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bubble chamber

(Encyclopedia)bubble chamber, device for detecting charged particles and other radiation by means of tracks of bubbles left in a chamber filled with liquid hydrogen or other liquefied gas. It was invented in 1952 b...

barium

(Encyclopedia)barium bârˈēəm [key] [Gr.,=heavy], metallic chemical element; symbol Ba; at. no. 56; at. wt. 137.327; m.p. 725℃; b.p. 1,640℃; sp. gr. 3.5 at 20℃; valence +2. Barium is a soft, silver-white, ...

Duse, Eleonora

(Encyclopedia)Duse, Eleonora do͞oˈzə, Ital. ālāōnôˈrä do͞oˈzā [key], 1859–1924, Italian actress. From a theatrical family, she made a successful appearance at 14 as Juliet and in 1879 gained recogniti...

Chaban-Delmas, Jacques

(Encyclopedia)Chaban-Delmas, Jacques zhäk shäbäNˈ-dĕlmäˈ [key], 1915–2000, French political leader, born Jacques Delmas. He joined (1940) the resistance, using the nom de guerre “Chaban,” which he late...

rocket, in botany

(Encyclopedia)rocket, in botany, popular name for several plants of the family Cruciferae (or Brassicaceae; mustard family). The dame's, or damask, violet, damewort, or sweet rocket is Hesperis matronalis, a hardy,...

Saumur

(Encyclopedia)Saumur sōmürˈ [key], town (1990 pop. 30,150), Maine-et-Loire dept., W France, on the Loire River. Saumur is noted for its religious-medal industry (dating from the 17th cent.) and for its sparkling...

Stark, Freya Madeline

(Encyclopedia)Stark, Freya Madeline frāˈə [key], 1893–1993, British author, traveler, and Arabist. The first European to visit several areas in the Middle East, she was born in Paris to artist parents and grew...

Drabble, Margaret

(Encyclopedia)Drabble, Margaret, 1939–, English novelist, b. Sheffield, Yorkshire; sister of A. S. Byatt. Drabble's rigorous and unsentimentally realistic vision of an England split between traditional values and...

Erdös, Paul

(Encyclopedia)Erdös, Paul ĕrˈdös [key], 1913–96, Hungarian mathematician, b. Budapest. A child prodigy, he was mostly home-schooled by his parents—both teachers of mathematics—until he entered the Univ. o...

Luxembourg, city, Luxembourg

(Encyclopedia)Luxembourg or Luxemburg, city (1991 pop. 75,377), capital of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, S Luxembourg, at the confluence of the Alzette and Pétrusse rivers. It is a commercial, banking, industrial...