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Encyclopedias since 1768

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Nernst, Walther Hermann ... Neue Sachlichkeit

Nernst, Walther Hermann: German scientist who was one of the founders of modern physical chemistry. His formulation of the third law of thermodynamics gained him the 1920 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Simply stated, the law postulates that, at a temperature above absolute zero, ...
Nero: the fifth Roman emperor (AD 54-68), stepson and heir of the emperor Claudius. He became infamous for his personal debaucheries and extravagances and, on doubtful evidence, for his burning of Rome and persecutions of Christians.
Nerthus: ancient Germanic goddess known from a report of her given by the Roman historian Tacitus, who in his Germania (late 1st century AD) refers to her as Terra Mater, or Mother Earth, and says that she was worshiped by seven ...
Neruda, Pablo: Chilean poet, diplomat, and politician who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971. He was perhaps the most important Latin American poet of the 20th century.
Nerva: Roman emperor from Sept. 18, 96, to January 98, the first of a succession of rulers traditionally known as the Five Good Emperors.
Nerval, Gerard de: French Romantic poet whose themes and preoccupations were to greatly influence the Symbolists and Surrealists.
nerve: filament of nervous tissue that conducts nervous impulses and connects parts of the nervous system with other organs. See neuron.
Nervi, Pier Luigi: Italian engineer and architect, internationally renowned for his technical ingenuity and dramatic sense of design, especially as applied to large-span structures built of reinforced concrete. His important works include a prefabricated 309-foot-span arch for the Turin Exhibition (1949-50) and the ...
Nervo, Amado: poet and diplomat, generally considered the most distinguished Mexican poet of the late 19th- and early 20th-century literary movement known as Modernismo. Nervo's introspective poetry, characterized by deep religious feeling and simple forms, reflects his struggle for self-understanding and inner ...
nervous system: organized group of cells specialized for the conduction of electrochemical stimuli from sensory receptors through a network to the site at which a response occurs.
nervous system disease: any of the diseases or disorders that affect the functioning of the human nervous system. Everything that humans sense, consider, and effect and all the unlearned reflexes of the body depend on the functioning of the nervous system. The skeleton ...
nervous system, human: system that conducts stimuli from sensory receptors to the brain and spinal cord and that conducts impulses back to other parts of the body. As with other higher vertebrates, the human nervous system has two main parts: the central nervous ...
Nesbit, E: British children's author, novelist, and poet.
Nesch, Rolf: German-born Norwegian printmaker and painter who was one of the first artists to use metal collage in printmaking.
Nesebur: historic town and resort, eastern Bulgaria, on the Black Sea coast. Nesebur is situated on an island connected to the mainland by a narrow strip of land. The Greek colony of Mesembria was founded on the site late in the ...
Nesimi, Seyid Imadeddin: one of the greatest Turkish mystical poets of the late 14th and early 15th centuries.
Nesri: historian who was a prominent figure in early Ottoman historiography.
Ness, Eliot: American crime fighter, head of a nine-man team of law officers called the "Untouchables," who opposed Al Capone's underworld network in Chicago.
Ness, Loch: lake, lying in the Highland council area, Scotland. With a depth of 788 feet (240 metres) and a length of about 23 miles (36 km), Loch Ness has the largest volume of fresh water in Great Britain. It lies in ...
Nesselrode, Karl Vasilyevich, Count: foreign minister of imperial Russia (1822-56) whose policy toward the Ottoman Empire helped precipitate the Crimean War (1853-56).
nest: structure created by an animal to house its eggs, its young, or, in some cases, itself. Nests are built by a few invertebrates, especially the social insects, and by some members of all the major vertebrate groups.
Nestle SA: multinational manufacturer of food products. It is headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland, and operates factories in more than 80 countries. Nestle's chief products are condensed and powdered milk, baby foods, chocolate products, candies, instant coffees and teas, soups, seasonings and condiments, ...
Nestor: a monk in Kievan Rus of the Monastery of the Caves in Kiev (from about 1074), author of several works of hagiography and an important historical chronicle.
Nestor: in Greek legend, king of Pylos (Navarino) in Elis. All of his brothers were slain by the Greek hero Heracles (the Roman Hercules), but Nestor escaped. In the Iliad he is about 70 years old and sage and pious; his ...
Nestor, Agnes: American labour leader and reformer, remembered as a powerful force in unionizing women workers in several clothing and related industries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Nestorian: member of a Christian sect originating in Asia Minor and Syria out of the condemnation of Nestorius and his teachings by the councils of Ephesus (AD 431) and Chalcedon (AD 451). Nestorians stressed the independence of the divine and human ...
Nestorius: early bishop of Constantinople whose views on the nature and person of Christ led to the calling of the Council of Ephesus in 431 and to Nestorianism, one of the major Christian heresies. A few small Nestorian churches still exist. ...
