Thursday, June 30, 2005

Switzerland, Science

Swiss scientists have included Paracelsus (Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim), who in the 16th century brought chemistry into the field of medicine; the Bernoulli family of Basel, who made significant contributions to mathematics over three generations; the innovative mathematician Leonhard Euler; the naturalist and pioneer Alpine scholar Horace Bénédict

Thursday, June 23, 2005

Andes Mountains

The Andes consist of a vast series of extremely high plateaus surmounted by even higher peaks that form an unbroken rampart over a distance of some 5,500 miles (8,900 kilometres)—from the southern tip of South America to the continent's northernmost coast on the Caribbean. They separate a narrow

Thursday, June 16, 2005

Wichita Orogeny

A period of block faulting in the southern part of the Wichita–Arbuckle System in western Oklahoma and northern Texas. The uplift is dated from the Late Carboniferous epoch (formerly the Pennsylvanian period; the Late Carboniferous epoch occurred from 320 to 286 million years ago). The Apishipa–Sierra Grande uplift in eastern Colorado and northern New Mexico is of similar

Monday, June 13, 2005

Gonaïves

Capital of L'Artibonite département, western Haiti, on the northeastern shore of the Golfe de la Gonâve (Gulf of Gonaïves). Originally an Indian village called Gonaibo, it is now the commercial centre and port of the fertile Artibonite Plain, with a natural harbour; coffee, cotton, sugar, bananas, mangoes, and cabinet woods are exported. In 1802 the French captured the revolutionary

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Aroostook War

(1838–39), bloodless conflict over the disputed boundary between the U.S. state of Maine and the British Canadian province of New Brunswick. The peace treaty of 1783 ending the American Revolution had left unclear the location of a supposed “highlands,” or watershed, dividing the two areas. Negotiators from Britain and the United States in subsequent years failed to come to an agreement,