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chemical bond

(Encyclopedia)chemical bond, mechanism whereby atoms combine to form molecules. There is a chemical bond between two atoms or groups of atoms when the forces acting between them are strong enough to lead to the for...

Kent's Cavern

(Encyclopedia)Kent's Cavern or Kent's Hole, limestone cave, Devonshire, SW England, near Torquay. The floor is composed of several strata, with remains indicating the prehistoric coexistence there of humans and now...

Spallanzani, Lazzaro

(Encyclopedia)Spallanzani, Lazzaro lädˈdzärō späl-läntsäˈnē [key], 1729–99, Italian naturalist. He was professor at the universities of Modena (1763–69) and Pavia (from 1769). Spallanzani studied regen...

Bretonneau, Pierre

(Encyclopedia)Bretonneau, Pierre pyĕr brətônōˈ [key], 1778–1862, French physician. He performed (1825) the first successful tracheotomy for laryngeal diphtheria, wrote a treatise (1826) distinguishing betwee...

complexity

(Encyclopedia)complexity, in science, field of study devoted to the process of self-organization. The basic concept of complexity is that all things tend to organize themselves into patterns, e.g., ant colonies, im...

Feynman, Richard Phillips

(Encyclopedia)Feynman, Richard Phillips fīnˈmən [key], 1918–88, American physicist, b. New York City, B.S. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1939, Ph.D. Princeton, 1942. From 1942 to 1945 he worked on the...

psychology

(Encyclopedia)psychology, science or study of the thought processes and behavior of humans and other animals in their interaction with the environment. Psychologists study processes of sense perception, thinking, l...

Higgins, William

(Encyclopedia)Higgins, William, b. 1762 or 1763, d. 1825, Irish chemist. After study at Oxford he became supervisor of the Royal Dublin Society's mineralogical collection and in 1800 the Society's professor of chem...

Hobhouse, Leonard Trelawney

(Encyclopedia)Hobhouse, Leonard Trelawney, 1864–1929, English philosopher, sociologist, and journalist. He taught at Oxford and at the Univ. of London. Hobhouse sought to show with evidence from anthropology and ...

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