| 释义 |
molecular, a.|məʊˈlɛkjʊlə(r)|
[f. mod.L. mōlēcula (see molecule) + -ar1. Cf. F. moléculaire.]
1. a. Pertaining to, consisting of, or concerned with molecules; acting or inherent in the molecules of a substance. spec. applied to numerous physical quantities that involve the molecular weight of the substance concerned in their calculation (for most of which molar is a more appropriate designation; see molar a.3 a). molecular heat, molecular weight: see the ns.
1823H. J. Brooke Introd. Crystallogr. 51 Parallelopipeds, whose least molecular attraction is in the direction of their diagonal planes. 1826Kirby & Sp. Entomol. IV. xxxvii. 3 Comparative anatomists have considered the nervous system of animals as formed upon three primary types, which may be called the molecular, the ganglionic, and cerebro-spinal. 1841–4Emerson Ess., Experience Wks. (Bohn) I. 181 The new molecular philosophy shows astronomical interspaces betwixt atom and atom. 1855H. Spencer Princ. Psychol. (1872) I. i. iii. 51 Each portion, while passing on the wave of molecular motion, adds the molecular motion given out during its own transformation. 1859Darwin Orig. Spec. iv. (1878) 100 The shape of a crystal is determined solely by the molecular forces. 1867C. L. Bloxam Chem. 515 One equivalent of each of these hydrocarbons in the state of vapour occupies four volumes. [Indexed, p. 660, as] Molecular volumes of olefines. 1879Thomson & Tait Nat. Phil. I. i. §385 The ultimate, or molecular, constitution of the bodies. 1880Jrnl. Chem. Soc. XXXVIII. 294 For every substance, therefore, (A - 1)/d is a constant... If this constant be multiplied by the molecular weight P of any body, then P.(A - 1)/d, referred to chemically comparable quantities, is the molecular refractive index, called in the rest of this paper the molecular refraction of the body. 1884J. Tait Mind in Matter 100 Molecular movements are not identical with thought and feeling. 1886Jrnl. Chem. Soc. L. 294 The author [sc. W. Ostwald] in continuing his researches on ‘Electrical Conductivity’..has examined about 130 different inorganic and organic acids in different states of dilution (gram-molecules in n-litres). He.. expresses his results in terms of molecular conductivity. 1921Hood & Carpenter Text-bk. Pract. Chem. vi. x. 489 The molecular conductivity is that of a solution containing 1 gram-molecule of the substance, as above [sc. when placed between electrodes of indefinite size and 1 cm. apart]. 1938H. A. Perkins Course of Physics xlvii. 624 The number of gram molecules per liter, or moles per liter, is called molecular concentration. 1959N. Feather Introd. Physics Mass, Length & Time xv. 283 Equation (126) is now the equation of state for a mass m of an ideal gas of molecular weight, or, strictly, of molar mass, M. 1966Gucker & Seifert Physical Chem. (1967) xiii. 346 One molecular weight of the salt contains N ions of each element in the molecular volume V, equal to the molecular weight divided by the density.
b. Applied to the name of a science to denote a branch of it that deals with phenomena at the molecular level.
1880Sci. Amer. Suppl. 10 Jan. 3342/2 Their favourite study is molecular physics. 1950, etc. [see molecular biology]. 1960N.Y. Times 3 Jan. 1F/2 The chief executive officer..disclosed that Westinghouse was actively engaged in ‘molecular electronics’. 1961R. D. Baker Essent. Path. i. 6 With the electron microscope we are entering an era of molecular pathology. 1963Adv. Computers IV. 141 ‘Integrated’ circuits fabricated using ‘molecular electronics’ techniques. 1963Listener 17 Jan. 121/2 It seemed to me that soon what Russian biology will mean will not be Lysenko, but some first-class molecular genetics. 1966McGraw-Hill Yearbk. Sci. & Technol. 43/1 This view of the gene has changed considerably in molecular genetics, since the gene is now recognized as the information necessary to assemble a protein molecule. 1970Sci. News Yearbk. 225 Molecular astronomy is a science only a few years old. Its purpose is to determine what chemical molecules can be found in interstellar space and, if possible, how they got there and what their being there means for theories of galactic and stellar evolution and of cosmology. 1973Sci. Amer. Apr. 52/3 That was more or less the picture of the interstellar medium in 1968, the year marking the birth of molecular astronomy as we now know it. 1974Nature 23 Aug. 685/1 Now it is the turn of immunochemistry, or as some would have it, molecular immunology.
