Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Scott, Hugh Lenox

(Encyclopedia)Scott, Hugh Lenox, 1853–1934, U.S. army officer, b. Danville, Ky., grad. West Point, 1876. He was assigned (1876) to military service in the West and took part in the Sioux, Nez Percé, and Cheyenne...

phlox

(Encyclopedia)phlox, common name for plants of the genus Phlox and for members of the Polemoniaceae, a family of herbs (and some shrubs and vines) found chiefly in the W United States. The family includes many popu...

Prigogine, Ilya

(Encyclopedia)Prigogine, Ilya prĭgˈəjēn [key], 1917–2003, Belgian chemist, b. Moscow. He was raised and educated in Belgium, receiving his doctorate in 1941 and joining the faculty of the Free Univ. of Brusse...

Sancar, Aziz

(Encyclopedia)Sancar, Aziz, 1946–, Turkish-American biochemist and molecular biologist, M.D. Istanbul Univ., 1969, Ph.D. Univ. of Texas at Dallas, 1977. From 1977to 1982, Sancar was a researcher at the Yale Schoo...

Carolina parakeet

(Encyclopedia)Carolina parakeet, small, long-tailed bird, Canuropsis carolinensis, now believed extinct. The Carolina parakeet was the northernmost representative of the parrot family. It had green plumage with a y...

ranch

(Encyclopedia)ranch, large farm devoted chiefly to raising and breeding cattle, horses, sheep, and goats. The cattle ranch was introduced from Latin America to Texas and the plains of the W United States and Canada...

Du Chaillu, Paul Belloni

(Encyclopedia)Du Chaillu, Paul Belloni pōl bĕlōnēˈ dü shāyüˈ [key], c.1831–1903, French-American explorer in Africa. Born probably in Paris, he spent his youth on the west coast of Africa, where his fath...

Verne, Jules

(Encyclopedia)Verne, Jules vûrn; zhül vĕrn [key], 1828–1905, French novelist, originator of modern science fiction. After completing his studies at the Nantes lycée, he went to Paris to study law. He early be...

boll weevil

(Encyclopedia)boll weevil or cotton boll weevil bōl [key], cotton-eating weevil, or snout beetle, Anthonomus grandis. Probably of Mexican or Central American origin, it appeared in Texas about 1892 and spread to m...

Ingersoll, Charles Jared

(Encyclopedia)Ingersoll, Charles Jared ĭngˈgərsôl [key], 1782–1862, American political leader and author, b. Philadelphia; son of Jared Ingersoll (1749–1822). In several influential publications, including ...

Browse by Subject