Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Fowler, William Alfred

(Encyclopedia)Fowler, William Alfred, 1911–95, American nuclear astrophysicist, b. Pittsburgh. While a professor at the California Institute of Technology, Fowler studied how chemical elements are formed in nucle...

Gross, Samuel David

(Encyclopedia)Gross, Samuel David, 1805–84, American surgeon, b. near Easton, Pa., M.D. Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, 1828. He taught at the medical colleges of several universities and at Jefferson fr...

Staël, Nicholas de

(Encyclopedia)Staël, Nicholas de nēkôläˈ də stäl [key], 1914–55, French painter, b. St. Petersburg, Russia. Reared in Brussels, he traveled extensively before settling in France in 1940. De Staël evolved ...

Barton, Benjamin Smith

(Encyclopedia)Barton, Benjamin Smith, 1766–1815, American physician and botanist, b. Lancaster, Pa., studied at the College of Philadelphia, at Edinburgh, and at Göttingen (M.D., 1789). He taught at the College ...

Lutosławski, Witold

(Encyclopedia)Lutosławski, Witold, 1913–94, Polish composer, b. Warsaw, studied Univ. of Warsaw, Warsaw Conservatory. His early works were mainly neoclassical and often included elements from Polish folk music, ...

law of simple multiple proportions

(Encyclopedia)law of simple multiple proportions, in chemistry, the statement that when two or more elements form more than one compound, the ratio of the weights of one element that combine with a given weight of ...

color-field painting

(Encyclopedia)color-field painting, abstract art movement that originated in the 1960s. Coming after the abstract expressionism of the 1950s, color-field painting represents a sharp change from the earlier movement...

moscovium

(Encyclopedia)moscovium mŏskōˈvēəm [key], artificially produced radioactive chemical element; symbol Mc; at. no. 115; mass number of most stable isotope 288; m.p., b.p., sp. gr., and valence unknown. Situated ...

associationism

(Encyclopedia)associationism, theory that all consciousness is the result of the combination, in accordance with the law of association, of certain simple and ultimate elements derived from sense experiences. It wa...

Saha, Meghnad

(Encyclopedia)Saha, Meghnad māgnädˈ säˈhä [key], 1893–1956, Indian physicist. He was a professor at Allahabad Univ. from 1923 to 1938 and a professor and physics department head at Calcutta Univ. from 1938....