†2. Biol. Of tissue: consisting, or assumed to consist, of molecules (sense 3); finely granular. Obs. (but the use survives in molecular layer (see 5)).
1826,1851[see molecule 3]. 1856Quain's Elem. Anat. (ed. 6) III. 26 The intermediate portion, f, has a longitudinally-striped appearance, and is formed by the fine fibres of Müller.., which intervene between the two parts of the granular layer, together with a homogeneous molecular uniting material.
3. Philos. Designating a proposition, sentence, etc., consisting of simpler propositions, sentences, etc. connected by a conjunction. Also ellipt. as n.
1892Mind I. 237 The molecular proposition—which cannot be expressed as a synthesis of more elementary propositions—involves a single (absolute or relative) predication and a number of interconnected individual subjects. Ibid. 239 The synthesis of moleculars having the same subject is represented by a synthesis of the predications. 1914B. Russell Our Knowl. External World ii. 54 ‘Molecular’ propositions are such as contain conjunctions—if, or, and, unless, etc.—and such words are the marks of a molecular proposition. 1933[see atomic a. 2 α]. 1937A. Smeaton tr. Carnap's Logical Syntax of Lang. iii. §28. 88 𝔊1 is called a molecular sentence when 𝔊1 is either an atomic sentence itself, or is formed from one or more such by means of symbols of negation and junction (and brackets). 1965B. Mates Elem. Logic iii. 44 A formula that is not an atomic formula is called general if it begins with a universal or existential quantifier; otherwise it is called molecular.
4. Psychol. Concerned with or pertaining to an elementary unit of behaviour such as a physiological response. Cf. molar a.2 b.
1925,1932[see molar a.2 b]. 1970F. A. Logan in W. S. Sahakian Psychol. of Learning xvi. 307 The molar response ‘bar depression’ includes a number of responses distinguishable at a more molecular level, such as depression with the right paw, left paw, etc. 1973Jrnl. Genetic Psychol. CXXIII. 99 The continuous-recording technique did..yield a more molecular analysis in that incidence of behaviors could be subdivided into frequency and duration.
5. Special collocations: molecular fossil, a molecular species found in ancient rock that is regarded as evidence of the early development of life; molecular layer Anat., (a) either of the two plexiform layers of the retina; (b) the outermost layer of the cortex of the cerebellum and cerebrum, containing a mass of nerve fibres with many synapses but relatively few cells; molecular orbital, an orbital in a molecule; molecular sieve, a substance containing in its crystal structure pores and channels of molecular dimensions that permit the entry of certain small molecules but are impervious to others; esp. a zeolite used as a selective adsorbent.
1965M. Calvin in Proc. R. Soc. A. CCLXXXVIII. 443 We are going to spend much of our time tracing organic evolution back in so far as we can trace it back in terms of ‘molecular fossils’ from the earliest well recognized fossils of morphological form. 1969Sci. Jrnl. Apr. 36 The exciting studies of Calvin, who has attempted to prove the existence of what he calls ‘molecular fossils’, have not, however, firmly established the biogenic nature of these substances. 1971Nature 30 July 325/2 The search for geological evidence about the origin and evolution of life on Earth has led to detailed searches for morphological and molecular fossils in Early Precambrian sedimentary rocks.
