Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Gaitskell, Hugh Todd Naylor

(Encyclopedia)Gaitskell, Hugh Todd Naylor gātˈskəl [key], 1906–63, British statesman. Educated at Oxford, he taught economics at the Univ. of London. During World War II he was a civil servant in the new minis...

Gambier Islands

(Encyclopedia)Gambier Islands gămˈbĭr [key], volcanic islands (6 sq mi/15.5 sq km), South Pacific, near the ...

Noda, Yoshihiko

(Encyclopedia)Noda, Yoshihiko, 1957–, Japanese political leader, prime minister of Japan, (2011–12), b. Funabashi, studied Waseda Univ. (grad. 1980) and Matsushita Institute of Government and Management. Noda b...

Yang, Chen-ning

(Encyclopedia)Yang, Chen-ning chĕn-nĭng yäng [key], 1922–, American physicist, b. China, Ph.D. Univ. of Chicago, 1948. Yang was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, N.J. from 1949 to 1955...

Bushehr

(Encyclopedia)Bushehr –shĭrˈ [key], city, SW Iran, on the Persian Gulf. It is one of the chief ports of ...

Bryansk

(Encyclopedia)Bryansk brēänskˈ [key], city (2020 est. pop. 399,000), capital of Bryansk region, central ...

Bevan, Aneurin

(Encyclopedia)Bevan, Aneurin ənīˈrĭn bĕˈvən [key], 1897–1960, British political leader. A coal miner and trade unionist, he served (1929–60) in Parliament as a member of the Labour party. As minister of ...

tritium

(Encyclopedia)tritium trĭtˈēəm [key], radioactive isotope of hydrogen with mass number 3. The tritium nucleus, called a triton, contains one proton and two neutrons. It has a half-life of 12.5 years and decays ...

Saint-Étienne

(Encyclopedia)Saint-Étienne săNtātyĕnˈ [key], city (1990 pop. 201,569), capital of Loire dept., SE France, in the Massif Central. The metropolitan region occupies much of what was once a major coal-mining and ...

cataract

(Encyclopedia)cataract, in medicine, opacity of the lens of the eye, which impairs vision. In the young, cataracts are generally congenital or hereditary; later they are usually the result of degenerative changes b...

Browse by Subject