Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

flame

(Encyclopedia)flame, phenomenon associated with the chemical reaction of a gas that has been heated above its kindling temperature with some other gas, usually atmospheric oxygen (see combustion). The heat and ligh...

Guyton de Morveau, Louis Bernard, Baron

(Encyclopedia)Guyton de Morveau, Louis Bernard, Baron lwē bĕrnärˈ bärôNˈ gētôNˈ də môrvōˈ [key], 1737–1816, French chemist and lawyer. He wrote the chemical section of the Encyclopédie méthodique ...

Richards, Theodore William

(Encyclopedia)Richards, Theodore William, 1868–1928, American chemist, b. Germantown, Pa., Ph.D. Harvard, 1888. Richards was a professor at Harvard from 1891 until his death in 1928. In 1914 he received the Nobel...

Woodward, Robert Burns

(Encyclopedia)Woodward, Robert Burns, 1917–80, American chemist and educator, b. Boston, grad. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (S.B., 1936; Ph.D., 1937). He taught at Harvard from 1938, becoming Donner prof...

Berthollet, Claude Louis, Comte

(Encyclopedia)Berthollet, Claude Louis, Comte klōd lwē, kôNt bĕrtōlāˈ [key], 1748–1822, French chemist. His contributions to chemistry include the analysis of ammonia and prussic acid and the discovery of ...

Love Canal

(Encyclopedia)Love Canal, section of Niagara Falls, N.Y., that formerly contained a canal that was used as chemical disposal site. In the 1940s and 50s the empty canal was used by a chemical and plastics company to...

catabolism

(Encyclopedia)catabolism kətăbˈəlĭzˌəm [key], subdivision of metabolism involving all degradative chemical reactions in the living cell. Large polymeric molecules such as polysaccharides, nucleic acids, and ...

Labrador-Ungava

(Encyclopedia)Labrador-Ungava lăbˈrədôrˌ-əngāˈvə, –əngävˈə [key], peninsular region of E Canada, c.550,000 sq mi (1,424,500 sq km), bounded on the W by Hudson Bay, on the N by Hudson Strait and Ungav...

Alexius II

(Encyclopedia)Alexius II (Alexius Comnenus), 1168–83, Byzantine emperor (1180–83), son and successor of Manuel I. His mother, Mary of Antioch, who was regent for him, alienated the population by favoring the La...

Loch

(Encyclopedia)Loch lŏkh, lŏk [key]. For names of Scottish lakes and inlets beginning with “Loch,” see second part of element; e.g., for Loch Awe, see Awe, Loch. See also lake. ...