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Franzen, Jonathan

(Encyclopedia)Franzen, Jonathan, 1959–, American novelist, b. Western Springs, Ill., B.A. Swarthmore College, 1981. His first two novels, The Twenty-Seventh City (1988) and Strong Motion (1992), were well receive...

Guthrie, Woody

(Encyclopedia)Guthrie, Woody (Woodrow Wilson Guthrie), 1912–67, American folk singer, guitarist, and composer, b. Okemah, Okla. Guthrie was an itinerant musician and laborer from the age of 13. Deeply involved in...

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...

Michelson, Albert Abraham

(Encyclopedia)Michelson, Albert Abraham mīˈkəlsən [key], 1852–1931, American physicist, b. Strelno, Prussia, grad. Annapolis, 1873, and studied at Berlin, Heidelberg, and Paris. He was professor of physics at...

Moholy-Nagy, László

(Encyclopedia)Moholy-Nagy, László läˈslō môˈhôlē-nŏˈdyə [key], 1895–1946, Hungarian painter, designer, and experimental photographer. He turned to art after studying law. While living in Berlin he was...

Laplace, Pierre Simon, marquis de

(Encyclopedia)Laplace, Pierre Simon, marquis de pyĕr sēmôNˈ märkēˈ də läpläsˈ [key], 1749–1827, French astronomer and mathematician. At 18 he went to Paris, proved his gift for mathematical analysis to...

Larkin, Philip

(Encyclopedia)Larkin, Philip, 1922–85, English poet. He graduated from St. John's College, Oxford (B.A., 1943; M.A., 1947) and was for many years librarian at the Univ. of Hull. With an eye for the ordinary and a...

robot

(Encyclopedia)robot or automaton ôtämˈətänˌ [key] mechanical device designed to perform the work generally done by a human being. The Czech dramatist Karel Čapek popularized the expression [Czech,=compulsory...

Brahe, Tycho

(Encyclopedia)Brahe, Tycho tīˈkō brä [key], 1546–1601, Danish astronomer. The most prominent astronomer of the late 16th cent., he paved the way for future discoveries by improving instruments and by his prec...

Adler, Larry

(Encyclopedia)Adler, Larry (Lawrence Cecil Adler) ădˈlər [key], 1914–2001, American harmonica player, b. Baltimore. Adler, whose career spanned seven decades, is generally credited with elevating the harmonica...