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aberration of starlight

(Encyclopedia)aberration of starlight, displacement of the apparent path of light from a star, resulting in a displacement of the apparent position of the star from its true position; discovered by the English astr...

Bond, William Cranch

(Encyclopedia)Bond, William Cranch, 1789–1859, American astronomer, b. Portland, Maine. He early aided his father in the trades of silversmith and clockmaker in Boston. He soon became an expert in the making of c...

relativity

(Encyclopedia)relativity, physical theory, introduced by Albert Einstein, that discards the concept of absolute motion and instead treats only relative motion between two systems or frames of reference. One consequ...

Strategic Defense Initiative

(Encyclopedia)Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), former U.S. government program responsible for research and development of a space-based system to defend the nation from attack by strategic ballistic missiles (se...

empyema

(Encyclopedia)empyema ĕmpē-ēˈmə [key], persistent purulent discharge into a cavity such as the pleural space or the gallbladder. Empyema results as a complication of bacterial infections such as pneumonia and ...

Bourget, Le

(Encyclopedia)Bourget, Le, town, Seine–Saint-Denis dept., N central France. A suburb of Paris, it is the site of Le Bourget airport, once Paris's main airport but n...

Steer, Philip Wilson

(Encyclopedia)Steer, Philip Wilson, 1860–1942, English landscape painter. Steer worked largely in the tradition of French impressionist painting and was considered the greatest English landscape painter of his da...

Altichiero da Zevio

(Encyclopedia)Altichiero da Zevio ältēkyāˈrō dä tsāvˈyō [key], c.1330–c.1395, Italian painter, follower of Giotto. He worked in Verona and then Padua. His frescoes in the churches of Sant' Antonio and Sa...

White, Edward Higgins, 2d

(Encyclopedia)White, Edward Higgins, 2d, 1930–67, American astronaut, b. San Antonio. While serving as pilot of Gemini 4 (June 3–7, 1965), he became the first American to perform extravehicular activity. He had...

Clarke, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Clarke, Samuel, 1675–1729, English philosopher and divine. His chief interest was rational theology, and, although a critic of the deists, he was in sympathy with some of their ideas. He supported t...