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Anaximander

(Encyclopedia)Anaximander ənăkˌsĭmănˈdər [key], c.611–c.547 b.c., Greek philosopher, b. Miletus; pupil of Thales. He made the first attempt to offer a detailed explanation of all aspects of nature. Anaxima...

Ginzburg, Vitaly Lazarevich

(Encyclopedia)Ginzburg, Vitaly Lazarevich, 1916–2009, Russian physicist, Ph.D. Moscow State Univ., 1938. He was a researcher at Lebedev Physics Institute of the USSR (later Russian) Academy of Sciences after 1940...

Kakutani, Shizuo

(Encyclopedia)Kakutani, Shizuo, 1911–2004, Japanese mathematician, b. Osaka, Japan, grad. Tohoko Univ, Ph.D. Princeton, 1941. Kakutani repatriated to Japan during World War II, but returned to Princeton in 1948 a...

Aristarchus of Samos

(Encyclopedia)Aristarchus of Samos ărˌĭstärˈkəs, sāˈmŏs [key], fl. c.310 b.c.–c.230 b.c., Greek astronomer and mathematician of the Alexandrian school. He is said to have been the first to propose a heli...

Adorno, Theodor Wiesengrund

(Encyclopedia)Adorno, Theodor Wiesengrund tāədôrˌ vēˈzəngro͝ond ädôrˈnō [key], 1903–69, German philosopher, born as Theodor Adorno Wiesengrund. Forced into exile by the Nazis (1933), he spent 16 years...

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...