Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

nobelium

(Encyclopedia)nobelium nōbēˈlēəm [key], artificially produced radioactive chemical element; symbol No; at. no. 102; mass no. of most stable isotope 259; m.p. 827℃; b.p. and density unknown; valence +2, +3. I...

Sumner, William Graham

(Encyclopedia)Sumner, William Graham, 1840–1910, American sociologist and political economist, b. Paterson, N.J., grad. Yale, 1863, and studied in Germany, in Switzerland, and at Oxford. He was ordained an Episco...

idealism

(Encyclopedia)idealism, the attitude that places special value on ideas and ideals as products of the mind, in comparison with the world as perceived through the senses. In art idealism is the tendency to represent...

Barth, Karl

(Encyclopedia)Barth, Karl bärt [key], 1886–1968, Swiss Protestant theologian, one of the leading thinkers of 20th-century Protestantism. He helped to found the Confessing Church and his thinking formed the theol...

Nibelungen

(Encyclopedia)Nibelungen –lētˌ [key] [song of the Nibelungen] is a long Middle High German epic by a south German poet of the early 13th cent. It includes pagan legends and traditions but is patently the produc...

Berg, Alban

(Encyclopedia)Berg, Alban älˈbän bĕrk [key], 1885–1935, Austrian composer. In his youth he taught himself music but in 1904 he became the pupil and close friend of Arnold Schoenberg. Later Berg himself taught...

Stuttgart, city, Germany

(Encyclopedia)Stuttgart shto͝otˈgärt [key], city (1994 pop. 594,406), capital of Baden-Württemberg, SW Germany, on the Neckar River. It is a major transportation point, with a large river port and an internatio...

Orléans, French royal family

(Encyclopedia)Orléans ôrlāäNˈ [key], family name of two branches of the French royal line. The house of Valois-Orléans was founded by Louis, duc d'Orléans (see separate article), whose assassination (1407) c...

mendelevium

(Encyclopedia)mendelevium mĕndəlāvˈēəm [key], artificially produced radioactive chemical element; symbol Md; at. no. 101; mass no. of most stable isotope 258; m.p. 827℃; b.p. and sp. gr. unknown; valence +1...

Maurice, duke and elector of Saxony

(Encyclopedia)Maurice, 1521–53, duke (1541–47) and elector (1547–53) of Saxony. A member of the Albertine branch of the ruling house of Saxony, he became duke of Albertine Saxony during the Protestant Reforma...