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sociobiology

(Encyclopedia)sociobiology, controversial field that studies how natural selection, previously used only to explain the evolution of physical characteristics, shapes behavior in animals and humans. The theory has c...

Dirac, Paul Adrien Maurice

(Encyclopedia)Dirac, Paul Adrien Maurice dĭrăkˈ [key], 1902–84, English physicist. He was educated at the Univ. of Bristol and St. John's College, Cambridge, and became professor of mathematics at Cambridge in...

science

(Encyclopedia)science [Lat. scientia=knowledge]. For many the term science refers to the organized body of knowledge concerning the physical world, both animate and inanimate, but a proper definition would also hav...

Pythagoras

(Encyclopedia)Pythagoras pĭthăgˈərəs [key], c.582–c.507 b.c., pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, founder of the Pythagorean school. He migrated from his native Samos to Crotona and established a secret religiou...

Ladd-Franklin, Christine

(Encyclopedia)Ladd-Franklin, Christine, 1847–1930, American scientist, b. Windsor, Conn., grad. Vassar 1869. She was the first woman student to enter Johns Hopkins (1878), her special studies being directed towar...

phrenology

(Encyclopedia)phrenology, study of the shape of the human skull in order to draw conclusions about particular character traits and mental faculties. The theory was developed about 1800 by the German physiologist Fr...

Gamow, George

(Encyclopedia)Gamow, George gămˈŏf [key], 1904–68, Russian-American theoretical physicist and author, b. Odessa. A nuclear physicist, Gamow is better known to the public for his excellent books popularizing ab...

van der Waals, Johannes Diderik

(Encyclopedia)van der Waals, Johannes Diderik yōhäˈnəs dēˈdərĭk vän dər väls [key], 1837–1923, Dutch physicist. It had been known for some time that the behavior of real gases differs from that of an i...

Clausius, Rudolf Julius Emanuel

(Encyclopedia)Clausius, Rudolf Julius Emanuel ro͞oˈdôlf yo͞oˈlyo͝os āmäˈno͞oĕl klouˈzēo͝os [key], 1822–88, German mathematical physicist. A pioneer in the science of thermodynamics, he introduced th...

Myerson, Roger Bruce

(Encyclopedia)Myerson, Roger Bruce, 1951–, American economist, b. Boston, Mass., Ph.D. Harvard, 1976. He has taught at Northwestern Univ. (1976–2001) and the Univ. of Chicago (2001–). With Leonid Hurwicz and ...