M.C. Escher (1898-1972) produced work that remains among the most widely reproduced and popular graphic art of the twentieth century. His brain-teasing prints use interlocking shapes, transforming creatures, and impossible architectures to...

1933- Belgian diver and deep-sea explorer whose experiments in a submersible decompression chamber in 1964 provided invaluable scientific data for underwater divers and scientists. Stenuit also spent years collecting data on shipwrecks and...

fl. c. 260 Chinese alchemist who created an early compass. Using differential gears, Ma Chün developed what he called a "south-pointing carriage." The design of his compass was probably much like that of the ones that ha...

The first popular stage entertainer to incorporate authentic blues in her song repertoire, Ma Rainey (1886-1939) performed during the first three decades of the twentieth century.Known as the "Mother of the Blues," she enjoyed mass popular...

1929- Dutch-American Astronomer In 1963 Dutch-American astronomer Maarten Schmidt discovered what are now called quasars, or quasi-stellar radio sources (QSOs). Having found what appeared to be invisible stars that emitted radio waves, he ...

(2002 est. pop. 465,000). A Portuguese colonial outpost in southern China for more than four centuries (1557–1999), the territory of Macao (Macau), or as it is known in Chinese, Aomen, consists of a narrow peninsula in southern Guan...

The Republic of Macedonia is a country slightly larger than the state of Vermont and measures 25,333 square kilometers. Located on the Balkan Peninsula in southeastern Europe, Macedonia is bordered on the north by Yugoslavia, on the south...

“Mac Flecknoe” by John Dryden Critic, playwright, poet, and translator, John Dryden (1631-1700) so dominated the literary scene of the later seventeenth century that it is often referred to as “the Age of Dryden.”...

A few automatic weapons patented in the United States in the 1820s and 1830s were called organ or machine guns, consisting of multi-barreled weapons loaded on carts. These bear little resemblance to today's machine gun, which fires a conti...

Machine tools are used in the construction of other tools and instruments. They are fundamental implements that change the shape, surface, or properties of an blank object made of metal, plastic, wood, or other material. In a basic sense t...

MacKinlay Kantor, in a literary career that covered nearly half a century, produced over thirty novels, several volumes of short stories, and a number of works of nonfiction. Although he utilized various themes and settings for his novels,...

Macrocephaly A congenital disorder characterized by abnormally large-sized head and brain in relation to the rest of the body. Also called macrocephalia and megalocephaly, macrocephaly is diagnosed when the circumference of the head is mor...

What is the role of Macromolecules? Macromolecules have a major role in everyday life, we might not notice this because we don't exactly know what we use them for and why they are so important to us, mainly because we can see them therefor...

Macular degeneration is the progressive deterioration of a critical region of the retina called the macula. The macula is a 3-5 mm area in the retina that is responsible for central vision. This disorder leads to irreversible loss of centr...

If New York City is the capitol of American consumerism, then the Macy's department store is its White House. The self-proclaimed largest store in the world, Macy's has been located on Herald Square at 34th St. in Manhattan s...

Democratic Republic of Madagascar République Démocratique de Madagascar; Repoblika Demokratika n'i Madagaskar CAPITAL: Antananarivo FLAG: The flag consists of a white vertical stripe at the hoist flanked at the right b...

One of the most influential occult thinkers of the nineteenth century, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891)left behind conflicting images of adventuress, author, mystic, guru, occultist, and charlatan. With the aid of Col. Henry Olcott an...

As a manufacturer of hair care products for African American women, Madame C.J. Walker, born Sarah Breedlove (1867-1919), became one of the first American women millionaires. Madame C.J. Walker, named Sarah Breedlove at birth, was born Dec...

(b. 1924), sister-in-law of President Ngo Dinh Diem. Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu, a notorious and feared member of South Vietnam's presidential family (1955–1963), was born Tran Le Xuan in 1924 to a wealthy family that served the Fre...

A professor and foreign policy expert, Madeleine Korbel Albright (born 1937) was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1992 to be the U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations and head of the U.S. delegation to that body. Presid...

(2001 est. pop. 60.4 million). Madhya Pradesh is a central Indian state (named from a Hindi translation of the old British unit called Central Provinces). It is entirely landlocked, being bounded on the south by Maharashtra, on the east by...

Singer and dancer Madonna (Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone, born 1958) is a master marketer and sensational self-promoter who propelled herself to stardom, dominating pop charts, concert halls, film, and music video. She has been called "a...

A madrasah is an institution of higher education where advanced Islamic sciences are taught. Distinguished from maktab, which is an elementary school for the study of Islamic subjects, madrasah is the traditional equivalent of a college. T...