Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Montessori, Maria

(Encyclopedia)Montessori, Maria märēˈä mōntās-sôˈrē [key], 1870–1952, Italian educator and physician. She was the originator of the Montessori method of education for young children and was the first wom...

Assange, Julian Paul

(Encyclopedia)Assange, Julian Paul äsänjˈ [key], 1971–, Australian Internet journalist and activist, founder of WikiLeaks, a whistleblower website that publishes documents and imag...

generator

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Generator: The rotation of the conducting coil of wire in a magnetic field causes a current to be induced in the coil. This current is alternating and is conducted from the coil by means of sli...

Japanese

(Encyclopedia)Japanese jăpˌənēzˈ [key], language of uncertain origin that is spoken by more than 125 million people, most of whom live in Japan. There are also many speakers of Japanese in the Ryukyu Islands, ...

digital versatile disc

(Encyclopedia)digital versatile disc or digital video disc (DVD), a small plastic disc used for the storage of digital data. The successor media to the compact disc (CD), a DVD can have more than 100 times the stor...

Crenshaw, Kimberlé Williams

(Encyclopedia)Crenshaw, Kimberlé, 1959–, American legal scholar and critical race theorist, b. Canton, Ohio, J.D. Harvard University, 1984. An influential writer o...

pearl, gem

(Encyclopedia)pearl, hard, rounded secretion formed inside the shell of certain mollusks, used as a gem. It is secreted by the epithelial cells of the mantle, a curtain of tissue between the shell and body mass, an...

poison gas

(Encyclopedia)poison gas, any of various gases sometimes used in warfare or riot control because of their poisonous or corrosive nature. These gases may be roughly grouped according to the portal of entry into the ...

Neolithic period

(Encyclopedia)Neolithic period or New Stone Age. The term neolithic is used, especially in archaeology and anthropology, to designate a stage of cultural evolution or technological development characterized by the ...

criminal law

(Encyclopedia)criminal law, the branch of law that defines crimes, treats of their nature, and provides for their punishment. A tort is a civil wrong committed against an individual; a crime, on the other hand, is ...