Furchgott, Robert F(rancis) (b. June 4,1916, Charleston, S.C., U.S.) U.S. pharmacologist. He received his Ph.D. from Northwestern Univer¬ sity. With Louis J. Ignarro and Ferid Murad, he found that nitric oxide acts as a signaling molecule in the cardiovascular system. Furchgott demon¬ strated that cells in the endothelium of blood vessels produce a molecule called endothelium-derived relaxing factor (EDRF), which signals smooth muscle cells in blood vessel walls to relax, dilating the vessels. Ignarro later concluded that EDRF was nitric oxide. The research done by Furch¬ gott, Murad, and Ignarro was key to the development of the drug Viagra, which treats impotence. The three men shared a 1998 Nobel Prize.
Furies Group of Greco-Roman goddesses of vengeance. The Furies lived in the underworld and ascended to earth to pursue the wicked. They were known to the Greeks as the Erinyes, but those who feared to speak their name often called them by euphemisms such as Eumenides (“Kind Ones”). According to Hesiod, they were daughters of Gaea, the earth god¬ dess. Aeschylus made them the terrifying chorus of his tragedy Eumenides , and Euripides was the first to speak of them as three in number.
furniture Household equipment designed for a variety of purposes. It may be made of wood, metal, plastics, stone, glass, fabrics, and related materials. It ranges from the simple pine chest or country chair to the elaborate marquetry-work cabinet or gilded console table. It is usually movable, though it can be built in, as are kitchen cabinets and bookcases. Stylistically it is related to architecture and interior design. Throughout history the functional and decorative aspects of furniture have been influ¬ enced by economics and FASHION. In the 14th—18th century, furniture mak¬ ing flourished with ever-increasing affluence. In the 1920s and ’30s
Bracket fungus (Polyporus) growing on wood.
H.S. KNIGHTON
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
722 I Furtwdngler ► fuzzy logic
architects designed chairs made of modem materials such as tubular steel and plastic. See also bentwood furniture; Early American furniture; Shaker
FURNITURE.
Furtwdngler Vfurt-.veg-larV (Gustav Heinrich Ernst Martin) Wilhelm (b. Jan. 25, 1886, Berlin—d. Nov. 30, 1954, near Baden- Baden, W.Ger.) German conductor and composer. After private compo¬ sition studies with Joseph Rheinberger (1839-1901), he debuted in 1906. His revised Te Denm (1910) established him as a composer, and in 1917 his work as a guest conductor in Berlin earned him high praise. He suc¬ ceeded Richard Strauss at the Berlin State Opera, and Arthur Nikisch (1855-1922) at the Leipzig Gewandhaus and Berlin Philharmonic, becoming especially associated with the music of Ludwig van Beethoven and Richard Wagner. Though criticized for staying in Germany during the Nazi era, he was no friend of the regime, continuing to program modem music and helping Jewish musicians to escape. He was formally exoner¬ ated of complicity with the Nazis, but public hostility dogged his later years.
fuse In electrical engineering, a safety device that protects electric circuits from the effects of excessive electric currents. A fuse commonly consists of a current-conducting strip or wire of easily fusible metal; whenever the circuit is made to carry a current larger than that for which it is intended, the strip melts to interrupt it.
Fuseli \fyu-'zel-e\, Henry orig. Johann Heinrich Fussli (b. Feb. 7, 1741, Zurich, Switz.—d. April 16, 1825, London, Eng.) Swiss-born British painter and writer on art. The son of a portrait painter, he trained in theology as well as in art and art history. He left his native Zurich for London in 1764. Encouraged by Sir Joshua Reynolds, he went to Italy in 1770 and stayed for eight years; on his return to England, his works exhibited at the Royal Academy, such as his most famous work, The Nightmare (1781), secured his reputation. His subject matter was chiefly literary, and his images portrayed macabre fantasies and the grotesque. He was elected a full academician in 1790 and taught painting at the academy (1799-1805).
Fustel de Coulanges \fm-stel-d3-ku-'la n zh\, Numa Denis (b.
March 18, 1830, Paris, France—d. Sept. 12, 1889, Massy) French histo¬ rian. He had a brilliant teaching career at the University of Strasbourg (1860-70) and later received other academic appointments. He champi¬ oned the importance of objectivity and the unreliability of secondary sources, which became important tenets of modern historiography, and his insistence on the use of contemporary documents led to the full use of the French national archives in the 19th century. Most of his work, including La Cite antique (1864) and La Gaule romaine (1891), dealt with Roman Gaul and the Germanic invasions of the Roman Empire.
fusulinid N.fyu-zo-'lI-nadV Any of a large group of extinct foraminifer- ans, single-celled organisms related to amoebas but having complex shells that are easily preserved as fossils. The fusulinids first appeared during the Carboniferous period, perhaps c. 320 million years ago, and persisted until the end of the Permian period, 248 million years ago. They have been extremely useful for correlating different rock units in widely separated regions and for dividing geologic time into smaller units. Petroleum geologists also use them to help locate economically valuable deposits of oil and natural gas.
Futabatei Shimei \fu-'ta-ba-ta-'she-ma\ orig. Hasegawa Tatsun- osuke (b. April 4, 1864, Edo, Japan—d. May 10, 1909, at sea in Bay of Bengal) Japanese novelist and translator. He is best known for Ukigumo (1887-89; “The Drifting Clouds”), his first novel, and for his translations of stories by Ivan Turgenev. In these he used a style called gembun itchi (“unification of spoken and written language”), one of the first attempts at a modern colloquial idiom. His later works include the novels An Adopted Husband (1906) and Mediocrity (1907). He is credited with bringing modern realism to the Japanese novel.
futhark See runic writing
futures Commercial contracts calling for the purchase or sale of speci¬ fied quantities of a good at specified future dates. The good in question may be grain, livestock, precious metals, or financial instruments such as treasury bills. Up until the time the contract calls for the delivery of the good, the contract is subject to speculation. Futures contracts originated in the trade in agricultural commodities; for example, American grain farmers were able to sell their harvest in advance on the Chicago Board of Trade, a commodity exchange.
Futurism Early 20th-century art movement, centred in Italy, that cel¬ ebrated the dynamism, speed, and power of the machine and the vitality and restlessness of modem life. The term was coined by Filippo Marinetti, who in 1909 published a manifesto glorifying the new technology of the automobile and the beauty of its speed and power. In 1910 Umberto Boc- cioni and others published a manifesto on painting. They adopted the Cub¬ ist technique of depicting several views of an object simultaneously with fragmented planes and outlines and used rhythmic spatial repetitions of the object’s outlines in transit to render movement. Their preferred sub¬ jects were speeding cars and trains, racing cyclists, and urban crowds; their palette was more vibrant than the Cubists’. With Boccioni, the most prominent Futurist artists were his teacher, Giacomo Balia (1871-1958), and Gino Severini (1883-1966). Boccioni’s death in 1916 and World War I brought an end to the movement, which had a strong influence in pos¬ trevolutionary Russia and on Dada.