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Duhem, Pierre Maurice Marie

(Encyclopedia)Duhem, Pierre Maurice Marie pyĕr mōrēsˈ märēˈ düĕmˈ [key], 1861–1916, French physicist and philosopher and historian of science. After studying at the École Normale Supérieure he taught ...

Chern, Shiing-Shen

(Encyclopedia)Chern, Shiing-Shen, 1911–2004, Chinese-American mathematician, b. Kashing (now Jiaxing), China, D.Sc. Hamburg, 1936. While undertaking graduate studies in China (1932–34), Chern developed what bec...

Penrose, Sir Roger

(Encyclopedia)Penrose, Sir Roger, 1931–, British mathematical physicist, Ph.D. Cambridge, 1958. He taught and conducted research at a number of British and American colleges and universities before becoming a pro...

Adams, Brooks

(Encyclopedia)Adams, Brooks, 1848–1927, American historian, b. Quincy, Mass.; son of Charles Francis Adams (1807–86). His theory that civilization rose and fell according to the growth and decline of commerce w...

Taylor, Richard Edward

(Encyclopedia)Taylor, Richard Edward, 1930–2018, Canadian experimental physicist. He was associated primarily with Stanford, where he received his doctorate (1962) and helped build and then worked—first (1962) ...

blackbody

(Encyclopedia)blackbody, in physics, an ideal black substance that absorbs all and reflects none of the radiant energy falling on it. Lampblack, or powdered carbon, which reflects less than 2% of the radiation fall...

Mitchell, Peter Dennis

(Encyclopedia)Mitchell, Peter Dennis, 1920–92, British chemist, Ph.D. Cambridge, 1950. A professor at the Univ. of Edinburgh (1955–63), Mitchell was named director of Glynn Research Laboratories in 1964. He for...

Rockburne, Dorothea

(Encyclopedia)Rockburne, Dorothea, 1932–, American artist, b. Quebec, Canada. The configurations of Rockburne's constructions are predetermined by the nature of her materials and by various limiting rules of her ...

Lorentz contraction

(Encyclopedia)Lorentz contraction lôrˈĕnts [key], in physics, contraction or foreshortening of a moving body in the direction of its motion, proposed by H. A. Lorentz on theoretical grounds and based on an earli...

emotion

(Encyclopedia)emotion, term commonly and loosely used to denote individual, subjective feelings which dictate moods. In psychology, emotion is considered a response to stimuli that involves characteristic physiolog...