Word: spectral
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...halo of gases at temperatures up to 2,000,000° F., it extends millions of miles outward from the sun. One of last week's projects was an effort to probe its outer reaches, the spawning ground of the solar wind. Another project was to analyze the spectral lines made in the corona by trace amounts of metals...
...Explanation. Mrs. Burbidge's persistence paid off scientifically, too. Out of her careful spectral observations of a varying abundance of certain elements in stars, the Burbidges and their collaborators, Nuclear Physicist William Fowler and Astrophysicist Fred Hoyle, were able to develop what has become known as the "B² FH" theory (after the final initials of its four proponents). It provided a totally new explanation of how elements are formed in the fiery nuclear furnaces of stars...
...space where the light never changes and shadows do not move. Human figures are either distant specks or huge, sculptural presences-bronze father figures on plinths, reclining "classical" marbles or faceless wooden dummies. But this world has none of the solidity of Renaissance townscape. Instead, it is enigmatic and spectral; the perspectives tilt irrationally and contradict one another, the façades are cardboard, the inhabitants ghosts. "These characters in costume who gesticulate under a 'real' sky, in the middle of 'real' nature, have always given me the impression of something as stupid...
...still larger sense, the tent is emblematic of the vanity of human wishes-in art, in politics, in science, in business, in love, in life. As it flaps to the stage floor at the end of the play like a great wounded sea bird, one can almost hear the spectral voice of Ezra Pound: "Pull down thy vanity, I say pull down...
Nevertheless, rumors of coups persist as a kind of spectral presence. In a showdown, however, most observers feel that the military would not back Ky but would either remain neutral or support President Thieu...