1. (Used of living things especially persons) In an early period of life or development or growth; SYN. immature.
2. Immature; behaving or appearing young.
3. Early.
(1773-1829) British physicist, physician, and Egyptologist who revived the wave theory of light and identified the phenomenon of interference in 1801. He also established many important concepts in mechanics.
In 1793, Young recognized that focusing of the eye (accommodation) is achieved by a change of shape in the lens of the eye, the lens being composed of muscle fibers. He also showed that astigmatism is due to irregular curvature of the cornea. In 1801, he became the first to recognize that color sensation is due to the presence in the retina of structures that respond to the three colors red, green, and violet.
Young was born in Milverton, Somerset. A child prodigy, he had learned most European and many ancient languages by the age of 20. He studied medicine in London and at Edinburgh and Göttingen, Germany. He was professor of natural philosophy at the Royal Institution 1801–03 and worked as a physician at St George's Hospital, London, from 1811.
Young assumed that light waves are propagated in a similar way to sound waves, and proposed that different colors consist of different frequencies. He obtained experimental proof for the principle of interference by passing light through extremely narrow openings and observing the interference patterns produced.
In mechanics, Young was the first to use the terms “energy” for the product of the mass of a body with the square of its velocity and “labor expended” for the product of the force exerted on a body “with the distance through which it moved”. He also stated that these two products are proportional to each other. He introduced an absolute measurement in elasticity, now known as Young’s modulus.
From 1815 onward, Young published papers on Egyptology; his account of the Rosetta stone played a crucial role in the stone's eventual decipherment.
(1915-1994) British film director who worked in Hollywood and Europe. He carved a niche in popular cinema by masterminding three of the early James Bond action films. The first of these, Dr No 1962, was quite modestly budgeted but evinced a cynical, luxurious flair that made it a box-office hit and launched a continuing tradition.
Young was born to English parents in Shanghai, China. He began his career as a screenwriter of British films in the late 1930s. After service in World War II, he graduated to directing, with the melodrama Corridor of Mirrors 1948. During the 1950s, he made several films in Britain for US companies, including The Red Beret 1953 and Safari 1956, exhibiting the theatricality that was to flourish in the Bond movies.
His later projects include the suspense thriller Wait Until Dark 1967 and the period tear-jerker Mayerling 1968. His last film was the little-regarded mystery The Jigsaw Man 1984.
(1945-) Canadian rock guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He lived in the US from 1966. His high, plaintive voice and loud, abrasive guitar make his work instantly recognizable, despite abrupt changes of style throughout his career. Rust Never Sleeps 1979 and Arc Weld 1991 (both with the group Crazy Horse) are among his best work.
(Willis) (1909-1959) US tenor saxophonist and jazz composer. He was a major figure in the development of his instrument for jazz music from the 1930s and was an accompanist for the singer Billie Holiday, who gave him the nickname “President”, later shortened to “Pres”.
(1907-) English zoologist who discovered and studied the giant nerve fibers in squids, contributing greatly to knowledge of nerve structure and function. He also did research on the central nervous system of octopuses, demonstrating that memory stores are located in the brain.
Young was born in Bristol and studied at Oxford and the zoological station in Naples, Italy. He set up a unit at Oxford to study nerve regeneration in mammals. In 1945 he became the first nonmedical scientist in Britain to hold a professorship in anatomy, at London.
Young discovered that certain nerve fibers of squids are about 100 times the diameter of mammalian neurons and are covered with a relatively thin myelin sheath (unlike mammalian nerve fibers, which have thick sheaths). These properties make them easy to experiment on and to obtain intracellular nerve material.
Turning his attention to the central nervous system, Young showed that octopuses can learn to discriminate between different orientations of the same object. When presented with horizontal and vertical rectangles, for example, the octopuses attacked one but avoided the other. He also demonstrated that octopuses can learn to recognize objects by touch. In addition, Young proposed a model to explain the processes involved in memory.
Young published the textbooks The Life of Vertebrates 1950 and The Life of Mammals 1957.
(1930-) US astronaut, the first person to make six space flights. His first flight was on Gemini 3 1965, followed by Gemini 10 1966. In 1969 he flew on Apollo 10 and landed on the Moon with Apollo 16 1972. He was commander of the first flight of the space shuttle Columbia 1981.
Born in San Francisco, US, he became a NASA astronaut in 1962 and chief of the Astronaut Office in 1975. He commanded the ninth shuttle flight in 1983.
(1683-1765) English poet and dramatist. A country clergyman for much of his life, he wrote his principal work Night Thoughts on Life, Death and Immortality 1742–45 in defense of Christian orthodox thinking. His other works include dramatic tragedies, satires, and a long poem, Resignation, published 1726.
(Denton True) (1867-1955) US baseball player. As a pitcher of unequaled skill and stamina, he established a lifetime record of 511 victories. In 16 seasons, he finished with 20 or more wins, 5 times exceeding 30. He was nicknamed “Cy” for his “cyclone” pitch.
Born in Gilmore, Ohio, US, Young played for the Cleveland Nationals 1890–98, the St Louis Cardinals 1899–1900, the Boston Red Sox 1901–08, the Cleveland Indians 1909–11, and the Boston Braves 1911.
The Cy Young Award, given annually to the outstanding pitcher in both the American and National leagues, is named for him.
He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame 1937.
(1834-1908) US astronomer who made some of the first spectroscopic investigations of the Sun. He was the first person to observe the spectrum of the solar corona.
Young was born in Hanover, New Hampshire, and studied there at Dartmouth College. He was professor at the Western Reserve College, Hudson, Ohio, 1856–66; at Dartmouth College 1866–77; and at Princeton 1877–1905.
Young discovered a layer in the solar atmosphere in which the dark hues of the Sun's spectrum are momentarily reversed at the moment of a total solar eclipse. He published a series of papers relating his spectroscopic observations of the solar chromosphere, solar prominences, and sunspots. He also compiled a catalog of bright spectral lines in the Sun and used these to measure its rotational velocity.
Young wrote several best-selling textbooks: General Astronomy 1888, Lessons in Astronomy 1891, and Manual of Astronomy 1902.
(1801-1877) US Mormon religious leader, born in Vermont. He joined the Mormon Church, or Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1832, and three years later was appointed an apostle. After a successful recruiting mission in Liverpool, England, he returned to the US and, as successor of Joseph Smith (who had been murdered), led the Mormon migration to the Great Salt Lake in Utah 1846, founded Salt Lake City, and headed the colony until his death.
Young was preaching in the E US in 1844 when the Mormon prophet and leader Joseph Smith was murdered in Nauvoo, Illinois, at that time the headquarters of the church. Young returned to Illinois, assumed leadership of most of Smith's distraught followers, and led them away from persecution to a new home near the Great Salt Lake in Utah, establishing a theocratic colony there under his strict and efficient administration. He was appointed governor of Utah territory 1850 and defied federal pressure to repudiate the Mormon practice of polygamy. Young himself had 27 wives and fathered 56 children.
Množina: youngs
1. Any immature animal; SYN. offspring.
2. Young people collectively; SYN. youth.