Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

420 results found

Howard Hughes Medical Institute

(Encyclopedia)Howard Hughes Medical Institute, (HHMI), nonprofit medical research organization founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes and largly funded from proceeds of the 1984–85 sale of Hughes Aircraft. Headquartere...

Everett

(Encyclopedia)Everett. 1 City (2020 pop. 49,075), Middlesex co., E Mass., an industrial suburb of Boston, on the Mystic River; settled c.1643, set off ...

shock wave

(Encyclopedia)shock wave, wave formed of a zone of extremely high pressure within a fluid, especially the atmosphere, that propagates through the fluid at a speed in excess of the speed of sound. A shock wave is ca...

photonics

(Encyclopedia)photonics, the science and technology based on and concerned with the controlled flow of photons, or light particles. It is the optical equivalent of electronics, and the two technologies coexist in s...

turn and bank indicator

(Encyclopedia)turn and bank indicator, aircraft instrument containing one indicator to show turning, or rotation about the vertical axis, and another to show banking, or rotation about the longitudinal axis. The tw...

Thunder Bay

(Encyclopedia)Thunder Bay, city (1991 pop. 113,946), SW Ont., Canada, on Thunder Bay inlet of Lake Superior. The city was created in 1970 by the amalgamation of the twin cities of Fort William and Port Arthur and t...

Nuffield, William Richard Morris, 1st Viscount

(Encyclopedia)Nuffield, William Richard Morris, 1st Viscount nŭfˈēld [key], 1877–1963, English automobile manufacturer and philanthropist. Beginning his career as the proprietor of a bicycle shop, he later bec...

avionics

(Encyclopedia)avionics āˌvēŏnˈĭks [key], electronic instruments used in air or space flight; also the design and production of such instruments. Early planes had few instruments, but as aviation and aircraft ...

carburetor

(Encyclopedia)carburetor kärˈbyərāˈtər, –bə– [key], part of a gasoline engine in which liquid fuel is converted into a vapor and mixed with a regulated amount of air for combustion in the cylinders. Land...

Portsmouth, cities, United States

(Encyclopedia)Portsmouth. 1 City (1990 pop. 25,925), Rockingham co., SE N.H., a port of entry with a good harbor and a state-owned port terminal at the mouth of the Piscataqua River opposite Kittery, Maine; inc. 16...