[1856Molecular layer cf. sense 2 above] .1867Quain's Elem. Anat. (ed. 7) III. 726 The retina.. exhibits a series of dissimilar strata, together with structures not confined to one stratum. (1st) Externally is the columnar layer; (2nd), in the middle is the granular layer, comprising the external nuclear, the internuclear, the internal nuclear, and the molecular layers; and (3rd) internally is the nervous layer. 1874A. E. J. Barker tr. Frey's Histol. & Histochem. of Man 593 Externally—that is, directed towards the surface of the cerebellum—these large ganglion cells send off several (generally two) characteristic protoplasm processes through the so-called ‘molecular layer of Hess’. 1955P. D. Trevor-Roper Ophthalm. i. 19 The outer molecular layer is a reticular layer in which the end-knobs of the axons of the rod and cone cells arborise with the dendrites of the bipolar cells. Ibid. 20 The inner molecular layer consists of the arborisations of the axes of the bipolar cells with the dendrites of the ganglion cells. 1968Passmore & Robson Compan. Med. Stud. I. xxiv. 46/1 In the older parts of the [cerebral] cortex, such as the rhinencephalon, only three layers of cells may be distinguished: the superficial molecular layer of fibres, the intermediate granular layer and a deep layer of pyramidal cells.
1932R. S. Mulliken in Physical Rev. XLI. 50 The method followed here will be to describe unshared electrons always in terms of atomic orbitals but to use molecular orbitals for shared electrons. 1965Phillips & Williams Inorg. Chem. I. iii. 67 The problem will be introduced by a summary of the two important wave-mechanical approximation methods, the L.C.A.O. (linear combination of atomic orbitals) molecular-orbital method and the valence-bond method.
1926Colloid Symp. Monogr. IV. 11 Collander's work on the sieve structure of semipermeable membranes of copper ferrocyanide has shown that the interstices between the micelles or aggregates are about 4 Ångstrom units in diameter. I would suggest a better molecular sieve, namely such crystals as dehydrated zeolites, etc. 1949Discussions Faraday Soc. VII. 135 By cation interchange and by burning out interstitial ammonium ions a diversity of modified molecular-sieve sorbents can be produced. Ibid., Some natural crystalline zeolites fall into three classes of molecular-sieve sorbent each capable of separating mixtures by selective occlusion. 1965Phillips & Williams Inorg. Chem. I. xiv. 544 The molecular-sieve zeolites, sodium and calcium aluminosilicates, are used to fractionate noble gases and low molecular weight molecules generally. 1966McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. VIII. 547/1 Molecular sieves are capable of drying gases and liquids to extremely low residual water concentrations.
Sense 5 in Dict. becomes 6. Add: 5. Concerned with or pertaining to a basic level or limited aspect of a subject, society, etc., rather than the aggregate whole.
1953C. W. Mills in Philos. of Sci. XX. 266 The other way of sociological research might be called the molecular. It is..characterized by its usually small-scale problems and by its generally statistical models of verification. 1964A. Rapoport in I. L. Horowitz New Sociol. vi. 95 In particular, he [sc. C. Wright Mills] distinguishes between ‘macroscopic’ and ‘molecular’ social inquiry. 1977A. J. Chapman et al. in H. Giles Lang., Ethnicity & Intergroup Relations vi. 165 At a more molecular level of analysis, the data from children in the alone conditions have not been mentioned to date. 1982N.Y. Times 6 Oct. a26/4 The day when any distinction [between blacks and whites] is no longer useful..will come much sooner..if we do not re-ify [sic] our cultural distinctions at the molecular level.
▸ molecular gastronomy n. a scientific approach to cookery, which typically involves subjecting particular recipes or techniques to experimental scrutiny; cooking which uses innovative techniques and novel combinations of flavour and texture developed through or inspired by this approach.
1993Mercury (Hobart) 24 Dec. 15/1 A scientific experiment will take place in millions of homes on Christmas Day in research that has been dubbed ‘*molecular gastronomy’ by Dr Peter Barham... He decided to show that cooking..is the application of proven principles of chemistry and physics. 2004Evening Standard (Nexis) 26 Jan. a18 Molecular gastronomy..mixing tastes and textures and turning everything on its head. 2006Maclean's (Electronic ed.) 13 Feb. 45 With their thyme-oil-producing centrifuge and vacuum-microwaved Savourants, the Dubys are in the vanguard of molecular gastronomy,..revolutionizing the flavour, appearance—even the perception—of cuisine. |