What causes a rainbow? A rainbow in Indiana, Oct. 2015. Source: AP Photo/Michael Conroy Although light looks colorless, it’s made up of many colors-red, orange, yellow, green, blue…
(Encyclopedia) Dempsey, Jack (William Harrison Dempsey), 1895–1983, American boxer, b. Manassa, Colo. Dempsey, called the “Manassa Mauler,” emerged from fights on saloon floors near mining camps to…
(Encyclopedia) angioplastyangioplastyănˈjēōplăsˌtē [key], any surgical repair of a blood vessel, especially balloon angioplasty or percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty, a treatment of…
(Encyclopedia) Roberts, Richard John, 1943–, British biochemist, Ph.D., Univ. of Sheffield, 1968. Roberts joined James D. Watson's Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York in 1972, becoming…
(Encyclopedia) Sardou, VictorienSardou, VictorienvēktôryăNˈ särd&oomacr;ˈ [key], 1831–1908, French dramatist. Author of some 70 plays, he won great popularity with his light comedies and…
Born: 1944Birthplace: North Carolina PCR, Polymerase chain reaction—Mullis invented PCR, the process for amplifying nucleic acids, in 1993 while at Cetus Corporation. PCR has revolutionized the…
—Holly HartmanMystery Skull In July 2002, an international team led by French paleontologist Michel Brunet announced the discovery of a humanlike skull that may be up to seven million years old,…
(Encyclopedia) recombination, process of “shuffling” of genes by which new combinations can be generated. In recombination through sexual reproduction, the offspring's complete set of genes differs…
(Encyclopedia) polymerase chain reactionpolymerase chain reactionpŏlˈĭmərāsˌ [key] (PCR), laboratory process in which a particular DNA segment from a mixture of DNA chains is rapidly replicated,…
actorBorn: 11/28/1950Birthplace: Englewood, New Jersey Highly respected, Oscar-nominated character actor who has played both the hero—John Glenn in The Right Stuff (1983)—and the antihero—E.…
