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New World Encyclopedia integrates facts with values. Written by certified experts.

Featured Article: Touch

The sense of touch is utilized in the system of reading for the blind known as Braille

Touch (or tangoreception) is the physiological sense by which animals perceive an object in their environment when it comes into contact with the body surface. Touch is one of a variety of closely associated mechanisms or faculties (collectively known as the senses) by which a living organism receives information about its external or internal environment. Along with the senses of taste, smell, sight, and hearing, touch is an example of exteroreception, which gives organisms complex feedback about their external environment. Tactile perception is behind the system of Braille, for example, which draws on the sensitivity of the fingertips to enable the blind to read raised type.

Popular Article: Wetland

A subtropical wetland in Florida, with an endangered American Crocodile

A wetland is a transitional environment between permanently aquatic and terrestrial environments that shares characteristics of both environments and where water, which covers the soil or is near the surface for substantial parts of the year, is the key factor in determining the nature of the ecosystem and soil. Wetlands do not have to be wet all the time, but generally are at least periodically covered by or saturated with water. Among types of wetlands are swamps, marshes, and bogs. They are found on every continent except Antarctica and from the tundra to the tropics.

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Most world religions include teachings on the nature of forgiveness (source: Forgiveness)

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