Nestos River: river in southwestern Bulgaria and western Thrace, Greece. The Nestos rises on Kolarov peak of the Rila Mountains of the northwestern Rhodope (Rodopi) Mountains. The river's upper confluents separate the Rila and Pirin ranges from the main Rhodope massif. Crossing ...
Nestroy, Johann: one of Austria's greatest comic dramatists, and a brilliant character actor who dominated the mid-19th-century Viennese popular stage.
net: an open fabric of thread, cord, or wire, the intersections of which are looped or knotted so as to form a mesh. Nets are primarily used for fishing.
net-winged beetle: any of the approximately 2,800 species of soft-bodied, brightly coloured, predominately tropical beetles of the family Lycidae (order Coleoptera). The broad, leathery wing covers (elytra), which are wider at the tip than at the base, and the raised network of ...
Netanya: city, west-central Israel. It lies on the Mediterranean coast, 19 miles (30 km) north of Tel Aviv-Yafo. Because of its proximity to the West Bank, the city was a frequent target of bombings by Palestinian terrorists at the beginning of ...
Netanyahu, Benjamin: Israeli politician and diplomat, who was his country's prime minister from 1996 to 1999.
netball: popular game in girls' schools in England and several other British Commonwealth countries, similar to six-player girls' basketball in the United States. It is played on a hard-surfaced rectangular court 100 feet long and 50 feet wide (30 by 15 ...
Netherlandic language: a West Germanic language that is the national language of The Netherlands and, with French, one of the two official languages of Belgium. Although speakers of English usually call the Netherlandic of The Netherlands "Dutch" and the Netherlandic of Belgium ...
Netherlands Antilles: five islands in the Caribbean Sea, an autonomous part of the Kingdom of The Netherlands. The group is composed of two widely separated groups approximately 500 miles (800 kilometres) apart. The area of the islands is 309 square miles (800 ...
Netherlands Reformed Church, The: largest Protestant church in The Netherlands, the successor of the established Dutch Reformed Church that developed during the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century. Reforming interest emerged in the Netherlands early in the Reformation. The emperor Charles V instituted the ...
Netherlands, The: country located in northwestern Europe. The name Holland (from Houtland, or "Wooded Land") was originally given to one of the medieval cores of what later became the modern state and is still used for 2 of its ...
Neto, Agostinho: poet, physician, and first president of the People's Republic of Angola.
Netscape Communications Corp.: American developer of Internet software with headquarters in Mountain View, California.
Netscher, Caspar: German painter of the Baroque era who established a fashionable practice as a portrait painter.
netsuke: ornamental togglelike piece, usually of carved ivory, used to attach a medicine box, pipe, or tobacco pouch to the obi (sash) of a Japanese man's traditional dress. During the Tokugawa period (1603-1868), netsukes were an indispensable item of dress as ...
netting: in textiles, ancient method of constructing open fabrics by the crossing of cords, threads, yarns, or ropes so that their intersections are knotted or looped, forming a geometrically shaped mesh, or open space. Modern net fabrics are produced not only ...
Neuber, Caroline: actress-manager who was influential in the development of modern German theatre.
Neubrandenburg: city, Mecklenburg-West Pomerania Land (state), northeastern Germany. It lies near the northern end of Tollense Lake, where the Tollense River flows from the lake, about 50 miles (80 km) south of Stralsund. Founded in 1248 by the ...
Neuchatel: capital (since 1815) of Neuchatel canton, western Switzerland, on the northwestern shore of Lake Neuchatel, at the mouth of the Seyon River, partly on the slopes of the Chaumont (3,566 feet [1,087 metres]) and partly on land reclaimed from the ...
Neuchatel: canton, western Switzerland, bordering France to the northwest and Lake Neuchatel to the southeast and bounded by the cantons of Bern on the northeast and Vaud on the southwest. It lies in the central Jura Mountains and is drained by ...
Neuchatel crisis: (1856-57), tense episode of Swiss history that had repercussions among the Great Powers of Europe. The Congress of Vienna (1814-15), in its general settlement of territorial questions after the Napoleonic Wars, ordained that Neuchatel (or Neuenburg) should have a dual ...
Neuchatel, Lake: largest lake wholly in Switzerland; its area of 84 square miles (218 square km) is divided among the cantons of Neuchatel, Vaud, Fribourg, and Bern. Lakes Neuchatel, Biel (Bienne), and Morat, connected by canals, are survivors of a former glacial ...
Neue Kunstlervereinigung: exhibiting group founded in Munich, Germany, in 1909 by Wassily Kandinsky, Alexey von Jawlensky, Gabriele Munter, and numerous others who were united by opposition to the official art of Munich rather than by similarity of style.
Neue Sachlichkeit: (German: New Objectivity), a group of German artists in the 1920s whose works were executed in a realistic style (in contrast to the prevailing styles of Expressionism and Abstraction) and who reflected what was characterized as the resignation and cynicism ...