Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Conemaugh

(Encyclopedia)Conemaugh kŏnˈəmôˌ [key], river c.70 mi (110 km) long, rising in the Allegheny Mts. and flowing NW to the Allegheny River, SW Pa. Federal flood-control works on the river and its tributaries incl...

operon

(Encyclopedia)operon, in genetics, site on a bacterial chromosome containing genes that control protein synthesis (structural genes) together with a gene that determines whether the structural genes are active or n...

Hunza

(Encyclopedia)Hunza ho͝onˈsä [key], former princely state, 3,900 sq mi (10,101 sq km), NW Kashmir, administered by Pakistan. Declared a British protectorate in 1893, Hunza acceded to Pakistan after the partition...

automation

(Encyclopedia)automation, automatic operation and control of machinery or processes by devices, such as robots that can make and execute decisions without human intervention. The principal feature of such devices i...

Rufiji

(Encyclopedia)Rufiji ro͞ofēˈjē [key], river, c.375 mi (600 km) long, rising in the highlands of SW Tanzania, E Africa, and flowing NE then E to the Indian Ocean opposite Mafia Island. The Great Ruaha River is i...

Cheyenne, river, United States

(Encyclopedia)Cheyenne, river, 527 mi (848 km) long, rising in E Wyo. and flowing NE to the Missouri River near Pierre, S.Dak. The Cheyenne basin is part of the Missouri River basin project. The U.S. Bureau of Recl...

Hodgkin, Dorothy Mary Crowfoot

(Encyclopedia)Hodgkin, Dorothy Mary Crowfoot, 1910–94, English chemist and X-ray crystallographer, b. Egypt. She received the 1964 Nobel Prize in chemistry for determining the structure of biochemical compounds (...

Snowy Mountains

(Encyclopedia)Snowy Mountains, range of the Australian Alps, SE Australia. It is the site of the Snowy Mts. Hydroelectric Scheme, Australia's most extensive hydroelectricity and irrigation complex. The scheme was b...

autogiro

(Encyclopedia)autogiro jīˈrəplān [key], type of aircraft supported in the air by a horizontally mounted airfoil similar to that of a helicopter but unpowered. Invented by the Spaniard Juan de la Cierva, it was ...

Clayton-Bulwer Treaty

(Encyclopedia)Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, concluded (Apr. 19, 1850) at Washington, D.C., between the United States, represented by Secretary of State John M. Clayton, and Great Britain, represented by the British plenip...

Browse by Subject