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Ossietzky, Carl von

(Encyclopedia)Ossietzky, Carl von fən ôsyĕtˈskē [key], 1889–1938, German pacifist. A leader of the peace movement in Germany after World War I, he was editor of the antimilitarist weekly Weltbühne from 1927...

Jay, William

(Encyclopedia)Jay, William, 1789–1858, American jurist and reformer, b. New York City; son of John Jay. For most of the period from 1818 to 1843 he served as judge of the county court of Westchester co., N.Y. An ...

Witelo of Silesia

(Encyclopedia)Witelo of Silesia or Vitelo, c.1230–75, Silesian physicist, philosopher, and theologian. He studied in Paris and Padua and spent time at the papal palace in Viterbo, Italy. His ten-volume work on op...

Sanger, Frederick

(Encyclopedia)Sanger, Frederick săngˈər [key], 1918–2013, British biochemist, grad. Cambridge (B.A., 1939; Ph.D., 1943). He continued his research at Cambridge after 1943. He won the 1958 Nobel Prize in Chemis...

Delbrück, Max Ludwig Henning

(Encyclopedia)Delbrück, Max Ludwig Henning dĕlˈbrük [key], 1906–1981, American biophysicist, b. Berlin, Germany. Ph.D, Univ. of Göttingen, 1930. He spent most of his career as a professor at the California I...

Karle, Jerome

(Encyclopedia)Karle, Jerome kärl [key], 1918–2013, American physicist, b. New York City, Ph.D. Univ. of Michigan, 1943. He worked on the Manhattan Project before beginning a career (1946–2009) at the U.S. Nava...

silicone

(Encyclopedia)silicone, polymer in which atoms of silicon and oxygen alternate in a chain; various organic radicals, such as the methyl group, CH3, are bound to the silicon atoms. Silicones, which are unusually sta...

sociobiology

(Encyclopedia)sociobiology, controversial field that studies how natural selection, previously used only to explain the evolution of physical characteristics, shapes behavior in animals and humans. The theory has c...

buckminsterfullerene

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Buckminsterfullerene buckminsterfullerene bŭkˌmĭnstərfo͝olˈərēnˌ, –fo͝olˌərēnˈ [key] or buckyball, C60, hollow cage carbon molecule named for R. Buckminster Fuller because of t...

pH

(Encyclopedia)pH, range of numbers expressing the relative acidity or alkalinity of a solution. In general, pH values range from 0 to 14. The pH of a neutral solution, i.e., one which is neither acidic nor alkaline...