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  • genocide
    the deliberate and systematic destruction of a group of people because of their ethnicity, nationality, religion, or race. The term, derived from the Greek genos (“race,” “tribe,” or “nation”) and the Latin cide (“killing”), was coined by Raphael Lemkin, a Polish-born...
  • Genocide, Museum of (museum, Cambodia)
    Cambodia has two major museums. The National Museum of Arts is devoted to Cambodian ethnography, bronze ware, sculpture, and ceramics. The Museum of Genocide, housed in a former school that became a prison and execution centre in 1976, memorializes the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge regime. The Hindu-Buddhist ruins of the Khmer state of Angkor (9th–15th century) were designated a UNESCO......
  • Genoese lace
    bobbin lace made at Genoa, Italy, from the second half of the 16th century; it developed from the earlier knotted fringe called punto a groppo. The early laces (merletti a piombini, “laces made with lead weights”) were used for the edging of ruffs and later of collars. Styles followed a pattern similar to needle-made lace in Venice, taking the form of deeply pointed ...
  • Genoese-Venetian wars (Italian history)
    ...social concord that the Venetian government, like no other, indeed provided. This outstanding success at home was matched by victories abroad. In the second (1294–99) and third (1351–55) Genoese-Venetian wars, the Genoese, the Venetians’ principal economic rivals, gained numerous victories against the republic, and in the fourth war (1378–81) they temporarily seized ...
  • genome (genetics)
    The development of the technology to sequence the DNA of whole genomes on a routine basis has given rise to the discipline of genomics, which dominates genetics research today. Genomics is the study of the structure, function, and evolutionary comparison of whole genomes. Genomics has made it possible to study gene function at a broader level, revealing sets of genes that interact to impinge on......
  • genomic library (genetics)
    ...and produces many copies of the bacterial genome and the recombinant DNA molecule (constituting a DNA clone). A collection of large numbers of clones of recombinant donor DNA molecules is called a genomic library. Such libraries are the starting point for sequencing entire genomes such as the human genome. Today genomes can be scanned for small molecular variants called single nucleotide......
  • genomics
    study of the structure, function, and inheritance of the genome (entire set of genetic material) of an organism. A major part of genomics is determining the sequence of molecules that make up the genomic deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) content of an organism. The genomic DNA sequence is contained within an organism’s chromosomes, one or m...
  • Genomosperma kidstonii (plant)
    ...in seed plants was made clear by a study of ovules discovered in Scotland from the Mississippian subdivision of the Carboniferous Period (about 359 to 318 million years ago). One example, Genomosperma kidstonii, consists of an elongated megasporangium with one functional megaspore. Arising from the base of the megasporangium were eight elongated, fingerlike processes that loosely......
  • genotype (biology)
    the genetic constitution of an organism. The genotype determines the hereditary potentials and limitations of an individual from embryonic formation through adulthood. Among organisms that reproduce sexually, an individual’s genotype comprises the entire complex of genes inherited from both parents. It can be demonstrated mathematically that sexual reproduction virtually guarantees that ea...
  • “Genou de Claire, Le” (film by Rohmer)
    ...an Academy Award nomination as best foreign-language film and one for Rohmer for best original screenplay. Rohmer’s next effort, Le Genou de Claire (1970; Claire’s Knee), was named best film at the San Sebastian Film Festival and received two awards as the year’s best French film—the Prix Louis-Delluc and the Prix M...
  • Genouilly, Charles Rigault de (French admiral)
    admiral who initiated the French invasion of Vietnam in 1858 and the subsequent conquest of Cochinchina, now southern Vietnam....
  • Genova (Italy)
    city and Mediterranean seaport in northwestern Italy. It is the capital of Genova provincia and of Liguria regione and is the centre of the Italian Riviera. Its total area is 93 square miles (240 square km)....
