Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

dubnium

(Encyclopedia)dubnium do͞obˈnēəm [key], artificially produced radioactive chemical element; symbol Db; at. no. 105; mass number of most stable isotope 268; m.p., b.p., and sp. gr. unknown; valence +5. Situated ...

rutherfordium

(Encyclopedia)rutherfordium rŭᵺˌərfôrˈdēəm [key], artificially produced radioactive chemical element; symbol Rf; at. no. 104; mass number of most stable isotope 265; m.p., b.p., and sp. gr. unknown; valenc...

Hubble's law

(Encyclopedia)Hubble's law, in astronomy, statement that the distances between galaxies (see galaxy) or clusters of galaxies are continuously increasing and that therefore the universe is expanding. Hubble's law ...

Erie Canal

(Encyclopedia)Erie Canal, artificial waterway, c.360 mi (580 km) long; connecting New York City with the Great Lakes via the Hudson River. Locks were built to overcome the 571-ft (174-m) difference between the leve...

Hudson, river, United States

(Encyclopedia)Hudson, river, c.315 mi (510 km) long, rising in Lake Tear of the Clouds, on Mt. Marcy in the Adirondack Mts., NE N.Y., and flowing generally S to Upper New York Bay at New York City; the Mohawk River...

Iran-contra affair

(Encyclopedia)Iran-contra affair, in U.S. history, secret arrangement in the 1980s to provide funds to the Nicaraguan contra rebels from profits gained by selling arms to Iran. The Iran-contra affair was the produc...

Tay-Sachs disease

(Encyclopedia)Tay-Sachs disease tāˈ-săksˈ [key], rare hereditary disease caused by a genetic mutation that leaves the body unable to produce an enzyme necessary for fat metabolism in nerve cells, producing cent...

criminology

(Encyclopedia)criminology, the study of crime, society's response to it, and its prevention, including examination of the environmental, hereditary, or psychological causes of crime, modes of criminal investigation...

Paris, Treaty of

(Encyclopedia)Paris, Treaty of, any of several important treaties, signed at or near Paris, France. For the Treaty of Paris of 1856, see Paris, Congress of. For the Treaty of Paris of 1898, see Spanish-Americ...

band

(Encyclopedia)band, in music, a group of musicians playing principally on wind and percussion instruments, usually outdoors. Prior to the 18th cent., the term band was frequently applied in a generic sense to cover...