AUNARI-ART RESOURCE
William Jennings Bryan, c. 1908.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, WASHINGTON, D.C.
world law by espousing arbitration to prevent war. A believer in a literal interpretation of the Bible, he was a prosecuting attorney in the Scopes trial (1925), in which he debated Clarence Darrow on the issue of evolution; the trial took a heavy toll on his health, and he died soon after it ended.
Bryant, Bear orig. Paul William Bryant (b. Sept. 11, 1913, Kingsland, Aik., U.S.—d. Jan. 26, 1983, Tuscaloosa, Ala.) U.S. collegiate football coach. He was an all-state tackle in high school and went on to play blocking end at the University of Alabama (1932-36). As head coach at the University of Kentucky (1946-53), his team won 60 games, lost 23, and tied 5. After coaching at Texas A&M University (1954-57), he returned to Alabama (1957-82). His Alabama coaching record of 323 wins, 85 losses, and 17 ties broke Amos Alonzo Stagg’s long-standing coaching record for games won; in 1985 it was broken by Eddie Robin¬ son of Grambling State. In all, he took Alabama to 28 bowl games and six national championships.
Bryant, William Cullen (b. Nov. 3, 1794, Cummington, Mass., U.S.—d. June 12, 1878, New York,
N.Y.) U.S. poet. At age 17 Bryant wrote “Thanatopsis,” a meditation on nature and death that remains his best-known poem; influenced by deism, it in turn influenced Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Tho- reau. Admitted to the bar at age 21, he spent nearly 10 years as an attor¬ ney, a profession he hated. His Poems (1821), including “To a Waterfowl,” secured his reputation.
In 1825 he moved to New York City, where for almost 50 years (1829-78) he was editor in chief of the Evening Post, which he transformed into an organ of progressive thought.
Bryce Canyon National Park
Park, southern Utah, U.S. It is not a true canyon but rather a series of natural amphitheatres below which courtesy of the Brooklyn museum, new vork stands an array of limestone and
sandstone columns. Its geology is related to that of Grand Canyon and Zion national parks, since the stone of all three was formed while the entire region was under a shallow sea. The park, established in 1928, covers 35,835 acres (14,513 hectares).
William Cullen Bryant, detail of an oil painting by Daniel Huntington, 1866; in the Brooklyn Museum collection.
Bryn Mawr Vbrin-'morX College Private women’s liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pa., near Philadelphia. Though founded in 1885 by a group of Quakers, it has long operated on a nondenominational basis. It offers a range of undergraduate and graduate programs in the arts and sciences, social research, and social work. It enjoys an academic exchange with nearby Haverford and Swarthmore colleges and the University of Penn¬ sylvania.
Brynhild See Brunhild
bryophyte \'brI-3-,fit\ Any of the green, seedless land plants that make up the division Bryophyta, numbering at least 18,000 species and divided into three classes: Mosses, liverworts, and hornworts. They are distin¬ guished from vascular plants and seed plants by the production of only one SPORE-containing organ in their spore-producing stage. Most bryophytes are 0.8-2 in. (2-5 cm) tall or, if reclining, generally less than 12 in. (30 cm) long. Found throughout the world, from polar regions to the tropics, they are most abundant in humid environments, though none is marine. Bryophytes are extremely tolerant of dry and freezing conditions. Peat moss is economically important to humans in horticulture and as an energy source. Some bryophytes are used ornamentally, as in moss gardens. In nature, bryophytes initiate soil formation on barren terrain and maintain soil moisture, and they recycle nutrients in forest ecosystems. They are found on rocks, logs, and forest litter.
bryozoan V.bri-o-'zo-onV Aquatic invertebrate of the phylum Bryozoa (“moss animals”), members (called zooids) of which form colonies. Each zooid is a complete and fully organized animal. Species range in size from a one-zooid “colony” small enough (less than 0.04 in., or 1 mm, long) to live between sand particles to colonies that hang in clumps or chains as much as a 1.6 ft (0.5 m) across. The texture of colonies varies from soft
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
brytenwalda ► Buchner i 287
and gelatinous to hard with calcium-containing skeletons. Freshwater bry- ozoans attach primarily to leaves, stems, and tree roots in shallow water. Marine bryozoans have a wide range of habitats, from coastal areas to great ocean depths, but are most common just below the tidemarks. Bry¬ ozoans feed by capturing plankton with their tentacles.
