Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

104 results found

museums of science

(Encyclopedia)museums of science, institutions or buildings where collections relevant to science and technology are preserved and displayed to promote education and research. While the preponderance of these museu...

aerial and satellite photography

(Encyclopedia)aerial and satellite photography, technology and science of taking still or moving-picture photographs from a camera mounted on a balloon, airplane, satellite, rocket, or spacecraft. In the 19th cent....

DNA fingerprinting

(Encyclopedia)DNA fingerprinting or DNA profiling, any of several similar techniques for analyzing and comparing DNA from separate sources, used especially in law enforcement to identify suspects from hair, blood, ...

Harvard University

(Encyclopedia)Harvard University, mainly at Cambridge, Mass., including Harvard College, the oldest American college. From two distinct schools, Radcliffe College for women (est. 1879, chartered 1894) and Harvar...

Oxford, University of

(Encyclopedia)Oxford, University of, at Oxford, England, one of the oldest English-language universities in the world. The university was a leading center of learning throughout the Middle Ages; such scholars as Ro...

antique collecting

(Encyclopedia)antique collecting, the assembling of items of aesthetic, historical, and often monetary value from earlier eras. The term antique initially referred only to the preclassical and classical cultures of...

Mound Builders

(Encyclopedia)Mound Builders, in North American archaeology, name given to those people who built mounds in a large area from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico and from the Mississippi River to the Appalachian ...

culture

(Encyclopedia)culture, in anthropology, the integrated system of socially acquired values, beliefs, and rules of conduct which delimit the range of accepted behaviors in any given society. Cultural differences dist...

mummy

(Encyclopedia)mummy, dead human or animal body preserved by embalming or by unusual natural conditions. As a rule mummies are from ancient times. The word is of Arabic derivation and refers primarily to the burials...

Germans

(Encyclopedia)Germans, great ethnic complex of ancient Europe, a basic stock in the composition of the modern peoples of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, N Italy, the Netherlands, Be...