Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

astatine

(Encyclopedia)astatine ăsˈtətēn, –tĭn [key] [Gr.,=unstable], semimetallic radioactive chemical element; symbol At; at. no. 85; at. wt. of most stable isotope 210; m.p. 302℃ (estimated); b.p. 337℃ (estima...

lawrencium

(Encyclopedia)lawrencium, artificially produced radioactive chemical element; symbol Lr; at. no. 103; mass number of most stable isotope 262; m.p. about 1,627℃; b.p. and sp. gr. unknown; valence +3. Lawrencium is...

yttrium

(Encyclopedia)yttrium ĭtˈrēəm [key] [for Ytterby, a town in Sweden], metallic chemical element; symbol Y; at. no. 39; at. wt. 88.90585; m.p. about 1,522℃; b.p. 3,338℃; sp. gr. about 4.45; valence +3. Yttriu...

O'Toole, Erin Michael

(Encyclopedia)O'Toole, Erin Michael, 1973–, Canadian politician. He served in the Royal Canadian Air Force (1991–2000), then earned a law degree and practised corporate law. A member of the Conservative party, ...

Wirtz, William Willard

(Encyclopedia)Wirtz, William Willard, 1912–2010, U.S. secretary of labor (1962–69), b. DeKalb, Ill. A professor of law at Northwestern Univ. (1939–42), he served (1943–45) with the War Labor Board and was (...

Boltzmann, Ludwig

(Encyclopedia)Boltzmann, Ludwig lo͝otˈvĭkh bôltsˈmän [key], 1844–1906, Austrian physicist, b. Vienna, educated at Univ. of Vienna. He began teaching (1869) at Graz Univ. In 1873 he became mathematics profes...

Vattel, Emerich de

(Encyclopedia)Vattel, Emerich de āˈmərĭkh də vätĕlˈ [key], 1714–67, Swiss philosopher and jurist. He served (1746–58) as Saxon minister at Bern and later in the cabinet of Augustus III at Dresden. He is...

reprisal

(Encyclopedia)reprisal, in international law, the forcible taking, in time of peace, by one country of the property or territory belonging to another country or to the citizens of the other country, to be held as a...

Frankfurter, Felix

(Encyclopedia)Frankfurter, Felix, 1882–1965, American jurist, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1939–62), b. Vienna, Austria. He emigrated to the United States as a boy and later received (1906) his ...

benefit of clergy

(Encyclopedia)benefit of clergy, term originally applied to the exemption of Christian clerics from criminal prosecution in the secular courts. The privilege was established by the 12th cent., and it extended only ...