ectotherm Vek-ta-.thamA Any so-called cold-blooded animal; that is, any animal whose regulation of body temperature depends on external sources, such as sunlight or a heated rock surface. The ectotherms include the FiSHes, amphibians, reptiles, and invertebrates. The body temperatures of aquatic ectotherms are usually very close to those of the water. Ectotherms do not require as much food as warm-blooded animals (endotherms) of the same size, but most cannot deal as well with cold surroundings.
Ecuador officially Republic of Ecuador Country, northwestern South America. Area: 105,037 sq mi (272,045 sq km), including the Galapagos Islands. Population (2005 est.): 13,364,000. Capitaclass="underline" Quito. About two-fifths of the population are Indian (mostly Quechua), and two- fifths are mestizos; most of the rest are of Spanish ancestry. Language: Spanish (official). Religion: Christianity (predominantly Roman Catholic; also Protestant). Currency: U.S. dollar. Pacific coastal lowlands rise to the peaks and highlands of the Andes Mountains, which give way to the Ecua¬ doran portion of the tropical Amazon River basin in the east. The Andes rise dramatically in two chains that run north to south and are separated by high valleys. The highest peak is Chimborazo, which rises to an elevation of 20,702 ft (6,310 m); nearby Cotopaxi, 19,347 ft (5,897 m) high, is the world’s highest active volcano. The country lies in an active earthquake zone and is prone to violent seismic activity. Almost two-fifths of the land is forested, with tropical rainforests in the east. Ecuador straddles the Equator. Its climate varies from tropical in the lowlands to temperate in the highlands. It has a developing economy based primarily on mining, manu¬ facturing, services, and agriculture. Principal exports include crude petro¬ leum, bananas, and shellfish. It is a republic with one legislative house; its head of state and government is the president. What is now Ecuador was conquered by the Incas in the second half of the 15th century and came under Spanish control in 1534. Under the Spaniards it was a part of the Viceroyalty of Peru until 1740, when it became a part of the Viceroyalty of New Granada. It gained its independence from Spain in 1 822 as part of the
republic of Gran Colombia and in 1830 became a sovereign state. A succession of authoritarian governments ruled into the mid-20th century, and the military played a prominent role in politics. Border disputes
led to war with Peru in 1941; conflicts with that country continued peri¬ odically until a final demarcation of the border in 1998. The economy thrived during the 1970s because of large profits from petroleum exports but was depressed in the 1980s because of lower oil prices. In the 1990s social unrest caused political instability and several changes in the presi¬ dency. In a controversial move to help stabilize the economy, the U.S. dol¬ lar replaced the sucre as the national currency in 2000.
ecumenism Xe-'kyu-mo-.ni-zam, , e-kyu-mo- 1 ni-z3m\ Movement toward unity or cooperation among the Christian churches. The first major step in the direction of ecumenism was the International Missionary Confer¬ ence of 1910, a gathering of Protestants. Several Protestant denomina¬ tions inaugurated a Life and Work Conference (on social and practical problems) in 1925 and a Faith and Order Conference (on church doctrine and governance) in 1927. After World War II the World Council of Churches (WCC) was established; the International Missionary Confer¬ ence joined it in 1961. The Roman Catholic church also has shown strong interest in improving interchurch relations since the Second Vatican Coun¬ cil (1962—65) and, with the patriarch of Constantinople, has lifted the excommunication of 1054. The Eastern Orthodox church was active in the movement since 1920 and joined the WCC at its inception. The more conservative or fundamentalist Protestant denominations have generally refrained from involvement. Another important factor in 20th-century ecumenism was the creation of united churches that reconcile splintered sects, such as the United Church of Christ (1957) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (1988).
eczema See dermatitis
Edda Body of ancient Icelandic literature. Contained in two 13th-century books, it is the fullest and most detailed source for modem knowledge of Germanic mythology. The Prose Edda (Younger Edda, or Snorra-Edda\ c. 1222), a handbook on poetics by Snorri Sturluson, explains diction and metre in skaldic and Eddie poetry and recounts tales from Norse mythol¬ ogy. The Poetic Edda (Elder Edda, or Scemundar Edda’, c. 1250-1300) is a collection of mythological and heroic poems of unknown authorship composed c. 800-1100. These austere lays are the oldest surviving ante¬ cedents of the Nibelungenued legends.
Eddington, Sir Arthur Stanley (b. Dec. 28, 1882, Kendal, West¬ morland, Eng.—d. Nov. 22, 1944, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire) British astronomer, physicist, and mathematician. At the University of Cambridge
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
596 i Eddy ► Edgerton
he won every mathematical honour. He was chief assistant at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich (1906- 13); in 1914 he became director of the Cambridge observatory. Reli¬ gious and pacifistic, he declared that the world’s meaning could not be discovered by science. His greatest contributions were in astrophysics, where his studies included stellar structure, subatomic sources of stel¬ lar energy, white dwarf stars, and dif¬ fuse matter in interstellar space. His philosophical ideas led him to believe that unifying quantum theory and general relativity would permit the calculation of certain universal constants.
Arthur Stanley Eddington.
Eddy; Mary Baker orig. Mary Morse Baker (b. July 16, 1821,
Bow, near Concord, N.H., U.S.—d.
Dec. 3, 1910, Chestnut Hill, Mass.)
U.S. religious leader, founder of Christian Science. A daughter of Con- gregationalist descendants of old New England families, she married in 1843; her husband died the fol¬ lowing year, and she married again in 1853. She suffered from ill health for much of her life. In the early 1860s she was cured of a spinal malady by Phineas P. Quimby (1802-66), who cured ailments with¬ out medication. She remained well until shortly after Quimby’s death; in 1866 she suffered a severe fall and lost hope for recovery, only to be healed by reading the New Testa¬ ment. She considered that moment her discovery of Christian Science and spent several years evolving her system. In 1875 she published Sci¬ ence and Health with Key to the Scriptures , which her followers regarded as divinely inspired. Hav¬ ing divorced in 1873, in 1877 she married one of her followers, Asa G. Eddy (d. 1882). The Church of Christ, Scientist was organized in 1879. Eddy established the Massachusetts Metaphysical College in 1881; she also founded three periodicals, notably The Christian Science Monitor
(1908).
Mary Baker Eddy.
COURTESY OF THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, WASHINGTON,
Edelman, Gerald Maurice (b. July 1, 1929, New York, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. biochemist. He received an M.D. from the University of Pennsylva¬ nia and a Ph.D. from Rockefeller University. His work with Rodney Por¬ ter (b. 1917—d. 1985) on antibodies won a 1972 Nobel Prize. By modeling an entire antibody molecule, Edelman’s team found the mol¬ ecule had more than 1,300 amino acids in a four-chain structure and iden¬
tified the locations where antigens differentiation of tissues and organs, they discovered cell-adhesion mol¬ ecules, proteins that attach cells together to make tissues. Edelman’s attempt at a general theory of neural development and brain function is discussed in his Neural Darwinism
(1987).
edelweiss \'a-d 3 l-,vls, 'a-d 3 l-,wls\ Perennial plant ( Leontopodium alpi- num) of the composite family, native to alpine areas of Europe and South America. It has 2-10 yellow flower heads in a dense cluster. Below these flower heads, 6-9 lance-shaped,