astronomy

O'Neil Ray Collins

O'Neil Ray Collins is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand O'Neil Ray Collins rather than just read about it. In short: O'Neil Ray Collins (March 9, 1931 – April 8, 1989) was an American botanist, mycologist and specialist in slime-mold genetics. Early life Collins was born in Plaisance, Louisiana, on March 9, 1931, and graduated from the local high school in 1948.

Key takeaways

O'Neil Ray Collins belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect O'Neil Ray Collins to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of O'Neil Ray Collins from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

O'Neil Ray Collins (March 9, 1931 – April 8, 1989) was an American botanist, mycologist and specialist in slime-mold genetics.

Early life Collins was born in Plaisance, Louisiana, on March 9, 1931, and graduated from the local high school in 1948. After serving the United States Army in Europe, he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in botany in January 1957 from Southern University. His interest in mycology was cultivated by Lafayette Frederick, a professor at Southern. Collins later attended the University of Iowa and studied under Constantine J. Alexopoulos, receiving his master's in 1959 and doctorate in 1961. His thesis involved the study of slime-molds in the genera Physarum and Didymium.

Career In 1961, Collins began his teaching career at Queens College. He concurrently conducted research on Didymium with Ian Kenneth Ross at Yale. Collins accepted a faculty position at Southern University in 1963, and in 1965, he moved to Wayne State University in Detroit. In 1968, Collins became the first black faculty member in the Botany Department of the University of California, Berkeley. He was Associate Dean of the Graduate Division and helped develop the Graduate Minority Program. He became a Miller Research Professor in 1974, and served as Chairman of the Department of Botany from 1976 to 1981. Collins died on April 8, 1989, aged 58, in Orinda, California. At the time of his death, he was the only African-American biologist to have held a tenured position at Berkeley.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with O'Neil Ray Collins

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what O'Neil Ray Collins claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to O'Neil Ray Collins before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about O'Neil Ray Collins ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of O'Neil Ray Collins

In research: O'Neil Ray Collins appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses O'Neil Ray Collins in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: O'Neil Ray Collins is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1931 births, 1989 deaths, 20th-century African-American scientists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for O'Neil Ray Collins outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study O'Neil Ray Collins in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what O'Neil Ray Collins means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain O'Neil Ray Collins out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is O'Neil Ray Collins in simple terms?

O'Neil Ray Collins (March 9, 1931 – April 8, 1989) was an American botanist, mycologist and specialist in slime-mold genetics. Early life Collins was born in Plaisance, Louisiana, on March 9, 1931, and graduated from the local high school in 1948.

Why does O'Neil Ray Collins matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study O'Neil Ray Collins?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on O'Neil Ray Collins.