Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Borlaug, Norman Ernest

(Encyclopedia)Borlaug, Norman Ernest bôrˈlôg [key], 1914–2009, U.S. agronomist, b. near Saude, Iowa, grad. Univ. of Minn. (Ph.D., 1942). He worked as researcher with the E. I. du Pont Company until 1944, when ...

Breasted, James Henry

(Encyclopedia)Breasted, James Henry brĕsˈtĭd [key], 1865–1935, American Egyptologist, b. Rockford, Ill., grad. North Central College, 1888, M.A. Yale, 1891, Ph.D. Univ. of Berlin, 1894. He began teaching at th...

tilapia

(Encyclopedia)tilapia təläˈpēə [key] or St. Peter's fish, a spiny-finned freshwater fish of the family Cichlidae, native chiefly to Africa and the Middle East. Fish of the genera Oreochromis, Sarotherodon, and...

Tower of London

(Encyclopedia)Tower of London, ancient fortress in London, England, just east of the City and on the north bank of the Thames, covering about 13 acres (5.3 hectares). Now used mainly as a museum, it was a royal res...

São Francisco

(Encyclopedia)São Francisco souN frəsēshˈko͝o [key], river, c.1,800 mi (2,900 km) long, rising in the Serra de Canastra, SW Minas Gerais state, Brazil, and flowing northeast, then southeast through the sertão...

candle, cylinder of wax or tallow

(Encyclopedia)candle, cylinder of wax or tallow containing a wick, used for illumination or for ceremonial purposes. The evidence of ancient writings is not conclusive as to the history of the candle; words transla...

Harlem

(Encyclopedia)Harlem, residential and business section of upper Manhattan, New York City, bounded roughly by 110th St., the East River and Harlem River, 168th St., Amsterdam Ave., and Morningside Park. The Dutch se...

Wends

(Encyclopedia)Wends or Sorbs, Slavic people (numbering about 60,000) of Brandenburg and Saxony, E Germany, in Lusatia. They speak Lusatian (also known as Sorbic or Wendish), a West Slavic language with two main dia...

Franks

(Encyclopedia)Franks, group of Germanic tribes. By the 3d cent. a.d., they were settled along the lower and middle Rhine. The two major divisions were the Salian Franks in the north and the Ripuarian Franks in the ...

International Bank for Reconstruction and Development

(Encyclopedia)International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) (IBRD), independent specialized agency of the United Nations, with headquarters at Washington, D.C.; one of five closely associated develop...