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Grubbs, Robert Howard

(Encyclopedia)Grubbs, Robert Howard, 1942–2021, American chemist, b. near Possum Trot, Ky., Univ. of Florida (B.S., 1963; M.S., 1965), Columbia, Univ. (Ph.D, 1968)....

ammonium group

(Encyclopedia)ammonium group, in chemistry, a positively charged nitrogen atom joined by single bonds to four other atoms or groups. The simplest ammonium group, NH4+, is formed by protonation of ammonia, NH3, e.g....

Lamb, Willis Eugene, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Lamb, Willis Eugene, Jr., 1913–2008, American physicist, b. Los Angeles, Ph.D. Univ. of California, Berkeley, 1938. Lamb was a professor at Columbia (1938–51), Stanford (1951–56), Oxford (1956�...

radioactivity

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Effects of a magnetic field on the products of radioactivity CE5 Disintegration series: Radioactive decay of radium-226 into lead-206 radioactivity, spontaneous disintegration or decay of t...

formula weight

(Encyclopedia)formula weight, in chemistry, a quantity computed by multiplying the atomic weight (in atomic mass units) of each element in a formula by the number of atoms of that element present in the formula, an...

muon

(Encyclopedia)muon myo͞oˈŏn [key], elementary particle heavier than an electron but lighter than other particles having nonzero rest mass. The name muon is derived from mu meson, the former name of the particle....

anion

(Encyclopedia)anion ănˈīˌən [key], atom or group of atoms carrying a negative charge. The charge results because there are more electrons than protons in the anion. Anions can be formed from nonmetals by reduc...

Fuchs, Klaus Emil

(Encyclopedia)Fuchs, Klaus Emil fo͝oks, fo͞oks [key], 1912–88, British physicist and Communist spy, b. Germany. In 1933 he fled Germany for England, where he completed his education. Interned (1940–41) in Can...

flerovium

(Encyclopedia)flerovium, artificially produced radioactive chemical element; symbol Fl; at. no. 114; mass number of most stable isotope 289; m.p., b.p., sp. gr., and valence unknown. Situated in Group 14 of the per...

Pauli, Wolfgang

(Encyclopedia)Pauli, Wolfgang vôlfˈgäng pouˈlē [key], 1900–1958, Austro-American physicist, b. Vienna. He studied first with A. Sommerfeld at Munich and then with Niels Bohr at Copenhagen. After lecturing (1...