  • Genova, Golfo di (gulf, Italy)
    northern portion of the Ligurian Sea (an inlet of the Mediterranean Sea), extending eastward around the northwest coast of Italy for 90 miles (145 km), from Imperia to La Spezia. It receives the Magra, Roia, Centa, and Taggia rivers and includes the small gulfs of Spezia and Rapallo. The coastal region forms part of the Italian Riviera centred on Genoa (the gulf’s main port); it is noted fo...
  • Genovefa, Sankt (French saint)
    patron saint of Paris, who allegedly saved that city from the Huns....
  • Genovese, Vito (American gangster)
    one of the most powerful of American crime syndicate bosses from the 1930s to the 1950s and a major influence even from prison, 1959–69....
  • Genovesi, Antonio (Italian philosopher and economist)
    Italian philosopher and economist whose proposals for reforms in the Kingdom of Naples combined humanist ideas with a radical Christian metaphysical system....
  • Genpachi (Japanese artist)
    painter and publisher of illustrated books who introduced innovations in woodblock printing and print-design technique in Japan....
  • genre (art)
    ...whole, with its several incidents so closely connected that the transposal or withdrawal of any one of them will disjoin and dislocate the whole.” The principle is opposed to the concept of literary genres—standard and conventionalized forms that art must be fitted into. It assumes that art grows from a germ and seeks its own form and that the artist should not interfere with its....
  • genre (literature)
    a distinctive type or category of literary composition, such as the epic, tragedy, comedy, novel, and short story....
  • genre painting (visual arts)
    painting of scenes from everyday life, of ordinary people in work or recreation, depicted in a generally realistic manner. Genre art contrasts with that of landscape, portraiture, still life, religious themes, historic events, or any kind of traditionally idealized subject matter. Intimate scenes from daily life are almost invariably the subject of genre painting. The elimination of imaginative co...
  • genro (Japanese oligarchy)
    (“principal elders”), extraconstitutional oligarchy that dominated the Japanese government from the promulgation of the Meiji Constitution (1889) to the early 1930s. The genro were men who had played a leading role in the 1868 Meiji Restoration (the overthrow of feudal rule) and in the organization of the new government that followed this revolution. After the constitution was promu...
  • genrō (Japanese oligarchy)
    (“principal elders”), extraconstitutional oligarchy that dominated the Japanese government from the promulgation of the Meiji Constitution (1889) to the early 1930s. The genro were men who had played a leading role in the 1868 Meiji Restoration (the overthrow of feudal rule) and in the organization of the new government that followed this revolution. After the constitution was promu...
  • Genroku period (Japanese history)
    in Japanese history, era from 1688 to 1704, characterized by a rapidly expanding commercial economy and the development of a vibrant urban culture centred in the cities of Kyōto, Ōsaka, and Edo (Tokyo). The growth of the cities was a natural outcome of a century of peaceful Tokugawa rule and its policies designed to concentrate samurai in castle towns. Whereas Edo became the adminis...
  • Genscher, Hans-Dietrich (German foreign minister)
    chairman (1974–85) of the West German Free Democratic Party (Freie Demokratische Partei; FDP) and foreign minister (1974–92) in both Social Democratic Party and Christian Democratic Union–Christian Social Union ministries, before and after German unification in 1990....
  • Genseric (king of Vandals)
    king of the Vandals and the Alani (428–477) who conquered a large part of Roman Africa and in 455 sacked Rome....
  • Genshin (Buddhist monk)
    In 985 the Tendai monk Genshin (942–1017) produced the 10-part treatise Ōjō Yōshū (“Essentials of Salvation”), a major synthesis of Buddhist theory on the issues of suffering and reward and a pragmatic guide for believers who sought rebirth in the Western Paradise. Genshin described in compelling detail the cosmology of the six realms of......
  • Gent (Belgium)
    city, Flanders Region, northwestern Belgium. Ghent lies at the junction of the canalized Lys (Leie) and Scheldt (Schelde) rivers and is the centre of an urban complex that includes Ledeberg, Gentbrugge, and Sint-Amandsberg....
  • Gent, Joos van (Flemish painter)
    painter who introduced the Flemish style into Urbino. He has been identified with Joos van Wassenhove, a master of the painters’ guild at Antwerp in 1460 and at Ghent in 1464....
