Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Riau ... ricercare

Riau: provinsi ("province"), east-central Sumatra, Indonesia. It is bounded by the provinces of Jambi on the south, Sumatera Barat (West Sumatra) on the west, Sumatera Utara (North Sumatra) on the north and northwest, the Malacca Strait on the east, and the ...
rib: any of several pairs of narrow, curved strips of bone (sometimes cartilage) attached dorsally to the vertebrae and, in higher vertebrates, to the breastbone ventrally, to form the bony skeleton, or rib cage, of the chest. The ribs help to ...
Ribalta, Francisco: Spanish painter who was one of the first artists to be influenced by the new realism initiated by Caravaggio in Italy. Ribalta's use of light and shadow to give solidity to his forms made him the first native Spanish tenebroso ...
Ribas, Oscar: Angolan folklorist and novelist, who recorded in Portuguese the oral tradition of the Mbundu people of Angola.
Ribaut, Jean: French naval officer, explorer, and colonizer.
Ribbentrop, Joachim von: German diplomat, foreign minister under the Nazi regime (1933-45), and chief negotiator of the treaties with which Germany entered World War II.
Ribble Valley: borough (district), administrative county of Lancashire, northwestern England, along the county's eastern border, extending into the western Pennine uplands. The southern part of the borough, including the lower Ribble valley and the two largest towns, Clitheroe and Longridge, lies in ...
Ribble, River: river in North Yorkshire and Lancashire, England, formed by the confluence of the Gayle and Cam becks (streams). The river first flows almost due south between Ingleborough Mountain (2,373 feet [723 m]) and Pen-y-Ghent (2,273 feet [693 m]) and then ...
Ribbon Fall: cataract on the west slope of the Sierra Nevada in Yosemite National Park, east-central California, U.S. With a drop of 1,612 feet (491 metres), it is one of the world's highest waterfalls-said to be the highest single fall in the ...
ribbon seal: (Histriophoca fasciata), earless seal of the family Phocidae found in the North Pacific and the Bering Sea. The male, growing to about 1.7 m (5.6 feet) in length and 95 kg (210 pounds) in weight, is dark brown with broad, ...
ribbon worm: any member of the invertebrate phylum Nemertea (sometimes called Nemertinea, or Rhynchocoela), which includes mainly free-living forms but also a few parasites of crustaceans, mollusks, and sea squirts. The majority of the approximately 900 known nemertean species are found in ...
ribbonfish: any of several species of deep-sea, marine fishes constituting the family Trachipteridae (order Lampridiformes). The family contains three genera: Trachipteras, Desmodema, and Zu. These slender-bodied fishes occur in all the major oceans. The name ribbonfish comes from the long, stringlike ...
Ribbonism: Irish secret-society movement that began at the end of the 18th century in opposition to the Orange Society, or Protestant Orangemen. It was represented by various associations under different names, organized in lodges, and recruited all over Ireland from the ...
Ribe: city, southwestern Jutland, Denmark, on the Ribe River, 4 miles (6 km) from the North Sea. One of Denmark's oldest towns, it was first mentioned in 862 and became a bishopric in 948. In the Middle Ages it was a ...
Ribeauville: town, Haut-Rhin departement, Alsace region, in eastern France. It lies at the entrance of the valley of the Strengbach, under the Vosges Mountains, 33 miles (53 km) southwest of Strasbourg. It is distinguished by a medieval gate, the Porte des ...
Ribeirao Preto: city, northeastern Sao Paulo state, southeastern Brazil. It is situated in a highlands region at an elevation of 1,700 feet (520 metres) above sea level, on the Preto River, a tributary of the Pardo River. Founded in 1856 and formerly ...
Ribeiro Couto, Rui: Brazilian poet, short-story writer, and diplomat, one of the leading figures of Modernism in its early years. Originally a symbolist poet, Ribeiro Couto evolved toward the Modernism that exploded upon the Brazilian literary scene in the early 1920s, publishing poems ...
Ribeiro, Aquilino: novelist, the mainstay of Portuguese fiction writing until the surge of neorealist regionalism that began in 1930.
Ribeiro, Bernardim: Portuguese poet and prose writer who introduced the pastoral style to Portugal in five idylls, or eclogues, and a prose romance. His lyrical treatment of the yearnings of unrequited love provided models for the tradition of the saudade (poem of ...
Ribera, Jose de: (Italian: "The Little Spaniard")Spanish painter and printmaker, noted for his Baroque dramatic realism and his depictions of religious and mythological subjects.
Ribes: genus of about 150 species of shrubs of two distinct groups, the currants and the gooseberries, constituting the family Grossulariaceae (often included in the family Saxifragaceae). They are native to the temperate regions of North America, extending southward into the ...
