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Gordon Freeman (scientist)
Gordon Freeman is the silent protagonist of the ''Half-Life'' video game series, created by Gabe Newell and designed by Newell and Marc Laidlaw of Valve. His first appearance is in ''Half-Life''. Gordon Freeman is depicted as a bespectacled white man from Seattle, with brown hair and a signature goatee, who graduated from MIT with a PhD in theoretical physics. He was an employee at the fictional Black Mesa Research Facility. Controlled by the player, Gordon is often tasked with using a wide range of weapons and tools to fight alien creatures such as headcrabs, as well as Combine machines and soldiers. Gordon Freeman's character has been well received by critics and gamers, and various gaming websites often consider him to be one of the greatest video game characters of all time, including UGO and ''GameSpot''. Character design Valve president and ''Half-Life'' director Gabe Newell coined the name "Gordon Freeman" during a conversation with the game's writer Marc Laidlaw in his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Half-Life (series)
''Half-Life'' is a series of first-person shooter (FPS) games developed and published by Valve. The games combine shooting combat, puzzles and storytelling. The original ''Half-Life,'' Valve's first product, was released in 1998 for Windows to critical and commercial success. Players control Gordon Freeman, a scientist who must survive an alien invasion. The innovative scripted sequences were influential on the FPS genre, and the game inspired numerous community-developed mods, including the multiplayer games '' Counter-Strike'' and '' Day of Defeat''. ''Half-Life'' was followed by the expansions '' Opposing Force'' (1999), '' Blue Shift'' (2001) and '' Decay'' (2001), developed by Gearbox Software. In 2004, Valve released '' Half-Life 2'' to further success, with a new setting and characters and physics-based gameplay. It was followed by the extra level '' Lost Coast'' (2005) and the episodic sequels '' Episode One'' (2006) and ''Episode Two'' (2007). The first game in th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Headcrabs
A headcrab is a fictional alien parasitoid first appearing as an enemy in Valve's 1998 video game ''Half-Life'', as well as in subsequent games in the ''Half-Life'' series. Attributes Depiction In-universe, headcrabs are parasitic life forms, measuring roughly in length. The "common" headcrab variant has a rounded body with four legs for movement: two long, clawed legs at the front and two short legs at the back. Their pair of large frontal claws are frequently utilized in their attacks, and as additional support when standing still. Under the headcrab's body is a large rounded mouth surrounded by mangled, rigid flesh with a sharp claw-like beak. Physically, headcrabs are frail: a few bullets or a single strike from the player's melee weapon are sufficient to dispatch them. They are also relatively slow-moving and their attacks inflict very little damage. However, they can leap long distances and heights. Headcrabs seek out larger human hosts, which are converted into zomb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geiger Counter
A Geiger counter (also known as a Geiger–Müller counter) is an electronic instrument used for detecting and measuring ionizing radiation. It is widely used in applications such as radiation dosimetry, radiological protection, experimental physics, nuclear industry and the Manumouthry. It detects ionizing radiation such as alpha particles, beta particles, and gamma rays using the ionization effect produced in a Geiger–Müller tube, which gives its name to the instrument. In wide and prominent use as a hand-held radiation survey instrument, it is perhaps one of the world's best-known radiation detection instruments. The original detection principle was realized in 1908 at the University of Manchester, but it was not until the development of the Geiger–Müller tube in 1928 that the Geiger counter could be produced as a practical instrument. Since then, it has been very popular due to its robust sensing element and relatively low cost. However, there are limitations ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Compass
A compass is a device that shows the cardinal directions used for navigation and geographic orientation. It commonly consists of a magnetized needle or other element, such as a compass card or compass rose, which can pivot to align itself with North magnetic pole, magnetic north. Other methods may be used, including gyroscopes, magnetometers, and GPS receivers. Compasses often show angles in degrees: north corresponds to 0°, and the angles increase clockwise, so east is 90°, south is 180°, and west is 270°. These numbers allow the compass to show azimuths or bearing (angle), bearings which are commonly stated in degrees. If local magnetic declination, variation between magnetic north and true north is known, then direction of magnetic north also gives direction of true north. Among the Four Great Inventions, the magnetic compass was first invented as a device for divination as early as the history of science and technology in China, Chinese Han Dynasty (since c. 206 BC),#Li ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flashlight
A flashlight ( US, Canada) or torch ( UK, Australia) is a portable hand-held electric lamp. Formerly, the light source typically was a miniature incandescent light bulb, but these have been displaced by light-emitting diodes (LEDs) since the mid-2000s. A typical flashlight consists of the light source mounted in a reflector, a transparent cover (sometimes combined with a lens) to protect the light source and reflector, a battery, and a switch, all enclosed in a case. The invention of the dry cell and miniature incandescent electric lamps made the first battery-powered flashlights possible around 1899. Today, flashlights use mostly light-emitting diodes and run on disposable or rechargeable batteries. Some are powered by the user turning a crank, shaking the lamp, or squeezing it. Some have solar panels to recharge the battery. Flashlights are used as a light source outdoors, in places without permanently installed lighting, during power outages, or when a portable ligh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neurotoxin
