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Landau, Lev Davidovich

(Encyclopedia)Landau, Lev Davidovich lyĕf dəvēˈdəvĭch ləndouˈ [key], 1908–68, Soviet physicist, b. Baku, Azerbaijan. A child prodigy in mathematics, he entered Baku Univ. at 14; at 21 he received a doctor...

Kohn, Walter

(Encyclopedia)Kohn, Walter, 1923–2016, American physicist, b. Vienna, Austria, Ph.D. Harvard, 1948. The son of Austrian Jews, he was transported to England in a rescue convoy after Nazi Germany absorbed (1938) Au...

butane

(Encyclopedia)butane byo͞oˈtān [key], C4H10, gaseous alkane, a hydrocarbon that is obtained from natural gas or by refining petroleum. It can be liquefied at room temperature by compression. There are two struct...

Carothers, Wallace Hume

(Encyclopedia)Carothers, Wallace Hume kərŭᵺˈərz [key], 1896–1937, American chemist, b. Burlington, Iowa. He received his doctorate at the Univ. of Illinois in 1924, then taught organic chemistry there and a...

sulfur dioxide

(Encyclopedia)sulfur dioxide, chemical compound, SO2, a colorless gas with a pungent, suffocating odor. It is readily soluble in cold water, sparingly soluble in hot water, and soluble in alcohol, acetic acid, and ...

Purcell, Edward Mills

(Encyclopedia)Purcell, Edward Mills, 1912–97, American physicist, b. Taylorville, Ill., Ph.D. Harvard, 1938. During World War II, Purcell was a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Radiation La...

Broglie, Louis Victor, duc de

(Encyclopedia)Broglie, Louis Victor, duc de, 1892–1987, French physicist. In 1928 he became professor in the faculty of sciences, Univ. of Paris. It was known from the earlier quantum theory that light waves some...

Shull, Clifford

(Encyclopedia)Shull, Clifford, 1915–2001, American physicist, b. Pittsburgh, Pa. Educated at Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) and New York Univ. (Ph.D., 1941), Shull was on the st...

Cornell, Eric Allin

(Encyclopedia)Cornell, Eric Allin, 1961–, American physicist, b. Palo Alto, Calif., Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1990. Since 1990, he has been a researcher at the Joint Institute for Laboratory As...

coherence

(Encyclopedia)coherence, constant phase difference in two or more Waves over time. Two waves are said to be in phase if their crests and troughs meet at the same place at the same time, and the waves are out of pha...