Ribeyro, Julio Ramon: short-story writer, novelist, and playwright, one of the Latin American masters of the short story, whose works display a rare mix of social criticism and fantasy, projecting a bleak view of Peruvian life. Ribeyro was the author of some eight ...
riboflavin: a yellow, water-soluble organic compound that occurs abundantly in whey (the watery part of milk) and in egg white. An essential nutrient for animals, it can be synthesized by green plants and by most bacteria and fungi. The greenish yellow ...
ribose: five-carbon sugar found in RNA (ribonucleic acid), where it alternates with phosphate groups to form the "backbone" of the RNA polymer and binds to nitrogenous bases. Ribose phosphates are components of the nucleotide coenzymes and are utilized by microorganisms in ...
ribosome: tiny particle that is present in large numbers in all living cells and which is the site of protein synthesis. Ribosomes are tiny granules that occur both as free particles within cells and as particles attached to the membranes of ...
Ribot, Alexandre: French statesman of the Third Republic who was four times premier of France.
Ribot, Theodule-Armand: French psychologist whose endeavour to account for memory loss as a symptom of progressive brain disease, iterated in his Les Maladies de la memoire (1881; Diseases of Memory), constitutes the most influential early attempt to analyze abnormalities of memory in ...
Ricardo, Cassiano: poet, essayist, literary critic, and journalist, one of the most versatile 20th-century Brazilian poets. During his long life he participated in every literary movement from Parnassianism through Modernism to the Concretism and Praxis Poetry of the 1960s.
Ricardo, David: English economist who gave systematized, classical form to the rising science of economics in the 19th century. He formulated the Iron Law of Wages, which stated that all attempts to improve the real income of workers were futile and that ...
Ricca, Paul: Chicago gangster who was considered "the brains" behind the operations of Al Capone and Capone's successors, Frank Nitti and Tony Accardo. He was the Chicago representative in the formation of the national crime syndicate in 1934, led by Lucky Luciano, ...
Ricci, Matteo: Italian Jesuit missionary who introduced Christian teaching to the Chinese Empire in the 16th century. He lived there for nearly 30 years and was a pioneer in the attempt at mutual comprehension between China and the West. By adopting the ...
Ricci, Ruggiero: U.S. violinist known especially for his performances and recordings of Paganini's works.
Ricci-Curbastro, Gregorio: Italian mathematician instrumental in the development of absolute differential calculus, formerly also called the Ricci calculus but now known as tensor analysis.
Riccia: genus of liverworts (small, creeping plants) in the order Marchantiales, widely distributed throughout the world. The most well-known species, Riccia fluitans, sometimes called slender riccia, forms branching green ribbons about 0.1 centimetre (about 0.04 inch) wide and about 1.3 to ...
Riccio, Andrea: Renaissance sculptor and goldsmith best known for his miniature sculptures in bronze.
Riccio, David: secretary to Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots; he helped to arrange her marriage to Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley.
rice: edible starchy cereal grain and the plant by which it is produced. Roughly one-half of the world population, including virtually all of East and Southeast Asia, is wholly dependent upon rice as a staple food; 95 percent of the world's ...
Rice Mother: widely distributed and variegated figure in the mythology of peoples of the Indonesian culture. There are three main types of Rice Mother, which are either found separately or combined.
rice rat: any of 36 nocturnal species of small rodents found from the United States southward through tropical and portions of subtropical South America. Rice rats have soft fur, with tawny to grayish brown upperparts and paler underparts. Their tails are sparsely ...
Rice University: private, coeducational institution of higher learning in Houston, Texas, U.S. The university includes the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management, Shepherd School of Music, Wiess School of Natural Sciences, and George R. Brown School of Engineering as well as ...
Rice, Alice Hegan: American novelist and short-story writer most widely known for her 1901 best-seller, Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch, a book often translated, staged, and filmed since its publication.
Rice, Condoleezza: American educator and politician, who served as national security adviser (2001-05) and secretary of state (from 2005) to President George W. Bush.
Rice, Dan: American clown who was one of the most highly acclaimed clowns in the history of the circus. Rice was renowned for an act that included singing, dancing, witty badinage with the audience, feats of strength, trick riding, and exhibitions of ...
Rice, Elmer: American playwright, director, and novelist noted for his innovative and polemical plays.
Rice, Grantland: sports columnist and author who established himself over many years as one of the United States' leading sports authorities.
Rice, James: English novelist best known for his literary partnership with Sir Walter Besant.
Rice, Jerry: American professional gridiron football player whom many consider the greatest wide receiver in the history of the National Football League (NFL). Playing for the San Francisco 49ers, he set a host of NFL records, including those for career touchdowns, receptions, ...
Rice, Thomas Dartmouth: popularly known as "Jim Crow" Rice and regarded as the father of the American minstrel show.
rice-paper plant: (species Tetrapanax papyriferum), shrub or small tree of the ginseng family (Araliaceae), native to southern China and Taiwan. It is the source of rice paper. It has large, lobed leaves that form an almost palmlike crown. The central tissues of ...
ricebird: any of several birds that frequent rice fields or paddies. See Java sparrow; mannikin.
ricercare: musical composition for instruments in which one or more themes are developed through melodic imitation; it was prominent in the 16th and 17th centuries. The earliest ricercari, which were for the lute, appeared in 1507. Well-suited to the technical capabilities ...