  • Gent University (university, Ghent, Belgium)
    state-financed coeducational institution of higher learning with limited autonomy in Ghent, Belg. Founded in 1817 under King William I of The Netherlands, the university at first conducted its instruction in Latin; in 1830 the language was changed to French; in 1916, during the German occupation of World War I, to Flemish (Dutch); in 1918 back to French; and by 1930 back permanently to Flemish. Th...
  • gentamicin (drug)
    ...in a laboratory test of the patient’s blood, lymph, or sputum. Antibiotic therapy must be given promptly to protect the patient’s life. Treatment is primarily with streptomycin or, if unavailable, gentamicin. Modern therapy has reduced the global fatality rate of plague from its historical level of 50–90 percent to less than 15 percent. The fatality rate is even lower in ca...
  • “Gente d’Aspromonte” (work by Alvaro)
    ...nel labirinto (1926; “Man in the Labyrinth”), explores the growth of fascism in Italy in the 1920s. Gente d’Aspromonte (1930; Revolt in Aspromonte), sometimes considered his best work, examines the exploitation of rural peasants by greedy landowners in Calabria. Inspired by a trip to the Soviet Union in 1934, .....
  • genteel comedy (literary subgenre)
    early 18th-century subgenre of the comedy of manners that reflected the behaviour of the British upper class. Contrasted with Restoration comedy, genteel comedy was somewhat artificial and sentimental. Colley Cibber’s play The Careless Husband (1704) is an example of the type. ...
  • gentian (plant)
    (genus Gentiana), any of about 400 species of annual or perennial (rarely biennial) flowering plants of the family Gentianaceae distributed worldwide in temperate and alpine regions, especially in Europe and Asia, North and South America, and New Zealand. They are especially a notable feature of mountain regions, where the moisture-loving plants have access to underground water in summer an...
  • gentian family (plant family)
    the gentian family of the flowering plant order Gentianales, containing 87 genera and nearly 1,700 species of annual and perennial herbs and, rarely, shrubs, native primarily to northern temperate areas of the world. Members of the family have leaves that are opposite each other on the stem. The leaves often lack leafstalks and have smooth margins. The flowers have four or five united petals, whic...
  • gentian order (plant order)
    gentian order of flowering plants, consisting of 5 families with more than 1,100 genera and nearly 17,000 species. The families are Gentianaceae, Rubiaceae, Apocynaceae (including Secamonoideae and Asclepiadoideae), Loganiaceae, and Gelsemiaceae. Except for the small Gelsemiaceae, the families of Gentian...
  • Gentiana (plant)
    (genus Gentiana), any of about 400 species of annual or perennial (rarely biennial) flowering plants of the family Gentianaceae distributed worldwide in temperate and alpine regions, especially in Europe and Asia, North and South America, and New Zealand. They are especially a notable feature of mountain regions, where the moisture-loving plants have access to underground water in summer an...
  • Gentiana lutea (plant)
    ...once used herbally for putative alimentary cures, and the name gentian derives from Gentius, king of ancient Illyria and alleged discoverer of the plant’s medicinal value. Gentiana lutea, the yellow gentian, is found in Europe and western Asia and is the source of a flavouring in liqueurs....
  • Gentiana pneumonanthe (plant)
    ...purple, violet, mauve, yellow, white, or even red; the four or five petals are usually united into a trumpet, funnel, or bell shape. The flowers have been used in the making of dyes, especially Gentiana pneumonanthe, a source of blue dye. The tough fibrous roots were once used herbally for putative alimentary cures, and the name gentian derives from Gentius, king of ancient Illyria and.....
  • Gentianaceae (plant family)
    the gentian family of the flowering plant order Gentianales, containing 87 genera and nearly 1,700 species of annual and perennial herbs and, rarely, shrubs, native primarily to northern temperate areas of the world. Members of the family have leaves that are opposite each other on the stem. The leaves often lack leafstalks and have smooth margins. The flowers have four or five united petals, whic...
