Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Oddsson, Davíð

(Encyclopedia)Oddsson, Davíð däˈvĭth ōdˈsōn [key], 1948–, Icelandic politician and writer. A lawyer, radio producer, and the author of several plays and teleplays, he also worked for the Reykjavík Health...

malaria

(Encyclopedia)malaria, infectious parasitic disease that can be either acute or chronic and is frequently recurrent. Malaria is common in Africa, Central and South America, the Mediterranean countries, Asia, and ma...

AIDS, in medicine

(Encyclopedia)AIDS or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, fatal disease caused by a rapidly mutating retrovirus that attacks the immune system and leaves the victim vulnerable to infections, malignancies, and neuro...

Lefkowitz, Robert Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Lefkowitz, Robert Joseph, 1943–, American physician, b. New York City, M.D. Columbia, 1966. Since 1973 Lefkowitz has been a professor at Duke Univ.; he was appointed a Howard Hughes Medical Institut...

National Institutes of Health

(Encyclopedia)National Institutes of Health (NIH), agency of the U.S. Public Health Service, with headquarters in Bethesda, Md. It was established initially in 1887 as a laboratory in the U.S. Marine Hospital on St...

convulsion

(Encyclopedia)convulsion, sudden, violent, involuntary contraction of the muscles of the body, often accompanied by loss of consciousness. It is not known what causes the abnormal impulses from the brain that resul...

Tiselius, Arne

(Encyclopedia)Tiselius, Arne ärˈnə tēsāˈlyəs [key], 1902–71, Swedish biochemist. He received the 1948 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing new methods of separating and detecting colloids. One system (e...

Cologne

(Encyclopedia)Cologne kəlōnˈ [key], Ger. Köln, city (2021 est. metro area pop. 1,129,000), North Rhine...

virtual currency

(Encyclopedia)virtual currency, a means of payment that is electronically created and stored, more specifically an unregulated electronic medium of exchange that operates like a currency but is created and controll...

stem cells

(Encyclopedia)stem cells, unspecialized human or animal cells that can produce mature specialized body cells and at the same time replicate themselves. Embryonic stem cells are derived from a blastocyst (the blastu...

Browse by Subject