Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Heisenberg, Werner

(Encyclopedia)Heisenberg, Werner vĕrˈnər hīˈzənbĕrk [key], 1901–76, German physicist. One of the founders of the quantum theory, he is best known for his uncertainty principle, or indeterminacy principle, ...

Warburg, Otto Heinrich

(Encyclopedia)Warburg, Otto Heinrich ŏtˈō hīnˈrĭkh värˈbo͝orkh [key], 1883–1970, German physiologist. He was director (1931–53) of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute (now Max Planck Institute) for cell physi...

Stein, Lorenz von

(Encyclopedia)Stein, Lorenz von lōˈrĕnts fən shtīn [key], 1815–90, German economist and sociologist. He studied jurisprudence at the Univ. of Kiel and at Paris and taught (1846–51) at the Univ. of Kiel, bu...

Marxism

(Encyclopedia)Marxism, economic and political philosophy named for Karl Marx. It is also known as scientific (as opposed to utopian) socialism. Marxism has had a profound impact on contemporary culture; modern comm...

Huber, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Huber, Robert ho͞oˈbər [key], 1937–, German biochemist. After receiving his doctorate at Munich Technical Univ., he worked both there and at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry. With Hartmu...

tarantella

(Encyclopedia)tarantella târˈəntĕlˈə [key], Neapolitan folk dance that first appeared in Taranto, Italy, in the 17th cent. It had rapid 6–8 meter with an increasing tempo and was thought to cure the bite of...

Sturdee, Sir Frederick Charles Doveton

(Encyclopedia)Sturdee, Sir Frederick Charles Doveton stûrˈdē [key], 1859–1925, British admiral. He entered the navy in 1871 and rose to become (1914) chief of war staff at the admiralty on the outbreak of Worl...

Mössbauer, Rudolf Ludwig

(Encyclopedia)Mössbauer, Rudolf Ludwig, 1929–2011, German physicist, Ph.D. Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, Heidelberg, Germany, 1957. Mössbauer was a professor at the California Institute of Technolo...

Sakmann, Bert

(Encyclopedia)Sakmann, Bert, 1942–, German biophysicist, M.D. Univ. of Göttingen, Germany, 1974. He has been a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen since 1974. Sakmann r...

new objectivity

(Encyclopedia)new objectivity (Ger. Neue Sachlichkeit), German art movement of the 1920s. The chief painters of the movement were George Grosz and Otto Dix, who were sometimes called verists. They created styles of...