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Purcell, Edward Mills

(Encyclopedia)Purcell, Edward Mills, 1912–97, American physicist, b. Taylorville, Ill., Ph.D. Harvard, 1938. During World War II, Purcell was a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Radiation La...

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

(Encyclopedia)Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), international organization that came into being in 1961. It superseded the Organization for European Economic Cooperation, which had been ...

Gambier Islands

(Encyclopedia)Gambier Islands gămˈbĭr [key], volcanic islands (6 sq mi/15.5 sq km), South Pacific, near the ...

Bryansk

(Encyclopedia)Bryansk brēänskˈ [key], city (2020 est. pop. 399,000), capital of Bryansk region, central ...

Bushehr

(Encyclopedia)Bushehr –shĭrˈ [key], city, SW Iran, on the Persian Gulf. It is one of the chief ports of ...

Yang, Chen-ning

(Encyclopedia)Yang, Chen-ning chĕn-nĭng yäng [key], 1922–, American physicist, b. China, Ph.D. Univ. of Chicago, 1948. Yang was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, N.J. from 1949 to 1955...

cataract

(Encyclopedia)cataract, in medicine, opacity of the lens of the eye, which impairs vision. In the young, cataracts are generally congenital or hereditary; later they are usually the result of degenerative changes b...

Bothe, Walther Wilhelm Georg

(Encyclopedia)Bothe, Walther Wilhelm Georg, 1891–1957, German physicist, Ph.D. Univ. of Berlin, 1923. Bothe was a researcher at the Reich Physical and Technical Institute (1913–30) and a professor at Heidelberg...

neutrino astronomy

(Encyclopedia)neutrino astronomy, study of stars by means of their emission of neutrinos, fundamental particles that result from nuclear reactions and are emitted by stars along with light. Approximately 100 billio...

torpedo , in naval warfare

(Encyclopedia)torpedo, in naval warfare, a self-propelled submarine projectile loaded with explosives, used for the destruction of enemy ships. Although there were attempts at subsurface warfare in the 16th and 17t...