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Area 51

(Encyclopedia)Area 51, name for a U.S. military site, S Nev., c.80 mi (130 km) NNW of Las Vegas. Shrouded in secrecy since the mid-20th cent., it is located within the U.S. Air Force's enormous Nevada Test and Trai...

Bothe, Walther Wilhelm Georg

(Encyclopedia)Bothe, Walther Wilhelm Georg, 1891–1957, German physicist, Ph.D. Univ. of Berlin, 1923. Bothe was a researcher at the Reich Physical and Technical Institute (1913–30) and a professor at Heidelberg...

European Organization for Nuclear Research

(Encyclopedia)European Organization for Nuclear Research: see CERN. ...

Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons

(Encyclopedia)Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), international body (est. 1997) responsible for the implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), which aims at the destruction o...

Manhattan Project

(Encyclopedia)Manhattan Project, the wartime effort to design and build the first nuclear weapons (atomic bombs). With the discovery of fission in 1939, it became clear to scientists that certain radioactive materi...

Myrdal, Alva

(Encyclopedia)Myrdal, Alva älˈvä mĭrˈdäl, Swed. mürˈdäl [key], 1902–86, Swedish sociologist, diplomat, and political leader. As a sociologist in the 1930s, she initiated a national program establishing s...

Atomic Energy Commission

(Encyclopedia)Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), former U.S. government commission created by the Atomic Energy Act of 1946 and charged with the development and control of the U.S. atomic energy program following Worl...

atomic bomb

(Encyclopedia)atomic bomb or A-bomb, weapon deriving its explosive force from the release of nuclear energy through the fission (splitting) of heavy atomic nuclei. The first atomic bomb was produced at the Los Alam...

Geneva Conference

(Encyclopedia)Geneva Conference, any of various international meetings held at Geneva, Switzerland. Some of the more important ones are discussed here. 1 International conference held Apr.–July, 1954, to restore ...

Albuquerque

(Encyclopedia)Albuquerque ălˈbəkûrˌkē [key], city (2020 pop. 564,559), seat of Bernalillo co., W central N.Mex., on the upper Rio Grande; inc. 1890. The largest city in the state,...