Neurotoxins are toxins that are destructive to nerve tissue (causing neurotoxicity). Neurotoxins are an extensive class of exogenous chemical neurological insultsSpencer 2000 that can adversely affect function in both developing and mature nervous tissue.Olney 2002 The term can also be used to classify endogenous compounds, which, when abnormally contacted, can prove neurologically toxic. Though neurotoxins are often neurologically destructive, their ability to specifically target neural components is important in the study of nervous systems. Common examples of neurotoxins include lead, ethanol (drinking alcohol), glutamate,Choi 1987 nitric oxide, botulinum toxin (e.g. Botox), tetanus toxin,Simpson 1986 and tetrodotoxin. Some substances such as nitric oxide and glutamate are in fact essential for proper function of the body and only exert neurotoxic effects at excessive concentrations. Neurotoxins inhibit neuron control over ion concentrations across the cell memb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rocket-propelled Grenade
A rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) is a shoulder-fired missile weapon that launches rockets equipped with an explosive warhead. Most RPGs can be carried by an individual soldier, and are frequently used as anti-tank weapons. These warheads are affixed to a rocket motor which propels the RPG towards the target and they are stabilized in flight with fins. Some types of RPG are reloadable with new rocket-propelled grenades, while others are single-use. RPGs are generally loaded from the front. RPGs with high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) warheads are very effective against lightly armored vehicles such as armored personnel carriers (APCs) and armored cars. However, modern, heavily-armored vehicles, such as upgraded APCs and main battle tanks, are generally too well-protected (with thick composite or reactive armor) to be penetrated by an RPG, unless less armored sections of the vehicle are exploited. Various warheads are also capable of causing secondary damage to vulnerable sys ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reactive Armor
Reactive armour is a type of vehicle armour that reacts in some way to the impact of a weapon to reduce the damage done to the vehicle being protected. It is most effective in protecting against shaped charges and specially hardened kinetic energy penetrators. The most common type is ''explosive reactive armour'' (ERA), but variants include ''self-limiting explosive reactive armour'' (SLERA), ''non-energetic reactive armour'' (NERA), '' non-explosive reactive armour'' (NxRA), and electric armour. NERA and NxRA modules can withstand multiple hits, unlike ERA and SLERA. A second hit in exactly the same location may potentially penetrate any of those, as the armour in that spot is compromised. Reactive armour is intended to counteract anti-tank munitions that work by piercing the armour and then either kill the crew inside, disable vital mechanical systems, or create spalling that disables the crew — or all three. Reactive armour can be defeated with multiple hits in the same pl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hazmat Suit
A hazmat suit (hazardous materials suit) is a piece of personal protective equipment that consists of an impermeable whole-body garment worn as protection against hazardous materials. Such suits are often combined with self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) to ensure a supply of breathable air. Hazmat suits are used by firefighters, emergency medical technicians, paramedics, researchers, personnel responding to toxic spills, specialists cleaning up contaminated facilities, and workers in toxic environments. History The hazmat suit is believed to originate from the Manchurian plague epidemic of 1910–1911, wherein Dr. Wu Lien-teh's promoted the use of various forms of personal protective equipment to prevent the spread of the pneumonic plague. Capabilities Overview The United States Department of Homeland Security defines a hazmat suit as "an overall garment worn to protect people from hazardous materials or substances, including chemicals, biological agents, or radi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prima Games
Prima Games is a publishing company of video game strategy guides in the United States. Formerly, Prima was an imprint of Dorling Kindersley, a division of Penguin Random House, and produced print ''strategy guides'', featuring ''in-depth walkthroughs'' for completing games and other information, such as character sheets and move charts. Prima was acquired by Asteri Holdings in March 2019, which will transition the business to provide strategy guides in online form only, alongside other gaming news. The company was acquired by GAMURS Group in January 2022. History Prima Publishing was a small publisher working out of a residential-style home office in Roseville, California when in 1990 its owner, Ben Dominitz, contracted with author Rusel DeMaria to create a video game strategy guide imprint, initially called "The Secrets of the Games". At the time, DeMaria was senior editor for '' PC Games'' magazine and on the staff of ''GamePro''. The initial contract called for five bo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henri Poincaré
Jules Henri Poincaré ( S: stress final syllable ; 29 April 1854 – 17 July 1912) was a French mathematician, theoretical physicist, engineer, and philosopher of science. He is often described as a polymath, and in mathematics as "The Last Universalist", since he excelled in all fields of the discipline as it existed during his lifetime. As a mathematician and physicist, he made many original fundamental contributions to pure and applied mathematics, mathematical physics, and celestial mechanics. In his research on the three-body problem, Poincaré became the first person to discover a chaotic deterministic system which laid the foundations of modern chaos theory. He is also considered to be one of the founders of the field of topology. Poincaré made clear the importance of paying attention to the invariance of laws of physics under different transformations, and was the first to present the Lorentz transformations in their modern symmetrical form. Poincaré disc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Freeman Dyson
Freeman John Dyson (15 December 1923 – 28 February 2020) was an English-American theoretical physicist and mathematician known for his works in quantum field theory, astrophysics, random matrices, mathematical formulation of quantum mechanics, condensed matter physics, nuclear physics, and engineering. He was Professor Emeritus in the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and a member of the Board of Sponsors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Dyson originated several concepts that bear his name, such as Dyson's transform, a fundamental technique in additive number theory, which he developed as part of his proof of Mann's theorem; the Dyson tree, a hypothetical genetically engineered plant capable of growing in a comet; the Dyson series, a perturbative series where each term is represented by Feynman diagrams; the Dyson sphere, a thought experiment that attempts to explain how a space-faring civilization would meet its energy requirements with a hyp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
