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Wilbur, Ray Lyman

(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 studying medi...

X-ray astronomy

(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 the sun emits X ...

X-ray crystallography

(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 scattered in a defini...

ray, in zoology

(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 sides of the head...

ray, in physics

(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 is also applied...

Robinson, Sugar Ray

(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 (about 90), includi...

Hounsfield, Sir Godfrey Newbold

(Encyclopedia)Hounsfield, Sir Godfrey Newbold, 1919–2004, British electrical engineer. A radar expert for the Royal Air Force during World War II, in the 1950s Hounsfield began developing computer and X-ray techn...

Lovell, Sir Bernard

(Encyclopedia)Lovell, Sir Bernard (Sir Alfred Charles Bernard Lovell), 1913–2012, English radio astronomer, b. Oldland Common, Gloucestershire, England, Ph.D. Univ. of Bristol, 1936. He was a member of the cosmic...

Birkenhead, Frederick Edwin Smith, 1st earl of

(Encyclopedia)Birkenhead, Frederick Edwin Smith, 1st earl of bûrˈkənhĕdˌ [key], 1872–1930, British statesman and jurist. He was called to the bar in 1899 and entered the House of Commons as a Conservative in...

Dickinson, Edwin Walter

(Encyclopedia)Dickinson, Edwin Walter, 1891–1978, American painter, b. Seneca Falls, N.Y. He studied in New York City with William Merritt Chase, and spent most of his life on Cape Cod. Working during the moderni...