Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Butlerov, Aleksandr Mikhailovich

(Encyclopedia)Butlerov, Aleksandr Mikhailovich əlyĭksänˈdər mēkhīlˈəvĭch bo͞otˈlyərôf [key], 1825–86, Russian chemist. As professor at the Univ. of Kazan he founded the first school of Russian chemi...

physical chemistry

(Encyclopedia)physical chemistry, branch of science that combines the principles and methods of physics and chemistry. It provides a fundamental theoretical and experimental basis for all of chemistry, including or...

stereochemistry

(Encyclopedia)stereochemistry, study of the three-dimensional configuration of the atoms that make up a molecule and the ways in which this arrangement affects the physical and chemical properties of the molecule. ...

Zewail, Ahmed Hassan

(Encyclopedia)Zewail, Ahmed Hassan, 1946–2016, Egyptian-American chemist, b. Damanhur, Egypt, Ph.D. Univ. of Pennsylvania, 1974. He became a U.S. citizen in 1982. A professor at the California Institute of Techno...

nucleus, in physics

(Encyclopedia)nucleus, in physics, the extremely dense central core of an atom. Following the discovery of radioactivity by A. H. Becquerel in 1896, Ernest Rutherford identified two types of radiation given off b...

phosphorus

(Encyclopedia)phosphorus fŏsˈfərəs [key] [Gr.,=light-bearing], nonmetallic chemical element; symbol P; at. no. 15; at. wt. 30.97376; m.p. 44.1℃; b.p. about 280℃; sp. gr. 1.82 at 20℃; valence −3, +3, or ...

Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic

(Encyclopedia)Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic or Naxçivan Autonomous Republic näkˌchĭvänˈ [key], autonomous republic (1990 est. pop. 310,000), 2,124 sq mi (5,501 sq km), an exclave of Azerbaijan, bordered on t...

herpes zoster

(Encyclopedia)herpes zoster, infection of a ganglion (nerve center) with severe pain and a blisterlike eruption in the area of the nerve distribution, a condition called shingles. The causative organism is varicell...

Pittsburg

(Encyclopedia)Pittsburg pĭtsˈbərg [key]. 1 Industrial city (1990 pop. 47,564), Contra Costa co., W Calif., on the edge of the San Francisco Bay area, at the junction of the Sacramento and the San Joaquin rivers;...

Stanley, Ralph Edmond

(Encyclopedia)Stanley, Ralph Edmond, 1927–2016, American bluegrass singer and banjo player, b. Dickenson co., Va. He and his brother, Carter Glen Stanley, 1925–66, were sons of a country-singer father and banjo...