  • Gentianales (plant order)
    gentian order of flowering plants, consisting of 5 families with more than 1,100 genera and nearly 17,000 species. The families are Gentianaceae, Rubiaceae, Apocynaceae (including Secamonoideae and Asclepiadoideae), Loganiaceae, and Gelsemiaceae. Except for the small Gelsemiaceae, the families of Gentian...
  • gentianose (carbohydrate)
    ...naturally occurring oligosaccharides are found in plants. Raffinose, a trisaccharide found in many plants, consists of melibiose (galactose and glucose) and fructose. Another plant trisaccharide is gentianose. Maltotriose, a trisaccharide of glucose, occurs in some plants and in the blood of certain arthropods....
  • Gentil, Émile (governor of the French Congo)
    French colonial administrator who explored the areas of the present Congo (Brazzaville), Central African Republic, and Chad and helped establish French rule in equatorial Africa....
  • Gentile (religious designation)
    A closely related question is whether Jesus intended his gospel to be addressed to Jews only or if the Gentiles were also to be included. In the Gospels Gentiles appear as isolated exceptions, and the choice of 12 Apostles has an evident symbolic relation to the 12 tribes of Israel. The fact that the extension of Christian preaching to the Gentiles caused intense debate in the 40s of the 1st......
  • Gentile da Fabriano (Italian painter)
    foremost painter of central Italy at the beginning of the 15th century, whose few surviving works are among the finest examples of the International Gothic style....
  • Gentile, Giovanni (Italian philosopher)
    major figure in Italian idealist philosophy, politician, educator, and editor, sometimes called the “philosopher of Fascism.” His “actual idealism” shows the strong influence of G.W.F. Hegel....
  • Gentileschi, Artemisia (Italian painter)
    Italian painter, daughter of Orazio Gentileschi, who was a major follower of the revolutionary Baroque painter Caravaggio. She was an important second-generation proponent of Caravaggio’s dramatic realism....
  • Gentileschi, Orazio (Italian painter)
    Italian Baroque painter, one of the more important painters who came under the influence of Caravaggio and who was one of the more successful interpreters of his style. His daughter, Artemisia Gentileschi, who was trained in his studio, also became a noteworthy Baroque artist....
  • Gentili, Alberico (Italian jurist)
    Italian jurist considered by many to be the founder of the science of international law and said to have been the first in western Europe to separate secular law from Roman Catholic theology and canon law....
  • Gentilianus, Amelius (Roman philosopher)
    ...collected and arranged as the Enneads. Some, it seems from their complexity, were destined for an inner circle of his closest friends and philosophical collaborators, such as Porphyry, Amelius Gentilianus from Tuscany (the senior member of the school), and Eustochius, who was Plotinus’ physician and who may have produced another edition of his works, now lost....
  • Gentle Craft, The (work by Deloney)
    ...the provinces for his prose stories. His “many pleasant songs and pretty poems to new notes” appeared as The Garland of Good Will (1593). His Jacke of Newberie (1597), The Gentle Craft, parts i and ii (1597–c. 1598), and Thomas of Reading (1599?) furnished plots for such dramatists as Thomas Dekker. The Gentle Craft is a collection ...
  • gentle lemur (primate)
    ...the male is black and the female is reddish brown. The rare black-and-white or black-and-red ruffed lemurs (genus Varecia) live in rainforests on the eastern side of Madagascar. The gentle lemurs, or lesser bamboo lemurs (genus Hapalemur), and the highly endangered greater bamboo lemurs (Prolemur simus) feed on bamboo stems in the eastern and......
  • Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director, The (work by Chippendale)
    ...characteristics such as pediments, cornices, and pilasters became prominent. This trend was less pronounced by 1750. Decoration could be elaborate, but, as Thomas Chippendale suggested in The Gentleman and Cabinetmaker’s Director (1st edition, 1754), “all may be omitted if required.” By this time, too, most large examples were blockfronted....
