Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Mount Wilson Observatory

(Encyclopedia)Mount Wilson Observatory, astronomical observatory located in California on Mt. Wilson, near Pasadena. Mt. Wilson Observatory was founded in 1904 by George E. Hale. Its equipment includes 100-in. (2.5...

Riis, Jacob August

(Encyclopedia)Riis, Jacob August rēs [key], 1849–1914, Danish-American journalist, photographer, and social reformer, b. Denmark. He immigrated to the United States in 1870. In 1877 he became a police reporter f...

Enquist, Per Olov

(Encyclopedia)Enquist, Per Olov or P. O. pâr ōˈläv ĕnˈkvĭst [key], 1934–2020, Swedish novelist and dramatist. He wrote more than 20 novels as well as plays, essays, screenplays, and collections of poems. H...

Houston, David Franklin

(Encyclopedia)Houston, David Franklin hyo͞oˈstən [key], 1866–1940, American cabinet officer and educator, b. Monroe, N.C., grad. South Carolina College, 1887, M.A. Harvard, 1892. He taught political science at...

Wilson, Robert Butler, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Wilson, Robert Butler, Jr., 1973–, American economist, b. Geneva, Nebr., D.B.A. Harvard, 1963. A faculty member at the Stanford Graduate School of Business since 1964 (emeritus from 2004), he is a s...

Uncle Sam

(Encyclopedia)Uncle Sam, name used to designate the U.S. government. The origins of the term are unclear. The term was believed to have arisen in the War of 1812, when it seems to have been used at first derisively...

Wilson, Colin

(Encyclopedia)Wilson, Colin, 1931–2013, English writer, b. Leicester. Born into a working-class family and largely self-educated, Wilson in many of his books exhorts humankind to expand its powers and realize its...

Wilson, Robert Woodrow

(Encyclopedia)Wilson, Robert Woodrow, 1936–, American radio astronomer, b. Houston, Tex., Ph.D. California Institute of Technology, 1962. In 1964 he and co-researcher Arno Penzias began monitoring radio waves in ...

Eve, in genetics

(Encyclopedia)Eve, in genetics, popular term for a theoretical female ancestor of all living people, also known as Mitochondrial Eve. In 1987 biochemist Allan C. Wilson proposed that all living human beings had inh...
 

Browse by Subject