Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Cornell, Eric Allin

(Encyclopedia)Cornell, Eric Allin, 1961–, American physicist, b. Palo Alto, Calif., Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1990. Since 1990, he has been a researcher at the Joint Institute for Laboratory As...

Channing, Edward

(Encyclopedia)Channing, Edward, 1856–1931, American historian, b. Dorchester, Mass.; son of William Ellery Channing (1818–1901). He was a prominent teacher at Harvard from 1883 until his retirement in 1929, hol...

Charles VII, Holy Roman emperor

(Encyclopedia)Charles VII, 1697–1745, Holy Roman emperor (1742–45) and, as Charles Albert, elector of Bavaria (1726–45). Having married a daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I, he refused to recognize the p...

Derby ware

(Encyclopedia)Derby ware därˈbē [key], English china produced at Derby since about 1750, when William Duesbury opened a pottery there. The china was close in style to contemporary Chelsea ware and Bow ware, whos...

ether, in physics and astronomy

(Encyclopedia)ether or aether, in physics and astronomy, a hypothetical medium for transmitting light and heat (radiation), filling all unoccupied space; it is also called luminiferous ether. In Newtonian physics a...

Kasai, former province, Congo

(Encyclopedia)Kasai käsīˈ [key], former province, c.124,000 sq mi (321,160 sq km), S central Congo (Kinshasa). Luluabourg (present Kananga) was the capital. Between the Kasai and the Sankuru rivers the Kuba king...

Ketterle, Wolfgang

(Encyclopedia)Ketterle, Wolfgang, 1957–, German physicist, Ph.D. Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, Garching, Germany, 1986. He has been a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 1990. Kett...

Chadwick, Henry, Anglo-American journalist and popularizer of baseball

(Encyclopedia)Chadwick, Henry, 1824–1908, Anglo-American journalist who helped popularize baseball in the United States, b. Exeter, England. Moving to Brooklyn, N.Y., with his family in 1837, he was a cricket rep...

Pawnee

(Encyclopedia)Pawnee pônēˈ [key], Native North Americans whose language belongs to the Caddoan branch of the Hokan-Siouan linguistic stock (see Native American languages). At one time the Pawnee lived in what is...

Murder, Inc.

(Encyclopedia)Murder, Inc., name given to the band of professional killers who operated (1930–40) throughout the United States as the enforcement arm of the Syndicate, composed of the national heads of organized ...