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helium

(Encyclopedia)helium hēˈlēəm [key], gaseous chemical element; symbol He; at. no. 2; at. wt. 4.0026; m.p. below −272℃ at 26 atmospheres pressure; b.p. −268.934℃ at 1 atmosphere pressure; density 0.1785 g...

periodic law

(Encyclopedia)periodic law, statement of a periodic recurrence of chemical and physical properties of the elements when the elements are arranged in order of increasing atomic number. Such an arrangement in the for...

low-temperature physics

(Encyclopedia)low-temperature physics, science concerned with the production and maintenance of temperatures much below normal, down to almost absolute zero, and with various phenomena that occur only at such tempe...

Freud, Sigmund

(Encyclopedia)Freud, Sigmund froid [key], 1856–1939, Austrian psychiatrist, founder of psychoanalysis. Born in Moravia, he lived most of his life in Vienna, receiving his medical degree from the Univ. of Vienna i...

parent and child

(Encyclopedia)parent and child, legal relationship, created by biological (birth) relationship or by adoption, that confers certain rights and duties on parent and child; in some states the courts have given the no...

Nuclear Regulatory Commission

(Encyclopedia)Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), an independent U.S. government commission, created by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 and charged with licensing and regulating civilian use of nuclear energ...

glacial periods

(Encyclopedia)glacial periods, times during which large portions of the earth's surface were covered with thick glacial ice sheets. In the Pleistocene epoch, in the Carboniferous and Permian periods of the Paleozoi...

gas

(Encyclopedia)gas, in physics, one of the three commonly recognized states of matter, the other two being solid and liquid. A substance in the gaseous state has neither definite shape nor definite volume. Like liqu...

McMahon, Brien

(Encyclopedia)McMahon, Brien (James O'Brien McMahon), 1903–52, American statesman, b. Norwalk, Conn. After practicing law, he became a judge in Norwalk, and from 1933 to 1936 he served in the office of the U.S. A...

Pauling, Linus Carl

(Encyclopedia)Pauling, Linus Carl pôˈlĭng [key], 1901–94, American chemist, b. Portland, Oreg. He was one of the few recipients of two Nobel Prizes, winning the chemistry award in 1954 and the peace prize in 1...