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Broglie, Maurice, duc de

(Encyclopedia)Broglie, Maurice, duc de, 1875–1960, French physicist; brother of Louis Victor, duc de Broglie. His contributions include notable work on X rays and in atomic physics, radioactivity, and electricity...

fallout

(Encyclopedia)fallout, minute particles of radioactive material produced by nuclear explosions (see atomic bomb; hydrogen bomb; Chernobyl) or by discharge from nuclear-power or atomic installations and scattered th...

transition elements

(Encyclopedia)transition elements or transition metals, in chemistry, group of elements characterized by the filling of an inner d electron orbital as atomic number increases. This includes the elements from titani...

International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry

(Encyclopedia)International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), an international organization est. 1919 to advance the chemical sciences and contribute to the application of chemistry to the service of hum...

fission

(Encyclopedia)fission, in physics: see nuclear energy and nucleus; see also atomic bomb. ...

proton

(Encyclopedia)proton, elementary particle having a single positive electrical charge and constituting the nucleus of the ordinary hydrogen atom. The positive charge of the nucleus of any atom is due to its protons....

Mayweather, Floyd, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Mayweather, Floyd, Jr., 1977–, American boxer, b. Grand Rapids, Mich., as Floyd Joy Sinclair. He began boxing at an early age, coached by his father, a welterweight boxer whose name he subsequently ...

Higgins, William

(Encyclopedia)Higgins, William, b. 1762 or 1763, d. 1825, Irish chemist. After study at Oxford he became supervisor of the Royal Dublin Society's mineralogical collection and in 1800 the Society's professor of chem...

Gamow, George

(Encyclopedia)Gamow, George gămˈŏf [key], 1904–68, Russian-American theoretical physicist and author, b. Odessa. A nuclear physicist, Gamow is better known to the public for his excellent books popularizing ab...

Von Neumann, John

(Encyclopedia)Von Neumann, John noiˈmän [key], 1903–57, American mathematician, b. Hungary, Ph.D. Univ. of Budapest, 1926. He came to the United States in 1930 and was naturalized in 1937. He taught (1930–33)...