Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Dale, Sir Henry Hallett

(Encyclopedia)Dale, Sir Henry Hallett, 1875–1968, English scientist. For his study of acetylcholine as agent in the chemical transmission of nerve impulses he shared with Otto Loewi the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physio...

expert system

(Encyclopedia)expert system, a computer system or program that uses artificial intelligence techniques to solve problems that ordinarily require a knowledgeable human. The method used to construct such systems, kno...

F

(Encyclopedia)F, sixth letter of the alphabet. The Greek letter corresponding to it, digamma, which probably represented a sound like w, disappeared before the classical period. In Western alphabets f has usually r...

Graham, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Graham, Thomas, 1805–69, Scottish chemist, best known for research in diffusion in both gases and liquids that led to his formulation of Graham's law. His discovery that certain substances (e.g., gl...

Giauque, William Francis

(Encyclopedia)Giauque, William Francis jēōkˈ [key], 1895–1982, American chemist, b. Niagara Falls, Ont., Canada, grad. Univ. of California (B.S., 1920; Ph.D., 1922). A member of the faculty of the Univ. of Cal...

Jungius, Joachim

(Encyclopedia)Jungius, Joachim yōˈäkhĭm yo͝ongˈēo͝os [key], 1587–1657, German mathematician, logician, and systematizer of natural history. In 1608 he made his inaugural dissertation at the Univ. of Giess...

Mulliken, Robert Sanderson

(Encyclopedia)Mulliken, Robert Sanderson, 1896–1986, American chemist, b. Newburyport, Mass., Ph.D. Univ. of Chicago, 1921. Mulliken taught at New York Univ. from 1926 to 1928 and then at the Univ. of Chicago fro...

Newlands, John Alexander Reina

(Encyclopedia)Newlands, John Alexander Reina, 1838–98, British chemist. He studied at the Royal College of Chemistry in London and worked as an industrial chemist. Newlands prepared the first periodic table of el...

Wilkinson, Sir Geoffrey

(Encyclopedia)Wilkinson, Sir Geoffrey, 1921–, English inorganic chemist. He shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Ernst Otto Fischer for their independent research on the organometallic compounds of the t...

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology

(Encyclopedia)Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, at Zürich, founded 1855 as the Federal Polytechnic Institute, given its current name 1911. It is a science and technology research university with a solid reput...

Browse by Subject