Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

430 results found

Beutler, Bruce Alan

(Encyclopedia)Beutler, Bruce Alan, 1957–, American immunologist and geneticist, b. Chicago, Ill., M.D. Univ. of Chicago, 1981. Beutler has been a professor and physician at Rockefeller Univ. (1984–86), a facult...

Big Bend National Park

(Encyclopedia)Big Bend National Park, 801,163 acres (324,471 hectares), W Tex.; authorized 1935, est. 1944. It is a triangle formed where the Rio Grande runs southeast then northeast in a big bend along the U.S.-Me...

Stoneman, George

(Encyclopedia)Stoneman, George, 1822–94, Union general in the American Civil War, b. Busti, N.Y. As commander of Fort Brown, Tex., in Feb., 1861, he refused to obey the order of General Twiggs to surrender to Tex...

truck farming

(Encyclopedia)truck farming, horticultural practice of growing one or more vegetable crops on a large scale for shipment to distant markets. It is usually less intensive and diversified than market gardening. At fi...

Shull, Clifford

(Encyclopedia)Shull, Clifford, 1915–2001, American physicist, b. Pittsburgh, Pa. Educated at Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) and New York Univ. (Ph.D., 1941), Shull was on the st...

San Marcos

(Encyclopedia)San Marcos săn märˈkəs [key]. 1 City (1990 pop. 38,974), San Diego co., S Calif., a northern suburb of San Diego; settled 1880s, inc. 1963. Citrus fruit, avocados, flowers, and ornamental plants a...

Canadian

(Encyclopedia)Canadian kənāˈdēən [key], river, 906 mi (1,458 km) long, rising in NE New Mexico. and flowing E across N Texas and central Oklahoma into the Arkansas River in E Oklahoma. In the mid-1800s, the Ca...

resurrection plant

(Encyclopedia)resurrection plant, name for several plants, usually of arid regions, that may apparently be brought back to life after they are dead. In reality they have hygroscopic qualities which cause them to cu...

Kickapoo

(Encyclopedia)Kickapoo kĭkˈəpo͞o [key], Native North Americans whose language belongs to the Algonquian branch of the Algonquian-Wakashan linguistic stock (see Native American languages) and who in the late 17t...

curassow

(Encyclopedia)curassow kyûrˈəsōˌ [key], common name for the largest members of an order of game birds called pigeon-toed fowls, which includes the white-crested guan and the rufous-bellied chachalaca, Ortalis ...