Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

448 results found

complexity

(Encyclopedia)complexity, in science, field of study devoted to the process of self-organization. The basic concept of complexity is that all things tend to organize themselves into patterns, e.g., ant colonies, im...

Independence

(Encyclopedia)Independence. 1 City (2020 pop. 6,064), seat of Buchanan co., NE Iowa; founded 1847. Located on the Wapsipinicon River, the town's grist mill ...

Gell-Mann, Murray

(Encyclopedia)Gell-Mann, Murray gĕlˈ-män [key], 1929–2019, American theoretical physicist, b. New York City, grad. Yale 1948, Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1951. He was associated with the Univ....

Bogotá

(Encyclopedia)Bogotá bōgōtäˈ [key], city (2021 metro area est. pop. 11,167,000), central Colombia, cap...

San Francisco Bay

(Encyclopedia)San Francisco Bay, 50 mi (80 km) long and from 3 to 13 mi (4.8–21 km) wide, W Calif.; entered through the Golden Gate, a strait between two peninsulas. The bay is as deep as 100 ft (30 m) in spots, ...

Serra, Saint Junípero

(Encyclopedia)Serra, Saint Junípero ho͞onēˈpārō sĕˈrä [key], 1713–84, Spanish Franciscan missionary in North America, b. Majorca. His name was originally Miguel José Serra, and Junípero was his name in...

Lima, city, Peru

(Encyclopedia)Lima lēˈmə, Span. lēˈmä [key], city (1990 metropolitan area est. pop. 6,400,000), W Peru, capital and largest city of Peru. Its port is Callao. The Lima urban area is Peru's economic center and ...

Santiago, city, Chile

(Encyclopedia)Santiago säntēäˈgō [key], city (1990 est. pop. 4,395,000), central Chile, capital of Chile and of Metropolitana de Santiago region, on the Mapocho River. It is the political, commercial, and fina...

coast protection

(Encyclopedia)coast protection, methods used to protect coastal lands from erosion. Beaches can exist only where a delicate dynamic equilibrium exists between the amount of sand supplied to the beach and the inevit...

Iturbide, Agustín de

(Encyclopedia)Iturbide, Agustín de ägo͞ostēnˈ dā ēto͞orbēˈᵺā [key], 1783–1824, Mexican revolutionist, emperor of Mexico (1822–23). An officer in the royalist army, he was sympathetic to independenc...