and Ethiopia....

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