Word: inert
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...while cosmic ray research was emerging from its infancy, University of Chicago's Compton engaged in a polite but nonetheless spirited controversy with California Institute of Technology's Robert Andrews Millikan. Compton contended that the rays were mostly electric particles, Millikan that they were mostly photons (electrically inert bundles of radiation). In January 1936, Compton presented a thoroughgoing resume of his researches up to that time which neutral observers considered a "cosmic clearance"-i.e., a victory for Compton (TIME, Jan. 13, 1936). By that time most cosmic ray workers were speaking in terms of particles, and photons were...
...Zwicky has been specializing for several years in the study of supernovae or "new stars" which explode with such violence that they probably cease to exist as ordinary stellar bodies. According to the Zwicky theory they coalesce into dense globes of neutrons (electrically inert particles...
Here, at any rate, under the aged Shotover's crazy roof, are inert, frightened, hamstrung individualists who in moments of terror can double up their fists but otherwise stand by, dazed and helpless. The world of Heartbreak House is not merely running down, it is cracking up: and in that dangerous hour the pretensions of its people-who represent an entire civilization-are mercilessly exposed by a playwright who despises them. If, on the one hand, these characters are the prototypes for all the bughouse comedy that has recently come into vogue, on the other hand some of theare...
...coast of Siberia, through the Bering Straits to the black cliffs of Herald Island, the Jeannette pushed her way. There she was frozen in, far south of the Pole, even south of waters regularly visited by whalers. Contrary to common belief, the frozen wastes were not silent and inert. Submerged ice floes smashed steadily against the hull of the Jeannette. The pressure on her timbers made the ship crack with a sound like repeated rifle shots, and at times the sides seemed to pant under the strain. The ice itself seemed alive. Once a section near the Jeannette churned...
...although he had always been mildly disturbed by Milagritos' affection for the boy. But when he finally had the power to stop the execution, he remembered little ambiguous remarks Milagritos had made, wondered if her cousin was her lover. A terrible creeping apathy left Mr. Witt sitting by, inert, trembling, preoccupied, while the cousin went to his death. Then, to square himself with his conscience, Mr. Witt had to believe that Milagritos had betrayed him. At last this upright, self-respecting gentleman spent his nights prowling like a baffled thief around his own house, rummaging through his wife...