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Rjukan
(Encyclopedia)Rjukan rēo͞oˈkän [key], town, Telemark co., S Norway, on the Rjukanfoss, one of several high waterfalls of the Måne River. Its large power stations supply electricity to saltpeter and chemical fe...Groves, Leslie Richard
(Encyclopedia)Groves, Leslie Richard, 1896–1970, American army officer and engineer who headed the program that developed America's atomic bomb, b. Albany, N.Y., grad. West Point (1918). He was commissioned in th...Lucretius
(Encyclopedia)Lucretius (Titus Lucretius Carus) lo͞okrēˈshəs [key], c.99 b.c.–c.55 b.c., Roman poet and philosopher. Little is known about his life. A chronicle of St. Jerome speaks of the loss of his reason ...Meitner, Lise
(Encyclopedia)Meitner, Lise lēˈzə mītˈnər [key], 1878–1968, Austrian-Swedish physicist and mathematician. She was professor at the Univ. of Berlin (1926–33). A refugee from Germany after 1938, she became ...Manhattan Project
(Encyclopedia)Manhattan Project, the wartime effort to design and build the first nuclear weapons (atomic bombs). With the discovery of fission in 1939, it became clear to scientists that certain radioactive materi...friction
(Encyclopedia)friction, resistance offered to the movement of one body past another body with which it is in contact. In certain situations friction is desired. Without friction the wheels of a locomotive could not...hydrogen bomb
(Encyclopedia)hydrogen bomb or H-bomb, weapon deriving a large portion of its energy from the nuclear fusion of hydrogen isotopes. In an atomic bomb, uranium or plutonium is split into lighter elements that togethe...atomism
(Encyclopedia)atomism, philosophic concept of the nature of the universe, holding that the universe is composed of invisible, indestructible material particles. The theory was first advanced in the 5th cent. b.c. b...Webster, Pelatiah
(Encyclopedia)Webster, Pelatiah, 1726–95, American writer, b. Lebanon, Conn., grad. Yale, 1746. A Philadelphia businessman, he is remembered for his advocacy in his Dissertation of the Political Union and Constit...Sanctorius
(Encyclopedia)Sanctorius săngktôrˈēəs [key], Ital. Santorio, 1561–1636, Italian physiologist. He was a professor at Padua (1611–24). By his quantitative experiments in temperature, respiration, and weight,...Browse by Subject
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