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scanning tunneling microscope

(Encyclopedia)scanning tunneling microscope (STM), device for studying and imaging individual atoms on the surfaces of materials. The instrument was invented in the early 1980s by Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer, w...

Osterman, Andrei Ivanovich, Count

(Encyclopedia)Osterman, Andrei Ivanovich, Count əndrāˈ ēväˈnəvĭch əstyĭrmänˈ [key], 1686–1747, Russian statesman, b. Germany. His original name was Heinrich Johann Friedrich Ostermann. Under Czar Pete...

Gide, André

(Encyclopedia)Gide, André äNdrāˈ zhēd [key], 1869–1951, French writer. He established a reputation as an unconventional novelist with The Immoralist (1902, tr. 1930), a partly autobiographical work in which ...

Cheney, Dick

(Encyclopedia)Cheney, Dick (Richard Bruce Cheney) chēˈnē, chāˈ– [key], 1941–, Vice President of the United States (2001–9), b. Lincoln, Nebr. His family moved to Casper, Wyo., when he was 13, and he atte...

Düsseldorf

(Encyclopedia)Düsseldorf düsˈəldôrf [key], city, capital of North Rhine–Westphalia, W Germany, at the ...

prostitution

(Encyclopedia)prostitution, act of granting sexual access for payment. Although most commonly conducted by females for males, it may be performed by females or males for either females or males. Prostitution in A...

Tauler, Johannes

(Encyclopedia)Tauler, Johannes yōhänˈəs touˈlər [key], c.1300–1361, German mystic. He was a Dominican. He met Meister Eckhart, either at Strasbourg or in Cologne, where he went to study, and he was one of E...

Babel, Isaac Emmanuelovich

(Encyclopedia)Babel, Isaac Emmanuelovich ēˈsäk əmäno͞oāˈləvĭch bäˈbəl [key], 1894–1940, Russian writer, b. Odessa. Babel was quick to embrace the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, but in the end it was t...

Philadelphia Orchestra

(Encyclopedia)Philadelphia Orchestra, founded 1900 by Fritz Scheel, who was its conductor until his death in 1907. Scheel was followed by Karl Pohlig (1907–12). Under the leadership (1912–38) of Leopold Stokows...

Rice, Condoleezza

(Encyclopedia)Rice, Condoleezza, 1954–, U.S. government official and educator, b. Birmingham, Ala. A political scientist who has specialized in Russian and E European studies, Rice has been a professor at Stanfor...