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microwave oven

(Encyclopedia)microwave oven, device that uses microwaves to rapidly cook food. The microwaves cause water molecules in the food to vibrate, producing heat, which is distributed through the food by induction. A spe...

Crookes tube

(Encyclopedia)Crookes tube, device invented by Sir William Crookes (c.1875) consisting essentially of a sealed glass tube from which nearly all the air has been removed and through the walls of which are passed two...

Giaever, Ivar

(Encyclopedia)Giaever, Ivar, 1929–, Norwegian-American physicist, Ph.D. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1964. He was a researcher at General Electric from 1954 to 1988, when he joined the faculty at his alma ma...

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory

(Encyclopedia)Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), physical science research center located near Batavia, Ill., est. 1968 as the National Accelerator Laboratory, renamed 1974 in honor of Enrico Fermi. ...

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...

valve

(Encyclopedia)valve, device for controlling the flow of fluids (liquids and gases). Valves vary in construction and size depending upon their function. Some are classified according to their method of operation or ...

Gabor, Dennis

(Encyclopedia)Gabor, Dennis, 1900–1979, Hungarian-born British physicist, Ph.D. Berlin Institute of Technology 1927. Gabor was a researcher with the Thomson-Houston Company, England, from 1934 to 1949 and a profe...

Perl, Martin Lewis

(Encyclopedia)Perl, Martin Lewis, 1927–2014, American physicist, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., Ph.D. Columbia, 1955. He was a professor at the Univ. of Michigan from 1955 to 1963, when he accepted a position at Stanford; he...

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�...

Laughlin, Robert Betts

(Encyclopedia)Laughlin, Robert Betts, 1950–, American physicist, b. Visalia, Calif., Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1979. Laughlin was a researcher at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory from 198...