Columbia Encyclopedia

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aquaponics

(Encyclopedia)aquaponics, the growing of plants and the raising of fish by combining aquaculture with the techniques of hydroponics, usually on a small scale. Water containing fish waste matter is used as the nutri...

di Suvero, Mark

(Encyclopedia)di Suvero, Mark dē so͞oˈvərō [key], 1933–, American sculptor, b. Shanghai. Di Suvero's major works are constructions of massize pieces of steel, huge weathered timbers, tires, chains, and rope....

Villavicencio

(Encyclopedia)Villavicencio vēlyävēsānˈsyō [key], city (1993 pop. 219,976), capital of Meta dept., central Colombia, on the Meta River. Located in the eastern foothills of the Andes, it is the chief urban cen...

tree surgery

(Encyclopedia)tree surgery, practice of repairing damaged trees to restore their appearance and to arrest disease. Injured or diseased parts are first removed (even small cavities in the bark may harbor injurious f...

B

(Encyclopedia)B, second letter of the alphabet. Its Greek correspondent is named beta. It is a usual symbol for a voiced bilabial stop. In musical notation it is used to represent a note in the scale. In chemistry ...

spoils system

(Encyclopedia)spoils system, in U.S. history, the practice of giving appointive offices to loyal members of the party in power. The name supposedly derived from a speech by Senator William Learned Marcy in which he...

chronometer

(Encyclopedia)chronometer krənŏmˈətər [key], instrument for keeping highly accurate time, used especially in navigation. Before the advent of radio time signals it was the only device that provided the time ac...

lard

(Encyclopedia)lard, hog's fat melted and strained from the tissues, an important byproduct of the meatpacking industry. The highest grade, leaf lard, is from the fat around the kidneys; the next best is from the ba...

sleet

(Encyclopedia)sleet, precipitation of small, partially melted grains of ice. As raindrops fall from clouds, they pass through layers of air at different temperatures. If they pass through a layer with a temperature...

taconite

(Encyclopedia)taconite, low-grade iron ore, a flintlike rock usually containing less than 30% iron. Resistant to drilling and to the extraction of its contained metal, the rock was long considered worthless. Experi...
 

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