(Encyclopedia) Dolby, Ray Milton, 1933–2013, American inventor, audio engineer, and corporate executive, B.S. Stanford, 1957, Ph.D. Cambridge, 1961. While a teenager, he worked for Ampex Corp. (1949–…
(Encyclopedia) gamma-ray astronomy, study of astronomical objects by analysis of the most energetic electromagnetic radiation they emit. Gamma rays are shorter in wavelength and hence more energetic…
(Encyclopedia) Robinson, Sugar Ray, 1920–89, American boxer, b. Detroit as Walker Smith, Jr. He began boxing after three years of high school in New York City. Having won all his amateur fights (…
(Encyclopedia) Wilbur, Ray Lyman, 1875–1949, American public official and educator, b. Boonesboro, Iowa, grad. Stanford (B.A., 1896; M.A., 1897) and Cooper Medical College, San Francisco, 1899. After…
(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…
(Encyclopedia) X-ray crystallography, the study of crystal structures through X-ray diffraction techniques. When an X-ray beam bombards a crystalline lattice in a given orientation, the beam is…
(Encyclopedia) ray, extremely flat-bodied cartilaginous marine fish, related to the shark. The pectoral fins of most rays are developed into broad, flat, winglike appendages, attached all along the…
(Encyclopedia) ray, in physics, term denoting the straight line along which light or other form of radiation is propagated from its source. It generally refers to the line of propagation of waves but…