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LIE - 18 reference results
lie detector
lie detector, instrument designed to record bodily changes resulting from the telling of a lie. Cesare Lombroso, in 1895, was the first to utilize such an instrument, but it was not until 1914 and 1915 that Vittorio Benussi, Harold Burtt, and, above all, William Marston produced devices establishing correlation of blood pressure and respiratory changes with lying. In 1921 an instrument capable of continuously recording blood pressure, respiration, and pulse rate was devised by John Larson. This was followed by the polygraph (1926) of Leonarde Keeler, a refinement of earlier devices, and by the psychogalvanometer (1936) of Walter Summers, a machine that measures electrical changes on the skin. A more recent innovation is a device, developed in 1970, called the psychological stress evaluator, which measures voice frequencies from tape recordings. Although the lie detector is used in police work, the similarity of physical changes caused by emotional factors such as feelings of guilt to those caused by lies has made its evidence for the most part legally unacceptable. An assessment of such devices by National Research Council (an arm of the National Academy of Sciences) found that they also were too unreliable to be used in screening for national security purposes, but they are widely used for such purposes nonetheless, sometimes with inconsistent results from one government agency to another. The use of lie detectors to screen employees and job applicants is highly controversial.

See E. B. Block, Lie Detectors, Their History and Use (1977); C. Gugas, The Silent Witness (1979); D. T. Lykken, A Tremor in the Blood (1981); K. Alder, The Lie Detectors: The History of an American Obsession (2007).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004.
Licensed from Columbia University Press
Soulouque, Faustin Élie
Soulouque, Faustin Élie, c.1785-1867, emperor of Haiti (1849-59). An illiterate former slave, he became president in 1847 and then declared himself emperor as Faustin I. His reign was corrupt, sanguinary, and terror-ridden; his court was a caricature of Napoleon's. Although he failed in his attempt to conquer Santo Domingo, he held Haiti under stern control until overthrown by a revolution led by Nicholas Fabre Geffrard.
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Metchnikoff, Élie
Metchnikoff, Élie, 1845-1916, Russian biologist. He studied in Russia and Germany, lectured at the Univ. of Odessa, and, after working with Pasteur in Paris, became (1904) deputy director of the Pasteur Institute there. He introduced the theory of phagocytosis, i.e., that certain white blood cells are able to engulf and destroy harmful substances such as bacteria. For his work on immunity he shared with Paul Ehrlich the 1908 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He developed a theory that lactic-acid bacteria (B. acidophilus) in the digestive tract could, by preventing putrefaction, prolong life; and with P. P. É. Roux he experimented with calomel ointment as a treatment for syphilis. His writings include Immunity in Infectious Diseases (1905) and The Nature of Man (1938).

See biography by O. Metchnikova (1921).

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Lie, Trygve Halvdan
Lie, Trygve Halvdan, 1896-1968, Norwegian statesman, first secretary-general of the United Nations. A lawyer and Labor party leader, he was Norwegian minister of justice (1935-39) and minister of trade and supply (1939-41). He became (1941) foreign minister of the government in exile. Elected (1946) secretary-general of the United Nations, Lie took an active part in negotiations and incurred the enmity of the USSR by supporting UN action in the Korean War. In 1953 he was succeeded at the United Nations by Dag Hammarskjöld. In Norway Lie was appointed (1955) governor of Oslo and of Akershus prov. He also served as minister of industries (1963-64) and minister of commerce (1965). He wrote In the Cause of Peace (1954).

See his Public Papers, 1946-1956, ed. by A. W. Cordier and W. Foote (1969).

