Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Laughlin, Robert Betts

(Encyclopedia)Laughlin, Robert Betts, 1950–, American physicist, b. Visalia, Calif., Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1979. Laughlin was a researcher at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory from 198...

Lowell, Percival

(Encyclopedia)Lowell, Percival, 1855–1916, American astronomer, b. Boston, grad. Harvard, 1876; brother of Abbott Lawrence Lowell and Amy Lowell. He visited Korea and Japan, where he acted as counselor and foreig...

Viñoly, Rafael

(Encyclopedia)Viñoly, Rafael, 1944–, Uruguayan-American architect, b. Montevideo. Even before receiving his architectural degrees (1968, 1969) from the Univ. of Buenos Aires, he and six associates founded Argent...

Stephen Harding, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Stephen Harding, Saint, c.1060–1134, English monastic reformer. He entered the abbey at Sherborne in his youth; later (c.1077) he went to the Molesme abbey (near Châtillon-sur-Seine) in Burgundy. I...

Audubon, John James

(Encyclopedia)Audubon, John James ôˈdəbŏn [key], 1785–1851, American ornithologist, b. Les Cayes, Santo Domingo (now Haiti). The illegitimate son of a French sea captain and plantation owner and a Creole cham...

Gippius, Zinaida Nikolayevna

(Encyclopedia)Gippius, Zinaida Nikolayevna zēnīēˈdə nyĭkəlīˈəvnə gēˈpēo͝os [key], pseud. Anton Krainy, 1869–1945, Russian writer. Her St. Petersburg salon was a meeting place (1905–17) for young ...

Chaadayev, Piotr Yakovlevich

(Encyclopedia)Chaadayev, Piotr Yakovlevich pyôˈtər yäˈkəvlyĭvĭch chädäˈyĕv [key], 1794–1856, Russian philosopher. An aristocrat by birth, he was converted to Roman Catholicism. In 1836 the first of hi...

civil rights

(Encyclopedia)civil rights, rights that a nation's inhabitants enjoy by law. The term is broader than “political rights,” which refer only to rights devolving from the franchise and are held usually only by a c...

magic, in entertainment

(Encyclopedia)magic, in entertainment, the seeming manipulation and supernatural control of the natural world for the amusement and amazement of an audience. Entertainment magic can be divided into four main catego...

confectionery

(Encyclopedia)confectionery, delicacies or sweetmeats that have sugar as a principal ingredient, combined with coloring matter and flavoring and often with fruit or nuts. In the United States it is usually called c...