Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

nicotiana

(Encyclopedia)nicotiana nĭkōˌshēāˈnə [key], any plant of the genus Nicotiana of the family Solanaceae (nightshade family). Most species are herbs native to tropical America, although there are a few North Am...

monazite

(Encyclopedia)monazite mŏnˈəzīt [key], yellow to reddish-brown natural phosphate of the rare earths, mainly the cerium and lanthanum metals, usually with some thorium. Yttrium, calcium, iron, and silica are fre...

Chelmsford, Frederic John Napier Thesiger, 3d Baron and 1st Viscount

(Encyclopedia)Chelmsford, Frederic John Napier Thesiger, 3d Baron and 1st Viscount nāˈpēər, thĕsˈĭjər, chĕlmsˈfərd [key], 1868–1933, British colonial administrator. After serving as governor of Queensl...

Fisher, Sir Ronald Aylmer

(Encyclopedia)Fisher, Sir Ronald Aylmer, 1890–1962, English statistician and geneticist, b. East Finchley, Middlesex, England; educated at Cambridge (1909–1915; Sc.D., 1926). From 1919 to 1933 he worked at the ...

Travers, P. L.

(Encyclopedia)Travers, P. L. (Pamela Lyndon Travers), 1899–1996, British author best known for her Mary Poppins children's books, b. Australia as Helen Lyndon Goff. She worked as an actress and journalist and mov...

Flanagan, Richard

(Encyclopedia)Flanagan, Richard, 1961–, Australian novelist, b. Longford, Tasmania, studied Univ. of Tasmania (grad. 1982), Oxford (Rhodes scholar). Flanagan, whose novels explore the past and present of his nati...

Freycinet, Louis Claude Desaulses de

(Encyclopedia)Freycinet, Louis Claude Desaulses de də frāsēnāˈ [key], 1779–1842, French marine officer. He was assigned (1800) to a French exploring expedition in Australian waters; after his return to Pari...

amputation

(Encyclopedia)amputation ămˌpyətāˈshən [key], removal of all or part of a limb or other body part. Although amputation has been practiced for centuries, the development of sophisticated techniques for treatme...

Hrdlička, Aleš

(Encyclopedia)Hrdlička, Aleš äˈlĕsh hûrdˈlĭchkä [key], 1869–1943, American anthropologist, b. Humpolec (now in Czech Republic). He received his medical education in the United States. In 1903 he began to...

emu

(Encyclopedia)emu or emeu both: ēˈmyo͞o [key], common name for a large, flightless bird of Australia, related to the cassowary and the ostrich. There is only one living species, Dromaius novaehollandiae. It is 5...