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Lie, Marius Sophus
Lie, Marius Sophus, 1842-99, Norwegian mathematician. He is noted for his contributions to the theories of differential equations and continuous transformation groups.
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Lie, Jonas Lauritz Idemil
Lie, Jonas Lauritz Idemil, 1833-1908, Norwegian novelist, poet, and playwright. His writing deals with family life in diverse settings. The Pilot and His Wife (1874, tr. 1876), the first of his several sea tales, was the first Norwegian novel to treat marriage realistically. The Family at Gilje (1883, tr. 1894) and The Commodore's Daughters (1886, tr. 1892) portray the social and intellectual restrictions on women of the educated classes.
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Halévy, Élie
Halévy, Élie, 1870-1937, French historian, an authority on 19th-century England; son of Ludovic Halévy. In The Growth of Philosophic Radicalism (3 vol., 1901-4; tr., new ed. 1949) Halévy made a major contribution to the intellectual history of utilitarianism. His masterpiece, a historical classic, is A History of the English People in the Nineteenth Century (6 vol., 1912-30; tr., 2d ed. 1949-52). Based on massive research, it describes and analyzes the development of ideas and institutions. Particularly notable is the first volume, England in 1815, a brilliant re-creation of social, political, economic, and religious conditions.
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Halévy, Jacques François Fromental Élie
Halévy, Jacques François Fromental Élie, 1799-1862, French operatic composer. He studied with Cherubini at the Paris Conservatory, where he became a professor in 1827. Halévy's one big success was La Juive (1835), although others, such as L'Éclair (1836) and La Reine de Chypre (1841), enjoyed popularity in their time.
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Guadet, Marguerite Élie
Guadet, Marguerite Élie, 1758-94, French revolutionary. A leader of the Girondists, he was outlawed (1793) for his attacks on Maximilien Robespierre and Jean Paul Marat. He hid for 10 months before being captured and executed.
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Fréron, Élie
Fréron, Élie, 1718-76, French critic and journalist. His critical journal, Année littéraire, virulently attacked the philosophes of the Enlightenment. Voltaire made him a butt of his ridicule in several of his works.
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Faure, Élie
Faure, Élie, 1873-1937, French art historian. Trained in medicine, he brought his scientific knowledge to bear in his study of the history of art, relating it to the progress of human culture. Of his long list of critical and historical works, the best known is his History of Art (5 vol., 1909-21; tr. by Walter Pach, 1937).
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Ducommun, Élie
Ducommun, Élie, 1833-1906, Swiss journalist and pacifist. He organized (1891) the International Peace Bureau at Bern and shared the 1902 Nobel Peace Prize with C. A. Gobat.
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Decazes, Élie
Decazes, Élie, 1780-1860, French statesman, a favorite of King Louis XVIII, who made him a duke in 1820. A lawyer and judge, Decazes was made minister of police in 1815 and was influential in the French government even before he became (1819) premier. His government maintained a precarious balance between the ultraroyalists and the radicals, as he emerged as a leader of the moderates supporting a constitutional government. His downfall came when the ultraroyalists accused him of complicity in the assassination (1820) of the duc de Berry. He resigned, but Louis XVIII sent him as ambassador to England (1820-21). Decazes continued to figure in politics until the February Revolution of 1848.
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Cartan, Élie Joseph
Cartan, Élie Joseph, 1869-1951, French mathematician. The son of a village blacksmith, he graduated from the École normale and taught at the universities of Montpellier, Lyons, Nancy, and finally Paris, where he was professor from 1912 to 1940. He developed powerful methods of attacking problems in fields related to modern topology, notably Lie groups, differential systems, and differential geometry; his discoveries are basic to mathematical formulations of quantum mechanics and general relativity. New applications are still found for his work, which is collected in Oeuvres complètes (1952-55). The importance of his contributions was recognized belatedly with his election to the French Academy of Sciences in 1931. His son, Henri Cartan, 1904-, is also a mathematician and one of the founding members of the Bourbaki group (see Bourbaki, Nicolas).
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lie detector
or polygraph

Instrument for recording physiological phenomena (including blood pressure, pulse rate, and respiration) of a human subject as he or she answers questions asked by an operator. These data (recorded as graphs) are used as the basis for judging whether the subject is lying. The phenomena usually chosen for recording are those not easily controlled voluntarily. The types of questions asked, their wording, and the mode of presentation have a tremendous effect on the results and their reliability. Used in police interrogation and investigation since 1924, the lie detector is still controversial among psychologists and not always accepted as evidence in courts.

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
Lie, Trygve

(born July 16, 1896, Kristiania, Nor.—died Dec. 30, 1968, Geilo) First secretary-general of the United Nations (1946–52). Educated in law at the University of Kristiania (Oslo), Lie was active in the Norwegian Labour Party before being appointed foreign minister of Norway's government-in-exile during World War II. As a member of the Norwegian delegation to the UN Conference on International Organization (1945), he helped draft the provisions for the United Nations Security Council. As secretary-general, he helped to secure the removal of Soviet troops from Iran; he also dealt with the first Arab-Israeli war and the India-Pakistan conflict over Kashmir. The Soviet Union ceased to cooperate with him after he supported UN intervention in the Korean War, and his effectiveness was further hampered by charges from anticommunist politicians in the U.S. that his secretariat had employed subversives. He resigned in 1952.

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
Lie, Jonas (Lauritz Idemil)

(born Nov. 6, 1833, Hokksund in Eiker, Nor.—died July 5, 1908, Stavern) Norwegian novelist. He wrote his first novel, The Visionary or Pictures from Nordland (1870), with his wife's collaboration. Later novels include The Barque “Future” (1872), One of Life's Slaves (1883), and the classic The Family at Gilje (1883), which deals with the position of women. He sought to reflect in his writings the nature, folk life, and social spirit of his country. With Henrik Ibsen, Bjornstjerne Bjornson, and Alexander Kielland (1849–1906), he is considered one of “the four great ones” of 19th-century Norwegian literature.

Learn more about Lie, Jonas (Lauritz Idemil) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
lie
Sep 05, 2008; lie 1 / lī / • v. ( lying / ˈlī-i ng / ; past lay / lā / ; past part. lain / lān / ) [...
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Trygve Halvdan Lie
Jan 01, 2004; Trygve Halvdan Lie The Norwegian statesman Trygve Halvdan Lie (1896-1968), first secretary general of the United Nations,...
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The lie score on the personal development test depicts the creditability of test taker: as well as PDT scores.
Jun 01, 2002; The LIE score on The Personal Development Test is modeled after the earlier LIE score on the Minnesota Personality Test. It...
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And Never, Ever Lie to Your Mother
Mar 07, 2007; Who can you lie to anymore? Let's run through the list: You . . . . . . Can't lie to a grand jury or the Federal Bureau of...
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Ed Arnow: Which sex lies the most?
Jun 17, 2009; "I CANNOT tell a lie." Yeah, we all know George Washington said that. But, whether he was telling the truth still is questioned....
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