Melville Island Island in the Timor Sea, off the coast of Northern Ter¬ ritory, Australia. It is 80 miles (130 km) long and 55 mi (88 km) wide, with an area of 2,240 sq mi (5,800 sq km). It was sighted by the Dutch in 1644; the British built Fort Dundas there in 1824. Melville Island, known to Aboriginals as Yermalner, is one of the few areas in Australia still occupied by its original Aboriginal peoples, the Tiwi, and in 1978 ownership of the island passed from the Australian government to the Tiwi Land Council.
Melville Sound See Viscount Melville Sound
membrane In biology, the thin layer that forms the outer boundary of a living cell or of an internal cell compartment. The outer boundary is the plasma membrane, and the compartments enclosed by internal membranes are called organelles. Biological membranes have a dual function: sepa¬ ration of vital but incompatible metabolic processes conducted in the organelles; and passage of nutrients, wastes, and metabolic products between organelles and between the cell and the outside environment. Membranes consist largely of a double layer of lipids in which are embed¬ ded large proteins, many of which transport ions and water-soluble mol¬ ecules across the membrane. See also cytoplasm, eukaryote.
membrane structure Structure with a thin, flexible surface (mem¬ brane) that carries loads primarily through tensile stresses. There are two main types: tent structures and pneumatic structures. The Denver Interna¬ tional Airport (1995) features a terminal building roofed by a white mem¬ brane stretched from steel masts.
Memel See Klaipeda
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Memel dispute ► Menander I 1233
Memel Yma-molX dispute Post-World War I dispute over sovereignty of the former German Prussian territory of Memelland. Located on the Baltic Sea north of the Memel River, the area was mainly inhabited by Lithuanians. In 1919 at the Paris Peace Conference, the newly formed state of Lithuania requested annexation of the area. A commission recom¬ mended formation of a free state, but Lithuanian inhabitants of the region took over the government in 1923. Protests by the Allied Powers resulted in the signing of the Memel Statute to establish Memelland as an autono¬ mous region within Lithuania.
Memling Vmem-liq\, Hans or Hans Memlinc Vmem-liqk\ (b. c. 1430/35, Seligenstadt, near Frank¬ furt am Main—d. Aug. 11, 1494,
Bruges) Flemish painter. He settled in Bruges in 1465 and established a large workshop that became very successful and made him one of the city’s wealthiest citizens. Though somewhat derivative of the works of contemporary Flemish painters (Jan van Eyck, Dirck Bouts, Hugo van der Goes, and particularly Rogier van der Weyden), his art has great charm and a distinctive character. Memling’s religious paintings and portraits of wealthy patrons (e.g., Tommaso Por- tinari and His Wife, c. 1468) were, and remain, enormously popular.
Memminger Vme-mon-jorV Christopher G(ustavus) (b.
Jan. 9, 1803, Nayhingen, Wiirttem- berg—d. March 7, 1888, Charleston,
S.C., U.S.) German-bom U.S. public official. He immigrated to the U.S. in his teens and became a successful lawyer in Charleston, S.C. After South Carolina seceded from the Union (1860), he helped draft the pro¬ visional constitution of the Confederacy and was appointed its secretary of the treasury (1861-64). To raise money, he issued increasing amounts of paper currency, which depreciated greatly by 1863. Held responsible for the collapse of Confederate credit, he resigned in 1864. After receiv¬ ing a presidential pardon, he returned to the practice of law.
Memnon In Greek mythology, a king of the Ethiopians. The son of Tithonus (of the Trojan royal house) and Eos (Dawn), he fought bravely for his uncle Priam against the Greeks, and was slain by Achilles. Moved by the tears of Eos, Zeus granted him immortality. His companions, changed into birds, came every year to fight and lament over his grave. In Egypt his name was connected with the colossal stone statues of Amen- hotep III near Thebes; the harplike sounds these statues emitted when touched by the rays of the rising sun were believed to be the voice of Memnon responding to the greeting of his mother, Eos.
memoir History or record composed from personal observation and experience. Closely related to autobiography, a memoir differs chiefly in the degree of emphasis on external events. Unlike writers of autobiogra¬ phy, who are concerned primarily with themselves as subject matter, writ¬ ers of memoir usually have played roles in, or have closely observed, historical events, and their main purpose is describing or interpreting those events.
Memorial Day or Decoration Day U.S. holiday. Originally held (1868) in commemoration of soldiers killed in the American Civil War, its observance later extended to all U.S. war dead. Most states conform to the federal practice of observing it on the last Monday in May, but some retain the traditional day of celebration, May 30. National observance is marked by the placing of a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery. Flags, insignia, and flowers are placed on the graves of veterans in local cemeteries.
Memorial University of Newfoundland Canadian public uni¬ versity in St. John’s, founded in 1925. It offers undergraduate and gradu¬ ate programs in the sciences, arts and humanities, social sciences, business administration, education, engineering, medicine, and other fields. Cam¬ pus facilities include centres for research in ocean resources, maritime history, and political economy.
memory In digital computers, a physical device used to store such infor¬ mation as data or programs on a temporary or permanent basis. Most digital computer systems have two types of memory, the main memory and one or more auxiliary storage units. In most cases, the main memory is a high-speed RAM. Auxiliary storage units include hard disks, floppy disks, and magnetic tape drives. Besides main and auxiliary memories, other forms of memory include ROM and optical storage media such as videodiscs and compact discs (see CD-ROM).
memory Power or process of recalling or reproducing what has been learned or experienced. Research indicates that the ability to retain infor¬ mation is fairly uniform among normal individuals; what differs is the degree to which persons learn or take account of something to begin with and the kind and amount of detail that is retained. Attention, motivation, and especially association facilitate this process. Visual images are gen¬ erally better remembered than are other forms of sense-data. Memory prodigies, or people with “photographic” or “eidetic” memories, often draw heavily on visual associations, including mnemonics. Many psy¬ chologists distinguish between short- and long-term memory. The former (variously said to last 10 seconds to 3 minutes) is less subject to inter¬ ference and distortion than the latter. Long-term memory is sometimes divided into episodic (i.e., event-centred) and semantic (i.e., knowledge- centred) memory. Various models of memory have been proposed, from the Enlightenment notion of impressions made on brain tissues (restyled as “memory molecules” or coded “engrams” in the 20th century) to B.F. Skinner’s “black box” to more recent ideas concerning information pro¬ cessing or the formation of neuronal groups. Disorders of or involving memory include Alzheimer disease, amnesia, Korsakoff syndrome, post- traumatic stress disorder, and senile dementia. See also hypnosis.
Memphis Capital of ancient Egypt during the Old Kingdom (c. 2575-c. 2130 bc), located on the western bank of the Nile River, south of modem Cairo. Founded c. 2925 bc by Menes, it was by the 3rd dynasty a flour¬ ishing community. Despite the rivalry of Heracleopolis and Thebes, it remained important, particularly in the worship of Ptah. Beginning in the 8th century bc, it fell successively to Nubia, Assyria, Persia, and Mace¬ donia under Alexander the Great. Its importance as a religious centre was undermined by the rise of Christianity and then of Islam. It was aban¬ doned after the Muslim conquest of Egypt in ad 640. Its ruins include the great temple of Ptah, royal palaces, and an extensive necropolis. Nearby are the pyramids of Saqqara and those at Giza.