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Andromeda Galaxy

(Encyclopedia)Andromeda Galaxy, cataloged as M31 and NGC 224, the closest large galaxy to the Milky Way and the only one visible to the naked eye in the Northern Hemisphere. It is also known as the Great Nebula in ...

nymph, in Greek mythology

(Encyclopedia)nymph nĭmf [key], in Greek mythology, female divinity associated with various natural objects. It is uncertain whether they were immortal or merely long-lived. There was an infinite variety of nymphs...

optical sensing

(Encyclopedia)optical sensing, in general, any method by which information that occurs as variations in the intensity, or some other property, of light is translated into an electric signal. This is usually accompl...

holography

(Encyclopedia)holography hŏlŏgˈrəfē, hō– [key], method of reproducing a three-dimensional image of an object by means of light wave patterns recorded on a photographic plate or film. Holography is sometimes...

Chu Hsi

(Encyclopedia)Chu Hsi jo͞o shē [key], 1130–1200, Chinese philosopher of Neo-Confucianism. While borrowing heavily from Buddhism, his new metaphysics reinvigorated Confucianism. According to Chu Hsi, the normati...

Biot, Jean Baptiste

(Encyclopedia)Biot, Jean Baptiste zhäN bätēstˈ byō [key], 1774–1862, French physicist, grad. École Polytechnique (1797). He taught mathematics at Beauvais before becoming (1800) professor of mathematical ph...

blueprint

(Encyclopedia)blueprint, white-on-blue photographic print, commonly of a working drawing used during building or manufacturing. The plan is first drawn to scale on a special paper or tracing cloth through which lig...

cesium

(Encyclopedia)cesium sēˈzēəm [key] [Lat.,=bluish gray], a metallic chemical element; symbol Cs; at. no. 55; at. wt. 132.90545; m.p. 28.4℃; b.p. 669.3℃; sp. gr. 1.873 at 20℃; valence +1. Cesium is a ductil...

gluon

(Encyclopedia)gluon, an elementary particle that mediates, or carries, the strong, or nuclear, force. In quantum chromodynamics (QCD), the quantum field theory of strong interactions, the interaction of quarks (to ...

Hamann, Johann Georg

(Encyclopedia)Hamann, Johann Georg yōˈhän gāˈôrk häˈmən [key], 1730–88, German Protestant theologian, b. Königsberg (now Kaliningrad). Although opposed to the rationalism of Kant and the German Enlighte...