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mercaptan

(Encyclopedia)mercaptan thīˈōl [key], any of a class of organic compounds containing the group –SH bonded to a carbon atom. The volatile low-molecular-weight mercaptans have disagreeable odors. Mercaptans are ...

Chauvin, Yves

(Encyclopedia)Chauvin, Yves, 1930–2015, French chemist, b. Menen, Belgium, grad. Lyon School of Chemistry, Physics, and Electronics (CPE), 1954. Chauvin was a research engineer (1960–91) and then research direc...

cytochrome

(Encyclopedia)cytochrome sīˈtəkrōmˌ [key], protein containing heme (see coenzyme) that participates in the phase of biochemical respiration called oxidative phosphorylation. Cytochromes act as carriers of hydr...

graphene

(Encyclopedia)graphene, virtually transparent, highly conductive carbon material in which the atoms are organized into a honeycomblike arrangement and form a thin sheet that is one atom thick. Andre Geim and Konsta...

Politzer, Hugh David

(Encyclopedia)Politzer, Hugh David, 1949–, American physicist, b. Mineola, N.Y., Ph.D. Harvard, 1974. Politzer has been a professor at the California Institute of Technology since 1977. He was a co-recipient, wit...

Alger, Horatio

(Encyclopedia)Alger, Horatio ălˈjər [key], 1834–99, American writer of boys' stories, b. Revere, Mass. He wrote over 100 books for boys, the first, Ragged Dick, being published in 1867. By leading exemplary li...

Waley, Arthur

(Encyclopedia)Waley, Arthur, 1889–1966, English orientalist, b. London as Arthur David Schloss, educated at Cambridge. He was and still is considered one of the world's great Asian scholars. His most important wo...

Menotti, Gian-Carlo

(Encyclopedia)Menotti, Gian-Carlo jänˈ-kärˈlō mānôtˈtē [key], 1911–2007, Italian composer. Menotti was taught music by his mother and composed his first opera at 10. He studied at the Verdi Conservatory,...

Progressive party

(Encyclopedia)Progressive party, in U.S. history, the name of three political organizations, active, respectively, in the presidential elections of 1912, 1924, and 1948. At Philadelphia in July, 1948, a new...

Roth, Cecil

(Encyclopedia)Roth, Cecil, 1899–1970, Jewish historian and educator, b. London. He was educated at Oxford (Ph.D., 1924) and was reader in Jewish Studies there from 1939 to 1964. Thereafter he was visiting profess...