Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Tonegawa, Susumu

(Encyclopedia)Tonegawa, Susumu, 1939–, Japanese molecular biologist, Ph.D. Univ. of California at San Diego, 1969. A member of the Basel Institute for Immunology in Switzerland (1971–81), he became a professor ...

Boscovich, Ruggiero Giuseppe

(Encyclopedia)Boscovich, Ruggiero Giuseppe ro͞od-jāˈrō jo͞ozĕpˈpā bôsˈkōvēch [key], 1711–87, Italian mathematician, astronomer, and physicist. He became a Jesuit and taught at Rome, Pavia, and Milan. ...

mortar, in warfare

(Encyclopedia)mortar, in warfare, term originally applied to certain types of artillery with high trajectories, but later applied to an infantry weapon that consists of a tube supported by a bipod that fires a proj...

chemistry

(Encyclopedia)chemistry, branch of science concerned with the properties, composition, and structure of substances and the changes they undergo when they combine or react under specified conditions. Organic chemi...

specific heat

(Encyclopedia)specific heat, ratio of the heat capacity of a substance to the heat capacity of a reference substance, usually water. Heat capacity is the amount of heat needed to change the temperature of a unit ma...

Monod, Jacques

(Encyclopedia)Monod, Jacques zhäk mônōˈ [key], 1910–76, French biologist, educated at the Univ. of Paris (D.Sc., 1941). He was a leader of the French resistance in World War II. He shared the 1965 Nobel Prize...

Missouri, University of

(Encyclopedia)Missouri, University of, at Columbia (main campus), Rolla, Kansas City, and St. Louis; land-grant and state supported; coeducational; chartered 1839, opened 1841. It is the oldest state university W o...

Altman, Sidney

(Encyclopedia)Altman, Sidney, 1939–, Canadian-American molecular biologist, b. Montreal, Ph.D., Univ. of Colorado, 1967. A professor at Yale Univ. since 1971, he discovered that RNA could function as enzymes; it ...

van't Hoff, Jacobus Hendricus

(Encyclopedia)van't Hoff, Jacobus Hendricus yäkōˈbəs hĕndrēˈkəs vänt hôf [key], 1852–1911, Dutch physical chemist. He taught at the universities of Amsterdam (1878–96) and Berlin (from 1896). For his ...

Ramakrishnan, Venkatraman

(Encyclopedia)Ramakrishnan, Venkatraman, 1952–, American molecular biologist, b. India, Ph.D. Ohio Univ., 1976. He was a researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (1982–83) and at Brookhaven National Laborato...