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Rømer, Olaus

(Encyclopedia)Rømer, Olaus or Ole ōläˈo͝os, ōˈlə römˈər [key], 1644–1710, Danish astronomer. He is noted for his discovery that light travels at a definite speed and does not move through space instant...

Freycinet, Louis Claude Desaulses de

(Encyclopedia)Freycinet, Louis Claude Desaulses de də frāsēnāˈ [key], 1779–1842, French marine officer. He was assigned (1800) to a French exploring expedition in Australian waters; after his return to Pari...

Ibn al-Haytham

(Encyclopedia)Ibn al-Haytham ălhəzĕnˈ [key], 965–c.1040, Arab mathematician. Ibn al-Haytham was born in Basra, but made his career in Cairo, where he supported himself copying scientific manuscripts. Among hi...

Davis, Raymond, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Davis, Raymond, Jr., 1914–2006, American astrochemist, Ph.D. Yale Univ. 1942. Davis, who served in the Army Air Forces from 1942 to 1946, was a researcher at Monsanto Chemical Company (1946–48) an...

Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory

(Encyclopedia)Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory sāˈrō tōlōˈlō [key], astronomical observatory located on Cerro Tololo peak, Chile, with offices in La Serena, about 40 mi (64 km) to the west. Funded by ...

observatory

(Encyclopedia)observatory, scientific facility especially equipped to detect and record naturally occurring scientific phenomena. Although geological and meteorological observatories exist, the term is generally ap...

selenium

(Encyclopedia)selenium səlēˈnēəm [key], nonmetallic chemical element; symbol Se; at. no. 34; at. wt. 78.96; m.p. 217℃; b.p. about 685℃; sp. gr. 4.81 at 20℃; valence −2, +4, or +6. Selenium is directly ...

Friedrich Schiller University of Jena

(Encyclopedia)Friedrich Schiller University of Jena frēˈdrĭkh shĭlˈər, yāˈnə [key], at Jena, Germany; founded 1548 as an academy; became the Univ. of Jena 10 years later. The school gained an international...

Koshiba, Masatoshi

(Encyclopedia)Koshiba, Masatoshi, 1926–2020, Japanese physicist, Ph.D. Univ. of Rochester, 1955. He was a professor at the Univ. of Tokyo from 1958 (emeritus from 1987) and at the Univ. of Tokai from 1987 to 1997...

Mitchell, Maria

(Encyclopedia)Mitchell, Maria, 1818–89, American astronomer and educator, b. Nantucket, Mass. Mitchell taught school in Nantucket, and later became a librarian. On Oct. 1, 1847, Mitchell discovered a comet (1847 ...
 

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