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Tom Archer
Toxic Blue-Green Algae Blooms in Lake Erie
© Sergey Uryadnikov/Shutterstock.com
Ebola Outbreak 2014
pjsells—iStock/Thinkstock
Anticipating the Next Supermoon
Flightlevel80—iStock/Thinkstock
Malaysia Airlines flight MH17
© Comstock Images/Jupiterimages
Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.
Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Emmanuel Rios/U.S. Navy
Crisis in Iraq
PRNewsFoto/XM Satellite Radio/AP Images
Maya Angelou: 1928-2014
Robert Nickelsberg—Time Life Pictures/Getty Images
Indian Election Results: 2014
Sunday Alamba/AP
Boko Haram Attacks in Nigeria
© Ahmad Faizal Yahya/Shutterstock
Disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
© Lutfi Ozkok
Remembering Gabriel García Márquez

Melissa Petruzzello, Assistant Editor, Plant and Environmental Science

"Half a million residents of Toledo, Ohio, were left without safe drinking water in August due to a blue-green algae bloom on Lake Erie. Fueled by agricultural runoff, such blooms can produce toxins that are harmful to humans and other organisms."

blue-green algae Any of a large, heterogeneous group of prokaryotic, principally photosynthetic organisms. Cyanobacteria resemble the eukaryotic algae in many ways, including morphological characteristics and ecological...
water pollution The release of substances into subsurface groundwater or into lakes, streams, rivers, estuaries, and oceans to the point where the substances interfere with beneficial use of the water or with the natural...
Lake Erie Fourth largest of the five Great Lakes of North America. It forms the boundary between Canada (Ontario) to the north and the United States (Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York) to the west, south,...

Kara Rogers, Senior Editor, Biomedical Sciences

"The death of a prominent Liberian doctor, the sickening of two American aid workers, and the possibility for spread via air travel have made the Ebola outbreak of 2014 one of the scariest outbreaks of infectious disease in recent history."

Ebola Contagious disease caused by a virus of the family Filoviridae that is responsible for a severe and often fatal viral hemorrhagic fever; outbreaks in primates, including gorillas, chimpanzees, and humans,...
viral hemorrhagic fever Any of a variety of highly fatal viral diseases that are characterized by massive external or internal bleeding or bleeding into the skin. Other symptoms vary by the type of viral hemorrhagic fever but...
infectious disease In medicine, a process caused by a microorganism that impairs a person’s health. An infection, by contrast, is the invasion of and replication in the body by any of various microbial agents—including bacteria,...

Erik Gregersen, Astronomy and Space Exploration Editor

"On August 10, there will be a "supermoon," a full moon that occurs when the Moon is at its closest to Earth. Get your cameras ready!"

supermoon A full moon that occurs when the Moon is at perigee (the closest point to Earth in its orbit). The Moon is typically about 12 percent (or about 43,000 km [27,000 miles]) closer to Earth at perigee than...
Moon Earth ’s sole natural satellite and nearest large celestial body. Known since prehistoric times, it is the brightest object in the sky after the Sun. It is designated by the symbol ☽. Its name in English,...
phase In astronomy, any of the varying appearances of a celestial body as different amounts of its disk are seen (from Earth, ordinarily) to be illuminated by the Sun. The Moon displays four main phases: new,...

Michael Ray, Assistant Editor, Geography and Popular Culture

"Almost 300 people were killed when a civilian airliner crashed in eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian officials and pro-Russian separatists each accused the other of shooting the plane down."

Ukraine Country located in eastern Europe, the second largest on the continent after Russia. The capital is Kiev (Kyiv), located on the Dnieper River in north-central Ukraine. A fully independent Ukraine emerged...
air space In international law, the space above a particular national territory, treated as belonging to the government controlling the territory. It does not include outer space, which, under the Outer Space Treaty...

Brian Duignan, Senior Editor

"The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that closely held for-profit corporations can refuse, on religious grounds, to pay for legally mandated coverage of certain contraceptives in their employees’ health-insurance plans."

