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fuel

(Encyclopedia)fuel, material that can be burned or otherwise consumed to produce heat. The common fuels used in industry, transportation, and the home are burned in air. The carbon and hydrogen in fuel rapidly comb...

chemical bond

(Encyclopedia)chemical bond, mechanism whereby atoms combine to form molecules. There is a chemical bond between two atoms or groups of atoms when the forces acting between them are strong enough to lead to the for...

Lawrence, Ernest Orlando

(Encyclopedia)Lawrence, Ernest Orlando, 1901–58, American physicist, b. Canton, S. Dak., grad. Univ. of South Dakota, 1922, Ph.D. Yale, 1925. Affiliated with the Univ. of California from 1928 onward, he became a ...

Szilard, Leo

(Encyclopedia)Szilard, Leo sĭˈlärd [key], 1898–1964, American nuclear physicist and biophysicist, born in Hungary. He was educated at the Budapest Institute of Technology and the Univ. of Berlin, receiving a d...

Rotblat, Sir Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Rotblat, Sir Joseph, 1908–2005, British physicist and anti-nuclear weapons activist, b. Warsaw, Poland; grad. Free Univ. of Poland (M.A., 1932), Univ. of Warsaw (Ph.D., 1938), Univ. of Liverpool (Ph...

cyanogen

(Encyclopedia)cyanogen sīănˈəjən [key], NCCN, colorless, flammable, extremely poisonous gas with a characteristic odor somewhat like that of hydrogen cyanide. It melts at −35℃, boils at −21℃, and is so...

Blackett, Patrick Maynard Stuart

(Encyclopedia)Blackett, Patrick Maynard Stuart blăkˈĭt [key], 1897–1974, English physicist. He was professor of physics at the Univ. of Manchester (1937–53) and in 1953 became professor at the Univ. of Londo...

star

(Encyclopedia)star, hot incandescent sphere of gas, held together by its own gravitation, and emitting light and other forms of electromagnetic radiation whose ultimate source is nuclear energy. The universe co...

sulfonic acid

(Encyclopedia)sulfonic acid səlfŏnˈĭk [key], organic compound containing the functional group RSO2OH, which consists of a sulfur atom, S, bonded to a carbon atom that may be part of a large aliphatic or aromati...

Rydberg constant

(Encyclopedia)Rydberg constant rĭdˈbərg [key], physical constant used in studies of the spectrum of a substance. Its value for hydrogen is 109,737.3 cm−1. ...