Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Ohsumi, Yoshinori

(Encyclopedia)Ohsumi, Yoshinori, 1945–, Japanese biologist, Ph.D. Univ. of Tokyo, 1974. He was a researcher at the Univ. of Tokyo from 1977 to 1996, when he joined the National Institute for Basic Biology in Japa...

Atkins, Anna

(Encyclopedia)Atkins, Anna, 1799–1871, English photographer and botanist who specialized in images of botanical specimens. The daughter of scientist John George Children, she married John Pelly Atkins in 1825. Sh...

combing

(Encyclopedia)combing, process that follows carding in the preparation of fibers for spinning, lays the fibers parallel, and removes noils (short fibers). The modern combing machine is a specialized carding machine...

Roebuck, John

(Encyclopedia)Roebuck, John, 1718–94, English physician, chemist, and inventor. He acted as a chemical consultant to local industries in Birmingham and invented the lead chamber process of manufacturing sulfuric ...

Petrucci, Ottaviano dei

(Encyclopedia)Petrucci, Ottaviano dei ōtˌtävyäˈnō dāˈē pātro͞otˈchē [key], 1466–1539, Venetian printer. Petrucci was the inventor of printing music by movable metal type. His patent for the process w...

graining

(Encyclopedia)graining, process of painting by which natural wood grain is imitated. It was common practice in the late 19th cent. to grain cheap, soft woods to give them the appearance of rare, expensive ones. A l...

Dionysius the Areopagite, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Dionysius the Areopagite, Saint ârēŏpˈəjīt [key], fl. 1st cent. a.d., Athenian Christian, converted by St. Paul. Acts 17.34. Tradition has made him a martyr and the first bishop of Athens. He ha...

Dura, in the Bible

(Encyclopedia)Dura, in the Bible, plain, near Babylon, where Nebuchadnezzar set up a golden image.

Browse by Subject