  • “Gentleman and Cabinetmaker’s Director, The” (work by Chippendale)
    ...characteristics such as pediments, cornices, and pilasters became prominent. This trend was less pronounced by 1750. Decoration could be elaborate, but, as Thomas Chippendale suggested in The Gentleman and Cabinetmaker’s Director (1st edition, 1754), “all may be omitted if required.” By this time, too, most large examples were blockfronted....
  • Gentleman Dancing-Master, The (work by Wycherley)
    ...instant acclaim. Wycherley was taken up by Barbara Villiers, duchess of Cleveland, whose favours he shared with King Charles II, and he was admitted to the circle of wits at court. His next play, The Gentleman Dancing-Master, was presented in 1672 but proved unsuccessful. These early plays—both of which have some good farcical moments—followed tradition in “curing......
  • Gentleman from Indiana, The (novel by Tarkington)
    Tarkington studied at Purdue and Princeton universities but took no degree. A versatile and prolific writer, he won early recognition with the melodramatic novel The Gentleman from Indiana (1899), reflecting his disillusionment with the corruption in the lawmaking process he was to observe firsthand as a member of the Indiana legislature (1902–03). His immensely popular romance......
  • Gentleman in Blue (painting by Titian)
    The authorship of individual portraits is the most difficult of all to establish, but the Gentleman in Blue (so-called Ariosto) is certainly Titian’s because it is signed with the initials T.V. (Tiziano Vecellio). The volume and the interest in texture in the quilted sleeve seem to identify Titian’s own style. On the other han...
  • Gentleman Jackson (English boxer)
    English bare-knuckle boxer who was influential in securing acceptance of prizefighting as a legitimate sport in England....
  • Gentleman Jim (American boxer)
    American world heavyweight boxing champion from September 7, 1892, when he knocked out John L. Sullivan in 21 rounds at New Orleans, until March 17, 1897, when he was knocked out by Robert Fitzsimmons in 14 rounds at Carson City, Nevada. Corbett was a quick and agile boxer, and he led the movement toward what came to be called scientific boxing...
  • Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod (English official)
    an office of the British House of Lords (the upper house in Parliament), instituted in 1350. Its holder is appointed by royal letters patent, and his title is derived from his staff of office, an ebony stick surmounted with a gold lion. He is a personal attendant of the sovereign in the upper house and there functions as a sergeant at arms; his most prominent ...
  • Gentleman’s Agreement (work by Hobson)
    ...and Fortune magazines). After 1940 she devoted herself entirely to writing, producing a total of nine novels and hundreds of short stories and magazine articles. Hobson is best-known for Gentleman’s Agreement, the story of an American gentile journalist who poses as a Jew in order to gain a firsthand experience of anti-Semitism in American life. The book is a scathing depic...
  • Gentleman’s Agreement (film by Kazan [1947])
    Other Nominees...
  • Gentleman’s Journal (English periodical)
    ...(better known later as the Athenian Mercury; 1690–97), run by a London publisher, John Dunton, to resolve “all the most Nice and Curious Questions.” Soon after came the Gentleman’s Journal (1692–94), started by the French-born Peter Anthony Motteux, with a monthly blend of news, prose, and poetry. In 1693, after devoting some experimental numbers...
  • Gentleman’s Magazine (British periodical)
    (1731–1914), long-popular English periodical that gave the name “magazine” to its genre. It was the first general periodical in England, founded by Edward Cave in 1731. It originated as a storehouse, or magazine, of essays and articles culled from other publications, often from books and pamphlets. Its motto—“E pluribus unum”...
  • Gentlemen Golfers of Leith (British sports organization)
    one of the world’s oldest golfing societies, founded in 1744 by a group of gentlemen who played on a five-hole course at Leith, which is now a district of Edinburgh. In that year the group petitioned the city officials of Edinburgh for a silver club to be awarded to the winner of a golf competition. It further established the earliest known rules of the game, a code of 13 articles recorded ...
  • Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (American film)
    ...(1951), Clash by Night (1952), and Niagara (1953), she advanced to star billing on the strength of her studio-fostered image as a “love goddess.” With performances in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), and There’s No Business Like Show Business (1954), her fame grew steadily and spread throughout the world,...
  • Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (novel by Loos)
    American novelist and Hollywood screenwriter celebrated for her novel Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, which became the basis of a popular play, two musicals, and two films. By the time of her death it had run through 85 editions and translations into 14 languages....
  • Gentlemen vs. Players match (cricket)
    Some of the earliest organized cricket matches were between amateur and professional players. From 1806 (annually from 1819) to 1962, the Gentlemen-versus-Players match pitted the best amateurs against the best professionals. The series was ended in 1962 when the MCC and the counties abandoned the distinction between amateurs and professionals. Other early cricket matches took place between......
  • Gentlemen’s Agreement (United States-Japanese agreement)
    (1907), U.S.-Japanese understanding, in which Japan agreed not to issue passports to emigrants to the United States, except to certain categories of business and professional men. In return, President Theodore Roosevelt agreed to urge the city of San Francisco to rescind an order by which children of Japanese parents were segregated from white students in the schools....
  • Gentlemen’s Canal (canal, Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
    ...now the Singel and the Kloveniersburgwal canals. Three towers of the old fortifications still stand. Outside the Singel are the three main canals dating from the early 17th century: the Herengracht (Gentlemen’s Canal), Keizersgracht (Emperor’s Canal), and Prinsengracht (Prince’s Canal). These concentric canals, together with the smaller radial canals, form a characteristic ...
  • Gentofte (Denmark)
    northern residential suburb of Copenhagen, Den. It maintains itself as a separate municipality (København amtskommune [county commune]), although it is now indistinguishable from the surrounding suburbs. It is the site of a horse-trotting course and the renowned Tuborg breweries. Most of the foreign embassies in Denmark are located in Gentofte. Pop. (1990 est.) 65,303....
  • gentoo penguin (bird)
    ...spring or summer. King penguins are on a 14- to 18-month cycle, and the timing of an individual pair depends on the success or failure of the previous breeding attempt. Some populations of the gentoo penguin (Pygoscelis papua) also breed in winter. The breeding of the emperor penguin begins in autumn, apparently timed so that the long developmental period will produce the young in......
  • gentrification (urban process)
    The most recent destabilizing factor in some areas of the city has been gentrification. Conveniently located old houses and apartment buildings have lured enough financing to transform once-abandoned districts into communities of upscale housing units. Since the last decades of the 20th century, thousands of new residents have moved into the light-manufacturing belt surrounding the Loop. Where......
  • gentry (social class)
    The use of the two terms nobleman and gentleman indicates the difficulty of definition. The terms were loosely used to mark the essential distinction between members of an upper class and the rest. In France, above knights and esquires without distinctive title, ranged barons, viscounts, counts, and marquises, until the summit was reached with dukes and princes of the blood. In Britain, by......
  • Gentry, Charter to the (Russian history)
    (1785) edict issued by the Russian empress Catherine II the Great that recognized the corps of nobles in each province as a legal corporate body and stated the rights and privileges bestowed upon its members. The charter accorded to the gentry of each province and county in Russia (excluding those of northern European Russia and Siberia) the right to meet every three years in a ...
  • Gentz, Friedrich (German political journalist)
    German political journalist, famous for his writings against the principles of the French Revolution and Napoleon and as a confidential adviser of Metternich. Though a commoner, he sometimes affected the von of nobility, having received a Swedish knighthood in 1804....
  • Gentz, Friedrich von (German political journalist)
    German political journalist, famous for his writings against the principles of the French Revolution and Napoleon and as a confidential adviser of Metternich. Though a commoner, he sometimes affected the von of nobility, having received a Swedish knighthood in 1804....
  • Gentzen, Gerhard (German mathematician)
    The best-known consistency proof is that of the German mathematician Gerhard Gentzen (1936) for the system N of classical (or ordinary, in contrast to intuitionistic) number theory. Taking ω (omega) to represent the next number beyond the natural numbers (called the “first transfinite number”), Gentzen’s proof employs an induction in the realm of transfinite numbers (...