brytenwalda See bretwalda BSE See mad cow disease
bubble chamber Subatomic-particle detector that uses a superheated liquid which boils into tiny bubbles of vapour along the tracks of the par¬ ticles. As charged particles move through the liquid, they knock electrons from the atoms of the liquid, creating ions. If the liquid is close to its boiling point, the first bubbles form around these ions. The observable tracks can be photographed and analyzed to measure the behaviour of the charged particles. Developed in 1952 by Donald Glaser, the bubble cham¬ ber proved very useful in the 1960s and ’70s for the study of high-energy nuclear and particle physics.
Buber Vbii-boA, Martin (b. Feb. 8, 1878, Vienna, Austria-Hungary—d. June 13, 1965, Jerusalem) German Jewish religious philosopher and biblical translator. Brought up in Lemberg (now Lviv, Ukraine), he studied in Vienna, Berlin, Leipzig, and Zurich. Friedrich Nietzsche’s heroic nihilism led Buber, a nonob¬ servant Jew, to Zionism. He advo¬ cated Jewish-Arab cooperation in Palestine and saw Hasidism as a heal¬ ing power for the malaise of modern Judaism. Under Nazi pressure, he emigrated to Palestine in 1938, and he taught at Hebrew University until 1951. I and Thou (1923) expresses Buber’s belief that the human (I) encounters God (Thou) as a distinct being, rather than merging in mysti¬ cal union. The Bible was for Buber derived from the encounter between God and his people, but he rejected many of the Talmud’s laws as emerging from a relationship in which God was objectified rather than truly addressed.
Bubka Vbub-koN, Sergey (b. Dec. 14, 1963, Voroshilovgrad, Ukr., U.S.S.R.) Ukrainian pole-vaulter. He first cleared 6 m (19 ft 8 in.), long considered impossible, in Paris in 1985. In 1991 he cleared 6.1 m (20 ft), and he remains the only pole-vaulter to have done so. He won an Olym¬ pic gold medal in 1988 but failed to place at the 1992 Olympic Games. In 1994, at Sestriere, Italy, he vaulted a record 6.14 m (20 ft 1.75 in.) for his 17th outdoor record and his 35th overall.
buccaneer Any of the British, French, or Dutch sea adventurers who chiefly haunted the Caribbean and the Pacific seaboard of South America during the latter part of the 17th century, preying on Spanish settlements and shipping. Though inspired by such privateers as Englishman Francis Drake, the buccaneers were not legitimate privateers (the commissions they held were seldom valid), but neither were they the outlawed pirates who flourished in the 18th century. Usually escaped servants, former sol¬ diers, or loggers, they ran their ships democratically, divided plunder equitably, and even provided a form of accident insurance. They influ¬ enced the founding of the South Sea Co., and stories of their adventures inspired more serious voyages of exploration as well as the tales of writ¬ ers Jonathan Swift, Daniel Defoe, and Robert Louis Stevenson.
Buchanan \byu-'ka-n3n\, George (b. February 1506, Killeam, Stirlingshire, Scot.—d. Sept. 29, 1582, Edinburgh) Scottish humanist, scholar, and educator. As a teacher of Latin in Paris, Buchanan wrote bit¬ ter attacks on the Franciscans that landed him in jail for heresy. He escaped and became a teacher in Bordeaux, where Michel de Montaigne was one of his pupils. There he translated two of Euripides’ plays into Latin and wrote original dramas. His paraphrase of the Psalms was long used for Latin instruction. At first a supporter of Mary, Queen of Scots, he later helped prepare the case that led to her execution. In De jure regni apud Scotos (1579), he argued for limited monarchy; Rerum Scotiacarum his- toria (1582) traces Scotland’s history.