American physician who with J. A. Strong was the first to show that Klinefelter's syndrome was caused by a genetic defect on one of the sex chromosomes. This, along with Turner's syndrome, was among the first diseases to be l...

P. G. Wodehouse was born 15 October 1881 in Guildford, the suburb of London to which Charles Dickens retired Mr. Pickwick, and educated at Dulwich College, one of England's best public schools. After graduating, Wodehouse worked briefly in...

Percival James PattersonPrime Minister (pronounced "PURR-sih-vull JAYMZ PAT-er-son") "Jamaica is ready for the bold march into the new era of a borderless world economy." With an area of 10,990 sq km (4,243...

The Spanish painter, sculptor, and graphic artist Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) was one of the most prodigious and revolutionary artists in the history of Western painting. As the central figure in developing cubism, he established the basis f...

d. 1471 Inca Emperor Pachacutec Inca Yupanqui was not only the first Inca emperor whose dates and existence are firmly established in history; he is also widely considered the greatest Inca ruler—if not one of the greatest leaders i...

PACHOMIUS (293?–346) was a Christian ascetic and founder of cenobitic monasticism. Information about Pachomius has been much confused in the many legends and biographies preserved in various versions and translations. Born of pagan ...

1782-1842 American explorer of the trans-Mississippi West. In 1810-12 Hunt lead a party called the Astorians—named after their sponsor, John Jacob Astor—up the Missouri River and across the continent in an effort to establish...

The Pacific Ocean is the world's largest body of water, occupying almost one-third of the Earth's surface. It is about 155.5 million square kilometers (60 million square miles) in area, with a coastline of 135,663 kilometers ...

Pacifier An artificial nipple designed for infants to suck, and which has a soothing effect. Infants have a strong desire to suck, which may not be entirely fulfilled while feeding. Both the newborn and older infant are often soothed by su...

Packet switching is the process by which data is broken into smaller chunks, or packets, for transmission over a network. Packet switching divides a message into smaller units, sends each unit individually via the best route possible at th...

With the birth of television in the late 1940s came a new medium through which writers could reach varied audiences. Paddy Chayefsky recognized the scope of this medium and produced some remarkable television plays, including Marty (1953) ...

The Padri (or Paderi) War lasted from 1821 to 1837 and arose from a movement among the Minangkabau people of the central western coast of Sumatra both to purify Islamic practice and resist colonial rule. The Minangkabau social structure wa...

PAGANISM, ANGLO-SAXON. The "Anglo-Saxon" history of England stretches from the fifth to the eleventh centuries. Even before then, however, in 98 CE, Tacitus cites the "Angli" as one of seven tribes on the northe...

Starting in the late 1960s and early 1970s, there arose the problem that software programs and their data would take up more memory space than was available in the primary storage (RAM). It became necessary to think of ways to break up suc...

(2002 est. pop. 1.3 million). Pahang, the largest state in Malaysia, is located in the east coast region. It covers an area of 35,965 square kilometers and has a population of approximately 1.3 million—74 percent Malay, 19 percent C...

The reign of the Pahlavi dynasty (1925–1979) was a crucial and transitional period in Iranian history that began with Reza Shah Pahlavi (1878–1944) and ended with his son, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi (1919–1980). For Ir...

Pain is a sensation unique to an individual. Its perception depends on the injury involved and the situation or context. A bruise obtained in a football game may not be appreciated at the time of the injury, yet in other circumstances the ...

The earliest remaining examples of painting in South Asia are Buddhist cave murals such as those in the monasteries at Ajanta in India. Here, two phases of painting, corresponding to the two phases of active patronage, may be distinguished...

(b. 1926), Korean novelist. Pak Kyung-ri was born in the coastal city of Ch'ungmu in South Kyungsang Province. She started her career as a writer in the mid-1950s, with the publication of such short stories as "Kyesan"...

Pakistan is 310,403 square miles (803,944square kilometers) and is located in South Asia. In the east, Pakistan is bordered by India, to the west it is bordered by Afghanistan and also to the north. Iran is bordered on the southwest and t...

Pakistan received its independence from British India in 1947. It was created on the basis of religious identity, so that Muslims from British India, which had an overwhelming majority of followers of the Hindu religion, would have a nati...

Louis XIV, France's Sun King, demanded a palace symbolic of his power and authority, a place that would awe the nobility of Europe. He turned to noted French architects Louis Le Vau (1612-1670) and Jules Hardouin-Mansart (1646-1708...

Republic of Palau Belau CAPITAL: Koror, Koror Island FLAG: The flag, adopted 1 January 1981, is light blue, with a yellow disc set slightly off center toward the hoist. ANTHEM: Belau er Kid. MONETARY UNIT: The US dollar is the official med...

Paleobotany is the study of plants that lived in prehistoric times. It largely involves the study of fossils, that is, impressions of plant parts that have been preserved in sedimentary rock or coal. The most ancient plant fossils are of m...

Paleoclimate is the variation of the climate in past geologic times, prior to instrumental measurements. Paleoclimate is expressed by its parameters—paleotemperature, precipitation in the past, circulation, sea surface temperature (...