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) PPACA U.S. health care reform legislation, signed into law by Pres. Barack Obama in March 2010, which included provisions that required most individuals to secure health insurance or pay fines, made coverage...
contraception In human physiology, birth control through the deliberate prevention of conception or impregnation. The link between pregnancy and a man’s semen was dimly understood even in ancient times, so that the...
birth control The voluntary limiting of human reproduction, using such means as sexual abstinence, contraception, induced abortion, and surgical sterilization. It includes the spacing as well as the number of children...

Noah Tesch, Assistant Editor, Geography

"Less than three years after the withdrawal of U.S. troops, an armed Sunni uprising appears to have Iraq slipping back into sectarian chaos. Here is an in-depth look at the country's troubled history."

Iraq Country of southwestern Asia. During ancient times the lands now comprising Iraq were known as Mesopotamia (“Land Between the Rivers”), a region whose extensive alluvial plains gave rise to some of the...
Iraq War (2003–11), conflict in Iraq that consisted of two phases. The first of these was a brief, conventionally fought war in March–April 2003, in which a combined force of troops from the United States and Great...

J.E. Luebering, Director, Core Editorial

"Maya Angelou led a remarkable life as an actor, an educator, and a writer. Here are some articles that help celebrate her legacy and the important body of literature she contributed to."

Maya Angelou American poet, memoirist, and actress whose several volumes of autobiography explore the themes of economic, racial, and sexual oppression. Although born in St. Louis, Angelou spent much of her childhood...
African American literature Body of literature written by Americans of African descent. Beginning in the pre-Revolutionary War period, African American writers have engaged in a creative, if often contentious, dialogue with American...

Ken Pletcher, Senior Editor, Geography and History

"The Bharatiya Janata Party overwhelmingly defeated the ruling Indian National Congress. An in-depth look at the BJP and India's controversial new prime minister, Narendra Modi."

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) BJP pro-Hindu political party of postindependence India. The party has enjoyed broad support among members of the higher castes and in northern India. It has attempted to attract support from lower castes,...
Narendra Modi Indian politician and government official who rose to become a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In 2014 he led his party to victory in elections to the Lok Sabha (lower chamber of the...

John M. Cunningham, Readers' Editor

"The world's attention turns to Nigeria, where the militant group Boko Haram—which aims to impose Sharia law—kidnapped nearly 300 teenage girls in April and continues a campaign of violent attacks."

Boko Haram Hausa “Westernization Is Sacrilege” Islamic sectarian movement, founded in 2002 by Muhammed Yusuf in northeastern Nigeria, that since 2009 has carried out assassinations and large-scale acts of violence...
Shari'ah The fundamental religious concept of Islam, namely its law, systematized during the 2nd and 3rd centuries of the Muslim era (8th–9th centuries ce). Total and unqualified submission to the will of Allah...
The role of Nigerian women From precolonial times to the early 21st century, the role and status of women in Nigeria have continuously evolved. However, the image of a helpless, oppressed, and marginalized group has undermined their...

Erik Gregersen, Astronomy and Space Exploration Editor

"Vanished! Search teams inch closer to the site in the Indian Ocean where the wreckage of MH370 may be located. Here's an in-depth look at the plane’s disappearance and the difficulty of finding the black box."

Malaysia Airlines flight 370 disappearance Disappearance of a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet on March 8, 2014, during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The disappearance of the Boeing 777 with 227 passengers and 12 crew members on board led...
flight recorder Instrument that records the performance and condition of an aircraft in flight. Governmental regulatory agencies require these devices on commercial aircraft to make possible the analysis of crashes or...
Indian Ocean Body of salt water, covering approximately one-fifth of the total ocean area of the world. It is the smallest, youngest, and physically most complex of the world’s three major oceans. It stretches for...

Alison Eldridge, Features Editor

"Remembering Gabriel García Márquez, a remarkable novelist who sparked undeniable inspiration and imagination around the world."

Gabriel Garcia Marquez Colombian novelist and one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982 (see Nobel Lecture: “The Solitude of Latin America”), mostly for his masterpiece...

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