Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Lyra līˈrə [key] [Lat.,=the lyre], northern constellation lying S of Draco, E of Hercules, and W of Cygnus. Although many civilizations represented it as a bird, it was also depicted as a tortoise....

(Encyclopedia) Mauldin, Bill (William Henry Mauldin), 1921–2003, American cartoonist, b. Mountain Park, N.Mex. During World War II, in which he served as an infantryman-cartoonist in Italy, France, and Germany, Ma...

(Encyclopedia) Monera, taxonomic kingdom that comprises the prokaryotes (bacteria and cyanobacteria). Prokaryotes are single-celled organisms that lack a membrane-bound nucleus and usually lack membrane-bound organe...

(Encyclopedia) Wexford, town (1991 pop. 15,393), seat of Co. Wexford, SE Republic of Ireland, on Wexford Harbour, which is formed by the Slaney River estuary. Wexford serves as the headquarters of the Roman Catholic...

(Encyclopedia) fox terrier, breed of long-legged terrier developed over several centuries in England. There are two varieties, the smooth and the wirehaired. The coat of the former is dense, short, and flat, while t...

(Encyclopedia) Sauvage, Jean-Pierre, 1944–, French chemist, Ph.D. Univ. of Strasbourg, 1971. He has spent his entire career as a researcher at the National Center for Scientific Research and a professor at the Uni...

(Encyclopedia) white-eye, common name for warblerlike, arboreal birds, including 85 species in the family Zosteropidae, and for certain species of ducks. The members of Zosteropidae, with the exception of a few spec...

(Encyclopedia) bullfighting, national sport and spectacle of Spain. Called the corrida de toros in Spanish, the bullfight takes place in a large outdoor arena known as the plaza de toros. The object is for one of th...

(Encyclopedia) aliphatic compound ălˌəfătˈĭk [key], any of a large class of organic compounds whose carbon atoms are joined together in straight or branched open chains rather than in rings. The hydrocarbons o...

(Encyclopedia) Cirque du Soleil, [Fr.,=circus of the sun], innovative Canadian circus, est. 1984, with headquarters in Montreal. The best-known exemplar of cirque nouveau, Cirque du Soleil is a mixture of spectacle,...