Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Duke, James Buchanan

(Encyclopedia)Duke, James Buchanan, 1856–1925, American industrialist, processor of tobacco products, b. near Durham, N.C. The Civil War left the Duke family poor, but James and his brother, Benjamin, helped thei...

crane, machine

(Encyclopedia)crane, hoisting machine for lifting heavy loads and transferring them from one place to another, ordinarily over distances of not more than 200 ft (60 m). Cranes have a long reach and can lift loads t...

Akerlof, George Arthur

(Encyclopedia)Akerlof, George Arthur, 1940–, American economist, b. New Haven, Conn., B.A. Yale, 1962, Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1966. He has been a professor at the Univ. of California, Berkel...

eutrophication

(Encyclopedia)eutrophication yo͞otrōˌfĭkāˈshən [key], aging of a lake by biological enrichment of its water. In a young lake the water is cold and clear, supporting little life. With time, streams draining i...

fossa

(Encyclopedia)fossa, carnivorous mammal, Cryptoprocta ferox, of Madagascar. The island's largest carnivore, the fossa resembles a puma in appearance and has semiretractable claws, but it is most closely related to ...

insectivore

(Encyclopedia)insectivore ĭnsĕkˈtəvōrˌ [key], term broadly given to any insect-eating animal or plant. The term also refers to mammals of the former order Insectivora, in which was included the shrew, mole, h...

harness

(Encyclopedia)harness, comprehensive term for the gear of a draft animal, excluding the yoke, by which it is attached to the load that it pulls. Although harnesses are used on dogs (for drawing travois and dogsleds...

glycerol

(Encyclopedia)glycerol, glycerin, glycerine, or 1,2,3-propanetriol prōˈpāntrīˌŏl [key], CH2OHCHOHCH2OH, colorless, odorless, sweet-tasting, syrupy liquid. Glycerol is a trihydric alcohol. It melts at 17.8�...

glycine

(Encyclopedia)CE5 glycine glīˈsēn [key], organic compound, one of the 20 amino acids commonly found in animal proteins. Glycine is the only one of these amino acids that is not optically active, i.e., it does...

monkeypox

(Encyclopedia)monkeypox, rare disease caused by infection with the monkeypox virus, which is related to the viruses that cause smallpox and cowpox. The symptoms of monkeypox, which typically take 1 to 2 weeks to ap...