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Gilbert, William

(Encyclopedia)Gilbert, William, 1544–1603, English scientist and physician. He studied medicine at Cambridge (M.D., 1569), where he was elected a Fellow of St. John's College, and set up practice in London, becom...

weightlessness

(Encyclopedia)weightlessness, the absence of any observable effects of gravitation. This condition is experienced by an observer when he and his immediate surroundings are allowed to move freely in the local gravit...

Leduc

(Encyclopedia)Leduc lədo͞okˈ [key], town (1991 pop. 13,970), central Alta., Canada, S of Edmonton. It is the center of the Leduc oil field (discovered 1947), which is now mostly depleted. The town is an oil stor...

Hansen, William Webster

(Encyclopedia)Hansen, William Webster, 1909–49, U.S. physicist, b. Fresno, Calif. Hansen received his doctorate in physics from Stanford in 1933 and joined the faculty there in 1934. He invented the high-quality ...

East Coolgardie Goldfield

(Encyclopedia)East Coolgardie Goldfield ko͞olgärˈdē [key], Western Australia, SW Australia. It is the richest gold field in Australia. The chief mining center is the town of Kalgoorlie. Coolgardie, of little im...

Beers, Clifford Whittingham

(Encyclopedia)Beers, Clifford Whittingham, 1876–1943, American founder of the mental hygiene movement, b. New Haven, Conn., grad. Sheffield Scientific School, Yale, 1897. After the publication of A Mind That Foun...

Nizhnevartovsk

(Encyclopedia)Nizhnevartovsk nyēzhˌnyĭvärˈtəfsk [key], city (1989 pop. 241,000), N Siberian Russia. The discovery of a huge oil field at nearby Lake Samotlor in 1965 quickly transformed the small village of N...

Bastrop

(Encyclopedia)Bastrop băsˈtrŏpˌ [key], city (2020 pop. 9,711), seat of Morehouse parish, NE La.; founded ...

Ledyard, William

(Encyclopedia)Ledyard, William lĕdˈyərd [key], 1738–81, American Revolutionary officer, b. Groton, Conn. In 1781, as commander of Fort Griswold (near Groton), he refused to surrender, despite threats of massac...

Harvey, William Henry

(Encyclopedia)Harvey, William Henry, 1811–66, Irish botanist. An authority on algae, he wrote A Manual of the British Algae (1841), Phycologia Britannica (4 vol., 1846–51), and Phycologia Australica (5 vol., 18...