Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

East, Edward Murray

(Encyclopedia)East, Edward Murray, 1879–1938, American biologist, b. Du Quoin, Ill., grad. Univ. of Illinois (B.S., 1900; Ph.D., 1907). He served the agricultural experiment stations at the Univ. of Illinois and ...

expert system

(Encyclopedia)expert system, a computer system or program that uses artificial intelligence techniques to solve problems that ordinarily require a knowledgeable human. The method used to construct such systems, kno...

anthropometry

(Encyclopedia)anthropometry ănthrəpŏmˈətrē [key], technique of measuring the human body in terms of dimensions, proportions, and ratios such as those provided by the cephalic index. Once the standard approach...

Wilson, Edward Osborne

(Encyclopedia)Wilson, Edward Osborne, 1929–2021, American sociobiologist, b. Birmingham, Ala., Univ. of Alabama (B.S., 1949; M.S.,1950), Harvard Univ (Ph.D., 1955)....

hand

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Bones of right wrist and hand, dorsal view hand, terminal part of the forelimb in primates. The human hand consists of the wrist, palm, four fingers, and thumb. In humans and other primates, t...

sociobiology

(Encyclopedia)sociobiology, controversial field that studies how natural selection, previously used only to explain the evolution of physical characteristics, shapes behavior in animals and humans. The theory has c...

Cassin, René

(Encyclopedia)Cassin, René rənāˈ cäsăNˈ [key], 1887–1976, French jurist and humanitarian. He studied law at the universities of Aix-en-Provence and Paris, earned (1914) a doctorate, and practiced until Wor...

Gauck, Joachim

(Encyclopedia)Gauck, Joachim, 1940–, German political and human-rights activist, president of Germany (2012–17), b. Rostock. An anticommunist from his youth, Gauck was ordained a Lutheran minister and was pasto...

Broadbent, Ed

(Encyclopedia)Broadbent, Ed (John Edward Broadbent), 1936–, Canadian political leader. After studying at the Univ. of Toronto (Ph.D., 1966) and the London School of Economics, he taught political science at York ...

bionics

(Encyclopedia)bionics, the study of living systems with the intention of applying their principles to the design of engineering systems. Drawing on interdisciplinary research in the mechanical and life sciences, bi...

Browse by Subject