Psychologist Nancy Wexler (born 1945) researches Huntington's disease. She developed a presymptomatic test for the condition and identified the genes responsible for the disease. Nancy Wexler's research on Huntington's disease has led to t...

The principal traditional dramatic genres of Thailand are khon (masked drama), lakhon (dance-drama), likay (folk opera), nang (shadow theater) and hun (puppet theater). While there is a secondary school that specializes in training childre...

City (pop., 2003 est.: 2,966,000), capital of Jiangsu province, east-central China. Located on the southeastern bank of the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang) northwest of Shanghai, the site has been inhabited for thousands of years. The present ...

Manipulation of atoms, molecules, and materials to form structures on the scale of nanometres (billionths of a metre). These nanostructures typically exhibit new properties or behaviours due to quantum mechanics. In 1959 Richard Feynman fi...

Discovered while shopping in 1985, British model Naomi Campbell became an instant success in the United States, where she metamorphosed from a sweet schoolgirl into a polished—and, many would say, primadonna—professional. Her...

Simplest of the fused (condensed) ring hydrocarbons, an aromatic compound composed of two benzene rings sharing two adjacent carbon atoms (C10H8). It is a white solid at room temperature, very volatile, with a characteristic odour. Naphtha...

Napoleon I (1769-1821), emperor of the French, ranks as one of the greatest military conquerors in history. Through his conquests he remade the map of Europe, and through his valuable administrative and legal reforms he promoted the growth...

(b. 1939), Pakistani artist. Jamil Naqsh is known for his romantic compositions of women and pigeons. Born in Kairana, India, he fled to Peshawar, Pakistan, during the Indian partition and then moved to Lahore. At the National College of A...

Na . Contemplation and Action: The Spiritual Autobiography of a Muslim Scholar, edited and translated by S. J. Badakhsahni. London: I. B. Tauris, 1998. The Nasirean Ethics by Nasir al-Din Tusi. Translated by G. M. Wickens. London: George, A...

(710–784) Period of Japanese history during which the emperor resided in Nara. The capital city was modeled on the capital of Tang-dynasty China, Chang'an, from whom the Japanese borrowed extensively in this period. Buddhism, which h...

Sleep disorder with sudden, uncontrollable spells of daytime sleep and disturbances of nighttime sleep. It usually begins in youth or early adulthood and is presumably due to dysfunction of certain brain structures. Narcoleptics can fall a...

Public Law 89-793, the Narcotic Addict Rehabilitation Act (NARA), was passed by Congress in 1966. This legislation was designed to allow the use of the federal courts and criminal-justice system to compel drug addicts to participate in tre...

Indian physicist whose 1955 doctoral research in optics led to the development of fiber optics. Originally viewed as either a novelty item or a way to transmit images from place to place, fiber optics subsequently found a myriad of uses, i...

River, central India. Rising in Madhya Pradesh state, it is 801 mi (1,289 km) long. It flows west into the Gulf of Khambhat (Cambay) and forms the traditional boundary between Hindustan and the Deccan. Called Namade by the Greek geographer...

independent U.S. governmental agency established in 1958 for the research and development of vehicles and activities for the exploration of space within and outside of Earth's atmosphere. The organization is composed of five program office...

Nasal irrigation is the practice of flushing the nasal cavity with a sterile solution. The solution may contain antibiotics. Nasal irrigation is used to clear infected sinuses or may be performed after surgery to the nose region. It may be...

NĀṢIR-I KHUSRAW is best known as a Persian poet, philosopher, and traveler, as well as for his efforts in spreading the Ismāʿīlī form of Islam in Central Asia. Born in 1004 in Qubadiyan in present-...

Unlike animals, plants cannot move to more favorable locations. Instead, plants survive by adjusting their growth to their local environment. A major way this is done is by sensing the directions of environmental signals such as light and ...

in Burmese folk religion, any of a group of spirits that are the objects of an extensive, probably pre-Buddhist cult; in Thailand a similar spirit is called phi. Most important of the nats are a group collectively called the “thirty-...

(born July 20, 1938, San Francisco, Calif.—died Nov. 29, 1981, off Catalina Island, Calif.) U.S. film actress. She began appearing in movies at age five, and she won acclaim for her role in Miracle on 34th Street when she was only ni...

A Confederate general in the American Civil War, Nathan Bedford Forrest (1821-1877) ranks as a near genius of war. He was a daring and successful cavalry leader who had few peers. Nathan Bedford Forrest, eldest son of his family, was born ...

The Swedish churchman Nathan Söderblom (1866-1931) was an important leader in the ecumenical movement for the unification of Christian Churches. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1930 for his efforts in the area of international underst...

Nathaniel Bacon (1647-1676) was an American colonial leader in Virginia and the leader of Bacon's Rebellion in 1676. The period of American colonial history which followed the restoration of the Stuart monarchy in England (1660) was an era...

1911-1990 American mechanical engineer and inventor who specialized in plastics (and was the brother of the artist Andrew Wyeth). In 1936 he received his B.S. from the University of Pennsylvania. Employed by duPont from 1936 until his reti...

1613-1685 English physician who precisely described the cavity of the superior maxillary bone, a bone below the nose and holding the upper row of teeth. This cavity, or sinus, is in the upper part of the maxillary bone and opens into the m...