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Debreu, Gerard

(Encyclopedia)Debreu, Gerard dəbro͞oˈ [key], 1921–2005, French-American economist, b. Calais, France. He studied mathematics in France before coming to the United States in 1950, where he worked with the Chica...

Lemaître, Georges, Abbé

(Encyclopedia)Lemaître, Georges, Abbé ləmĕtˈrə [key], 1894–1966, Belgian astrophysicist, mathematician, and Catholic priest. In 1927 he became professor of astrophysics at the Univ. of Louvain and proposed...

‘Oumuamua

(Encyclopedia)‘Oumuamua ōmo͞oˈəmo͞oˈə [key], officially 1I/2017 U1 (‘Oumuamua), interstellar object, the first to be discovered in the solar system. Highly variable in brightness, it also is highly and u...

cyclopropane

(Encyclopedia)cyclopropane, C3H6, a gaseous hydrocarbon. It is a cyclic alkane, its three carbon atoms being joined together in a ring. The angle between successive carbon-carbon bonds in the ring is only 60°, muc...

natural law

(Encyclopedia)natural law, theory that some laws are basic and fundamental to human nature and are discoverable by human reason without reference to specific legislative enactments or judicial decisions. Natural la...

complementarity principle

(Encyclopedia)complementarity principle, physical principle enunciated by Niels Bohr in 1928 stating that certain physical concepts are complementary. If two concepts are complementary, an experiment that clearly i...

Cauchy, Augustin Louis, Baron

(Encyclopedia)Cauchy, Augustin Louis, Baron ōgüstăNˈ lwē bärôNˈ kōshēˈ [key], 1789–1857, French mathematician. He was professor simultaneously (1816–30) at the École polytechnique, the Sorbonne, and...

rocket, in aeronautics

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Relative positions of the components of the Saturn V rocket, the U.S. space vehicle used in the moon missions rocket, any vehicle propelled by ejection of the gases produced by combustion of s...

gluten

(Encyclopedia)gluten, mixture of proteins present in the cereal grains. The long molecules of gluten, insoluble in water, are strong and flexible and form many cross linkages. This gives flour its characteristic ch...

Butler, Judith

(Encyclopedia)Butler, Judith, 1956–, American philosopher and political theorist, b. Cleveland, Ph.D. Yale University, 1984. Holds the Hannah Arendt Chair at The Eu...

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