microphysicsn.

1885 Athenæum 11 Apr. 477/2 He had met with a success that gave him pre-eminence in this department of micro-physics, and that was the preparation of the diamond ruling points.

1886 Amer. Naturalist 20 144 The micro-chemistry and the micro-physics of the cell.

1924 Science 19 Sept. 261/1 Our intuitive notion of time..is tenable only in large-scale physics, or macro-physics, but untenable in small-scale physics, or micro-physics.

1940 Mind 49 265 While scientists apply the probability-calculus with great success to, e.g., microphysics, biology and vital statistics, philosophers are still not unanimous as to the right interpretation and ‘meaning’ of probability.

1956 E. H. Hutten Lang. Mod. Physics v. 175 These rules work well enough when we describe macro-physical phenomena; but their insufficiency is revealed in micro-physics.

1962 N. R. Hanson in Quanta & Reality v. 86 Von Neumann advanced a ‘proof’ that it would be impossible to reinstate a classical determinism in microphysics; it was logically pointless to look for ‘hidden variables’ underlying quantum processes.

1971 Nature 24 Dec. 433/2 Research in Britain concentrates on the fundamental microphysics of fogs.

1980 Dædalus Spring 34 Heisenberg..pointed out that, in microphysics, the observed varies with the position and instrumentation of the observer.

1990 J. Gribbin & M. Rees Cosmic Coincidences (1992) iii. 68 After this time, the microphysics becomes less exotic—less remote from conditions created in laboratories on Earth.