Spontaneous generation refers to an obsolete body of thought on the ordinary formation of living organisms without descent from similar organisms. The theory of spontaneous generation held that living creatures could arise from nonliving matter and that such processes were commonplace and regular. For instance, it was hypothesized that certain forms such as fleas could arise from inanimate matter such as dust, or that maggots could arise from dead flesh. A variant idea was that of equivocal generation, in which species such as tapeworms arose from unrelated living organisms, now understood to be their hosts. The idea of univocal generation, by contrast, refers to effectively exclusive reproduction from genetically related parent(s), generally of the same species.
A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The images in picture books are commonly produced in a range of media, such as oil paints, acrylics, watercolor, and pencil, among others.
Mary Temple Grandin is an American professor of animal science at Colorado State University, consultant to the livestock industry on animal behavior, and autism spokesperson. She is one of the first individuals on the autism spectrum to document the insights she gained from her personal experience of autism.
Maurice Bernard Sendak was an American illustrator and writer of children's books. He became widely known for his book Where the Wild Things Are, first published in 1963. Born to Polish-Jewish parents, his childhood was affected by the death of many of his family members during the Holocaust. Sendak also wrote works such as In the Night Kitchen, Outside Over There, and illustrated many works by other authors including the Little Bear books by Else Holmelund Minarik.
Charlotte's Web is a children's novel by American author E. B. White and illustrated by Garth Williams; it was published on October 15, 1952, by Harper & Brothers. The novel tells the story of a livestock pig named Wilbur and his friendship with a barn spider named Charlotte. When Wilbur is in danger of being slaughtered by the farmer, Charlotte writes messages praising Wilbur in her web in order to persuade the farmer to let him live.
Mr Benn is a character created by David McKee who appears in several children's books, and an animated television series of the same name originally transmitted by the BBC in 1971 and 1972.
David John McKee is a British writer and illustrator, chiefly of children's books and animations.
Hawaii is a novel by James Michener. The novel was published in 1959, the same year Hawaii became the 50th U.S. state. The book has been translated into 32 languages.
Everyone Poops is the title of US editions of the English translation of Minna Unchi (みんなうんち), a Japanese children's book written and illustrated by the prolific children's author Tarō Gomi and first published in Japan by Fukuinkan Shoten in 1977 within the series Kagaku no Tomo Kessaku-shū.
Star jelly is a gelatinous substance sometimes found on grass or even on branches of trees. According to folklore, it is deposited on the Earth during meteor showers. Star jelly is described as a translucent or grayish-white gelatin that tends to evaporate shortly after having "fallen." Explanations have ranged from the materials being the remains of frogs, toads, or worms, to the byproducts of cyanobacteria, to the paranormal. Reports of the substance date back to the 14th century and have continued to the present day.
Slimer is a character from the Ghostbusters franchise. He appears in the films Ghostbusters (1984), Ghostbusters II (1989), Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2020) and the remake Ghostbusters (2016), in the animated television series: The Real Ghostbusters, Slimer! and Extreme Ghostbusters, and in the video games Ghostbusters: The Video Game and Beeline's Ghostbusters. Slimer was voiced by Ivan Reitman and Adam Ray in the films and by Frank Welker in the cartoon series. In The Real Ghostbusters, he is the Ghostbusters' mascot and friend.
Thomas Edward Bodett is an American author, voice actor, and radio personality, primarily as a host, correspondent and panelist for a number of shows that air on National Public Radio (NPR). Since 1986 he has been the spokesman for the motel chain Motel 6, ending commercials with the phrase, "I'm Tom Bodett for Motel 6, and we'll leave the light on for you."
Where's My Cow? is a picture book written by Terry Pratchett and illustrated by Melvyn Grant. It is based on a book that features in Pratchett's Discworld novel Thud!, in which Samuel Vimes reads it to his son.
Stephen Cole is an English author of children's books and science fiction. He was also in charge of BBC Worldwide's merchandising of the BBC Television series Doctor Who between 1997 and 1999: this was a role which found him deciding on which stories should be released on video, commissioning and editing a range of fiction and non-fiction titles, producing audiobooks and acting as executive producer on the Big Finish Productions range of Doctor Who audio dramas
"At the Zoo" was one of Simon & Garfunkel's single releases in 1967. The song is one of Paul Simon's many tributes to his hometown of New York City, and was written for the soundtrack of The Graduate, specifically the scene which takes place at the San Francisco Zoo. However, the song was not used in the film. The song begins with Simon's short lyrical introduction in the key of A Major, but it soon transitions to the key of G Major, being a whole step down from the beginning. The narrative tells the story of a trip to the Central Park Zoo; when the singer reaches the zoo, he anthropomorphizes the animals in various amusing ways. The song was licensed in advertisements for the Bronx Zoo, the San Francisco Zoo and the Oregon Zoo in the late 1970s.
Richard Hefter was an American author of books for young children.
John Tyler Bonner was an American biologist who was a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University. He was a pioneer in the use of cellular slime molds to understand evolution and development over a career of 40 years and was one of the world's leading experts on cellular slime moulds. Arizona State University says that the establishment and growth of developmental-evolutionary biology owes a great debt to the work of Bonner’s studies. His work is highly readable and unusually clearly written and his contributions have made many complicated ideas of biology accessible to a wide audience.
Grossology is a Canadian animated action-adventure television series produced by Nelvana and based loosely on the non-fictional children's book series of the same name by Sylvia Branzei. Debuting on the YTV network in Canada on September 29, 2006, the series was also broadcast on Discovery Kids/The Hub in the United States on January 13, 2007. It also aired on Jetix on June 2, 2007 and Pop Max from September 15, 2008 in the United Kingdom, and on ABC in Australia in December 2007. The original run ended on June 26, 2009, but some episodes were left unaired. It formerly aired reruns on Qubo from March 28, 2016 to December 28, 2019.
Gooflumps is a two-part parody book series written in 1995 by Tom Hughes under the pseudonym of R. U. Slime. The books are parodies of the Goosebumps series by R. L. Stine. Both books were released simultaneously in 1995 by Random House, Inc. Both books are now out of print, but can be found on Amazon.com. Although originally released exclusively in the United States and Canada, the books are being sold in other countries for the first time thanks to the Internet. Each book had a tongue-in-cheek author's photo of Hughes upside down with wild, unkempt hair as "R.U. Slime".
The Wicked Years is a series of novels by Gregory Maguire that present a revisionist take on L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, its 1939 film adaptation, and related books.
