born Feb. 23, 1924, Johannesburg, S.Af. died May 7, 1998, Winchester, Mass., U.S. South African-born U.S. physicist. After doing research on the interaction of subatomic particles, he became interested in the problem of X-ray imaging of soft tissues or layers of tissue of differing densities and established the mathematical and physical foundations of computerized scanning. With Godfrey Hounsfield (b. 1919), he was awarded a 1979 Nobel Prize for his work in developing computed axial tomography
born Feb. 23, 1924, Johannesburg, S.Af. died May 7, 1998, Winchester, Mass., U.S. South African-born U.S. physicist. After doing research on the interaction of subatomic particles, he became interested in the problem of X-ray imaging of soft tissues or layers of tissue of differing densities and established the mathematical and physical foundations of computerized scanning. With Godfrey Hounsfield (b. 1919), he was awarded a 1979 Nobel Prize for his work in developing computed axial tomography
born May 20, 1890, Camp Point, Ill., U.S. died March 5, 1971, Menlo Park, Calif. U.S. historian. He worked nearly 20 years as a journalist before joining the faculty at Columbia University (1928-58). His best-known works include biographies of U.S. political and industrial figures, including Grover Cleveland (1932, Pulitzer Prize) and Hamilton Fish (1936, Pulitzer Prize), and his eight-volume history of the American Civil War, comprising Ordeal of the Union (1947), The Emergence of Lincoln (1950), and The War for Union (1959-71). In 1948 he inaugurated at Columbia the first oral history program in the U.S
the main character in several popular adventure novels by Sir Henry Rider Haggard (1865-1925), especially King Solomon's Mines (1885) and Allan Quatermain (1887)
born April 26, 1933, Munich, Ger. German-born U.S. astrophysicist. His family fled Nazi Germany, and he received his Ph.D. from Columbia University, after which he joined Bell Telephone Laboratories, where he worked with Robert W. Wilson monitoring radio emissions from a ring of gas around the Milky Way Galaxy. The two detected an unexpected uniform background static that suggested a thermal energy throughout the universe at a temperature of about -454 °F (-269 °C), which most scientists now agree is residual cosmic background radiation stemming from the big bang explosion billions of years ago, from which the universe was created. They shared a 1978 Nobel Prize with Pyotr Kapitsa (1894-1984) for their work. In 1981 Penzias became a vice president at Bell Laboratories, retiring in 1998
a US poet and writer of short stories. He is most famous for his strange, frightening stories about death and evil powers such as The Fall of the House of Usher. Another story, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, was one of the first detective stories. His most famous poem is The Raven (1809-49). born Jan. 19, 1809, Boston, Mass., U.S. died Oct. 7, 1849, Baltimore, Md. U.S. poet, critic, and short-story writer. Poe was raised by foster parents in Richmond, Va., following his mother's death in 1811. He briefly attended the University of Virginia and then returned to Boston, where in 1827 he published a pamphlet of youthful, Byronic poems. By 1835 he was in Richmond as editor of the Southern Literary Messenger, the first of several periodicals he was to edit or write for. There he married a 13-year-old cousin, who died in 1847. At various times he lived in Baltimore, New York, and Philadelphia. Alcohol, the bane of his irregular and eccentric life, caused his death at age
His works are famous for his cultivation of mystery and the macabre. Among his tales are "The Fall of the House of Usher," "The Masque of the Red Death," "The Black Cat," "The Tell-Tale Heart," and "The Pit and the Pendulum." "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" and "The Purloined Letter" initiated the modern detective story. His poems (less highly regarded now than formerly) are musical and sensuous, as in "The Bells," a showcase of sound effects; they include touching lyrics inspired by women (e.g., "Annabel Lee") and the uncanny (e.g., "The Raven")