  • genu (anatomy)
    ...capsule. The internal capsule consists of an anterior limb and a larger posterior limb and is abruptly curved, with the apex directed toward the centre of the brain; the junction is called the genu. The cerebrum also contains groups of subcortical neuronal masses known as basal ganglia....
  • Genua (Italy)
    city and Mediterranean seaport in northwestern Italy. It is the capital of Genova provincia and of Liguria regione and is the centre of the Italian Riviera. Its total area is 93 square miles (240 square km)....
  • Genuine Lutherans (religious sect)
    The two factions involved in these debates were the Philippists, followers of Melanchthon, and the Gnesio-Lutherans (Genuine Lutherans), led by Matthias Flacius Illyricus, a forceful and uncompromising theologian who accused the Philippists of “synergism,” the notion that humans cooperated in their salvation. Flacius and the other Gnesio-Lutherans also saw in the Philippists’....
  • Genuine Republican Party (political party, Bolivia)
    ...control of the Republican Party’s junta in 1920 and was national president from 1921 to 1925, and Daniel Salamanca, a Cochabamba landowner who took his following into a separate party, the so-called Genuine Republican Party, which was often supported in its activities by the Liberals. The rivalry between these two men became the dominant theme in Bolivian politics for the next decade, un...
  • genus (taxon)
    biological classification ranking between family and species, consisting of structurally or phylogenetically related species or an isolated species exhibiting unusual differentiation (monotypic genus). Thus the species of roses collectively form the genus Rosa, and the species of horses and zebras form the genus Equus. The genus name is the ...
  • genus and differentia, definition by
    ...(Isagoge). The Isagoge, in fact, is only concerned with a simple and rather mechanical treatment of five concepts that had been much used by Aristotle. These were the concepts of genus, or kind (as animal is the genus, or kind, under which Socrates falls); species, or sort (Socrates is a man); differentia, or distinguishing characteristic (rationality distinguishes men from......
  • Gény, François (French jurist)
    French law professor who originated the libre recherche scientifique (“free scientific research”) movement in jurisprudence. His advocacy of this principle liberalized the interpretation of codified law in France and helped to increase popular confidence in the judiciary. His approach also influenced legal philosophy in other countries....
  • Genyophryninae (amphibian subfamily)
    ...direct development; 66 genera, 306 species; 10 subfamilies: Cophylinae (Madagascar), Dyscophinae (Madagascar), Scaphiophryninae (Madagascar), Asterophryinae (New Guinea and Sulu Archipelago), Genyophryninae (Philippines, eastern Indo-Australian archipelago, New Guinea, northern Australia), Brevicipitinae (Africa), Microhylinae (North and South America, Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka, western......
  • Genypterus capensis (fish)
    ...Some cusk eels are found in shallow water, but most are deep-water fish, growing no longer than 0.6 metre (2 feet); however, two species exceed 1.5 metres (5 feet) in length. One of these, the kingklip (Genypterus capensis), is a South African species prized as food....
  • genze riyaku (Buddhism)
    ...to the daily lives of the people, the continued existence of Buddhist temples was guaranteed. Though hardly a new phenomenon, more people in Edo times tended to engage in what was termed genze riyaku—i.e., they prayed for happiness during their lifetime, such as for commercial prosperity or restoration of health—rather than wait for happiness after their death, as had......
  • GEO
    ...are carried into space by rocket-powered expendable launch vehicles, although in the 1980s a significant number were deployed during U.S. space shuttle missions. Most are placed ultimately into geostationary orbit, in which the satellite travels in a circular path around Earth in the plane of the Equator, at an altitude of about 35,800 km (22,250 miles). At this height the satellite orbits......
  • Geo-Zoo (zoo, Munich, Germany)
    zoological garden in Munich. The spacious, wooded, 70-ha (173-ac) grounds resemble the animals’ natural habitats. Hellabrunn specializes in breeding species threatened with extinction, such as the Przewalski’s horse, and back breeding to species already extinct, such as the aurochs, a wild ox said to have become extinct in the 1620s. Founded in 1928, the zoo is financed by the city. ...
