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chain reaction
(Encyclopedia)CE5 Chain reaction: A neutron (n) strikes the uranium nucleus (U-235), causing it to split into fission products A and B and release two neutrons. These neutrons can in turn cause further fissions....Richardson, Robert Coleman
(Encyclopedia)Richardson, Robert Coleman, 1937–2013, American physicist, b. Washington, D.C. Ph.D. Duke Univ., 1966. Richardson was a professor at Cornell from 1968 until his death; he was the university's first ...nucleosynthesis
(Encyclopedia)nucleosynthesis or nucleogenesis, in astronomy, production of all the chemical elements from the simplest element, hydrogen, by thermonuclear reactions within stars, supernovas, and in the big bang at...atomic mass
(Encyclopedia)atomic mass, the mass of a single atom, usually expressed in atomic mass units (amu). Most of the mass of an atom is concentrated in the protons and neutrons contained in the nucleus. Each proton or n...Welch, Jack
(Encyclopedia)Welch, Jack (John Francis Welch, Jr.), 1935–2020, American business executive, b. Salem, Mass., grad. Univ. of Massachusetts (1957); Univ. of Illinois (M.S., 1958; Ph.D., chemical engineering, 1960)...Osheroff, Douglas Dean
(Encyclopedia)Osheroff, Douglas Dean, 1945–, American physicist, b. Aberdeen, Wash., Ph.D. Cornell, 1973. He was a professor at Cornell from 1973 to 1987, when he joined the faculty at Stanford. Osheroff was also...X-ray astronomy
(Encyclopedia)X-ray astronomy, study of celestial objects by means of the X rays they emit, in the wavelength range from 0.01 to 10 nanometers. X-ray astronomy dates to 1949 with the discovery that the sun emits X ...nuclear energy
(Encyclopedia)CE5 Graph of binding energy per nucleon as a function of mass number nuclear energy, the energy stored in the nucleus of an atom and released through fission, fusion, or radioactivity. In these pr...fermium
(Encyclopedia)fermium fûrˈmēəm [key] [for Enrico Fermi], artificially produced radioactive chemical element; symbol Fm; at. no. 100; mass no. of most stable isotope 257; m.p. 1,527℃; b.p. and sp. gr. unknown;...stellar evolution
(Encyclopedia)CE5 The above Hertzsprung-Russell (H-R) diagram shows the track of stellar evolution for a typical star. After spending much of its life evolving toward or along the main sequence, the star becomes...Browse by Subject
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