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radiation

(Encyclopedia)radiation rāˌdēāˈshən [key], term applied to the emission and transmission of energy through space or through a material medium and also to the radiated energy itself. In its widest sense the te...

alloy

(Encyclopedia)alloy ălˈoi, əloiˈ [key] [O. Fr.,=combine], substance with metallic properties that consists of a metal fused with one or more metals or nonmetals. Alloys may be a homogeneous solid solution, a he...

Curl, Robert Floyd, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Curl, Robert Floyd, Jr., 1933–, American chemist, b. Alice, Tex., Ph.D. Univ. of California, Berkeley, 1957. Curl has been a professor at Rice Univ. in Houston, Tex., since 1958. In 1996 he was awar...

albumin

(Encyclopedia)albumin ălbyo͞oˈmən [key] [Lat.,=white of egg], member of a class of water-soluble, heat-coagulating proteins. Albumins are widely distributed in plant and animal tissues, e.g., ovalbumin of egg, ...

ether, in physics and astronomy

(Encyclopedia)ether or aether, in physics and astronomy, a hypothetical medium for transmitting light and heat (radiation), filling all unoccupied space; it is also called luminiferous ether. In Newtonian physics a...

Francis, Dick

(Encyclopedia)Francis, Dick (Richard Stanley Francis), 1920–2010, English novelist. He was a champion steeplechase jockey (1946–57) and a racing writer for a London newspaper (1957–73). Francis parlayed his k...

Appert, Nicolas

(Encyclopedia)Appert, Nicolas fräNswäˈ [key], 1750–1841, French originator of a method of canning. In 1795 the French government offered a prize of 12,000 francs for a method of preserving food, especially for...

O'Neal, Shaquille

(Encyclopedia)O'Neal, Shaquille (Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal) shəkēlˈ rəshônˈ ōnēlˈ [key], 1972–, American basketball player, b. Newark, N.J. Joining the Orlando Magic of the National Basketball Association...

blackbuck

(Encyclopedia)blackbuck, small antelope, Antilope cervicapra, found in semidesert plains and open forest throughout India. Males are dark brown above and white below, with white rings around the eyes; they stand ab...

slipped disc

(Encyclopedia)slipped disc, rupture or herniation of an intervertebral disc. These discs separate and cushion the vertebrae, the segments of the spinal column. They are composed of an outer rim of fibrous connectiv...