  • Geo. A. Hormel & Company (American company)
    ...built on the river, and economic development increased with the arrival of the railroad in the late 1860s. A community college campus is located there, as is the Mower County Historical Society. Hormel Foods Corporation (originally founded as Geo. A. Hormel & Company), a meatpacking and food-processing corporation begun in Austin in 1891, is the economic mainstay, supplemented by other.....
  • Geocapromys brownii (rodent)
    ...raccoon-sized Desmarest’s Cuban hutia (Capromys pilorides), with a body 32 to 60 cm long and weight of up to 8.5 kg (19 pounds). The tail ranges from very short and inconspicuous in Brown’s hutia (Geocapromys brownii) to pronounced and prehensile in the long-tailed Cuban hutia Mysateles prehensilis. Depending on the species, the tail ma...
  • Geocarcinus (land crab)
    Some crabs, such as robber crabs (Birgus) and land crabs of tropical regions (Geocarcinus), have adapted to life on land. They migrate to the sea to reproduce and then return inland and are followed at a later time by the young....
  • geocarpy (botany)
    ...of an already occupied, favourable site. This aim is often achieved by synaptospermy, the sticking together of several diaspores, which makes them less mobile, as in beet and spinach; also, by geocarpy, which is either the production of fruits underground, as in the arum lilies Stylochiton and Biarum, in which the flowers are already subterranean, or the active burying of......
  • geocentric parallax (astronomy)
    ...ideas prevailed until the 14th century ad. Finally, during the 16th century the Danish nobleman Tycho Brahe established critical proof that comets are heavenly bodies. He compared the lack of diurnal parallax of the comet of 1577 with the well-known parallax of the Moon (the diurnal parallax is the apparent change of position in the sky relative to the distant stars due to the rot...
  • geocentric system (astronomy)
    any theory of the structure of the solar system (or the universe) in which Earth is assumed to be at the centre of all. The most highly developed geocentric system was that of Ptolemy of Alexandria (2nd century ad). It was generally accepted until the 16th century, after which it was superseded by heliocentric models such as that of Nicolaus Copernicus. Compare helio...
  • geocentric zenith
    ...If the line were not deflected by such local irregularities in the Earth’s mass as mountains, it would point to the geographic zenith. Because the Earth rotates and is not a perfect sphere, the geocentric zenith is slightly different from the geographic zenith except at the Equator and the poles. Geocentric zenith is the intersection with the celestial sphere of a straight line drawn......
  • Geochelone elephantopus
    The archipelago is renowned for its unusual animal life. Its giant tortoises are thought to have some of the longest life spans (up to 150 years) of any creature on Earth. The close affinities of Galapagos animals to the fauna of South and Central America indicate that most of the islands’ species originated there. Because of subsequent evolutionary adaptations, an amazing range of subspeci...
  • Geochelone gigantea (reptile)
    ...(120 per acre) in the red-eared slider. In contrast, the North American bog turtle (Clemmys muhlenbergi) lives in isolation, each bog containing only a dozen or fewer adults. The Aldabra giant tortoise (Geochelone gigantea) of the Indian Ocean has received modest protection, and as a result it has attained a total population of about 100,000, with......
  • geochemical cycle
    developmental path followed by individual elements or groups of elements in the crustal and subcrustal zones of the Earth and on its surface. The concept of a geochemical cycle encompasses geochemical differentiation (i.e., the natural separation and concentration of elements by Earth processes) and heat-assisted, elemental recombination processes....
  • geochemical facies (geology)
    ...and fossil beds, Gressly observed the great horizontal changes in each individual layer. In “Observations géologiques sur le Jura Soleurois” (1838–41), he coined the term facies to describe the aspects (or “faces”) of the terrain. Gressly worked closely with Louis Agassiz at Neuchâtel, and, when Agassiz went to the United States in 1846, Gressly....
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