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Brewster, Sir David

(Encyclopedia)Brewster, Sir David, 1781–1868, Scottish physicist and natural philosopher. He is noted especially for his research into the polarization of light (the invention of the kaleidoscope was one result o...

neutron

(Encyclopedia)neutron, uncharged elementary particle of slightly greater mass than the proton. It was discovered by James Chadwick in 1932. The stable isotopes of all elements except hydrogen and helium contain a n...

Ghez, Andrea Mia

(Encyclopedia)Ghez, Andrea Mia, 1965–, American astrophysicist, b. New York City, Ph.D. California Institute of Technology, 1992. She has been on the faculty at the Univ. of California, Los Angeles, since 1994. G...

Mourou, Gérard Albert

(Encyclopedia)Mourou, Gérard Albert, 1944–, French physicist, Ph.D. Pierre and Marie Curie Univ. (now part of Sorbonne Univ.), 1973. Mourou was a professor at the Univ. of Rochester, New York, from 1977 to 1988,...

Kroemer, Herbert

(Encyclopedia)Kroemer, Herbert, 1928–, German physicist, Ph.D. Univ. of Göttingen, 1952. Kroemer was a researcher at RCA Laboratories in Princeton, N.J. (1954–57), and at Varian Associates in Palo Alto, Calif....

Poisson, Siméon Denis

(Encyclopedia)Poisson, Siméon Denis sēmāôNˈ dənēˈ pwäsôNˈ [key], 1781–1840, French mathematician and physicist. From 1802 he taught at the École polytechnique, Paris, and was also on the faculty of sc...

Research Triangle Park

(Encyclopedia)Research Triangle Park, research, business, medical, and educational complex situated in central North Carolina. It has an area of 6,900 acres (2,795 hectares) and is 8 × 2 mi (13 × 3 km) in size. N...

prism

(Encyclopedia)prism, in optics, a piece of translucent glass or crystal used to form a spectrum of light separated according to colors. Its cross section is usually triangular. The light becomes separated because d...

periscope

(Encyclopedia)periscope pĕrˈĭskōp [key] [Gr.,=view around], instrument to enable a person to see objects not in his direct line of vision or concealed by some intervening body. Its essential parts are a tube, p...

Alferov, Zhores Ivanovich

(Encyclopedia)Alferov, Zhores Ivanovich, 1930–2019, Russian physicist, b. Vitebsk (now in Belarus), Ph.D. V. I. Ulyanov Electrotechnical Institute, 1952. He joined the research staff of the A. F. Ioffe Physico-Te...

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