Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Osterman, Andrei Ivanovich, Count əndrāˈ ēväˈnəvĭch əstyĭrmänˈ [key], 1686–1747, Russian statesman, b. Germany. His original name was Heinrich Johann Friedrich Ostermann. Under Czar Pete...

(Encyclopedia) Chern, Shiing-Shen, 1911–2004, Chinese-American mathematician, b. Kashing (now Jiaxing), China, D.Sc. Hamburg, 1936. While undertaking graduate studies in China (1932–34), Chern developed what bec...

(Encyclopedia) Turnverein to͝ornˈfərīn [key], society of a type originated in Prussia by Friedrich Ludwig Jahn. The first hall of such a society was built in 1811 on the Hasenheide athletic grounds, near Berlin....

(Encyclopedia) epinephrine ĕpˌənĕfˈrīn [key], hormone important to the body's metabolism, also known as adrenaline. Epinephrine, a catecholamine, together with norepinephrine, is secreted principally by the me...

(Encyclopedia) Menger, Carl kärl mĕngˈər [key], 1840–1921, Austrian economist, a founder of the Austrian school of economics. He was professor of economics at the Univ. of Vienna from 1873 until 1903, when he ...

(Encyclopedia) X-ray crystallography, the study of crystal structures through X-ray diffraction techniques. When an X-ray beam bombards a crystalline lattice in a given orientation, the beam is scattered in a defini...

(Encyclopedia) Riemann, Bernhard (Georg Friedrich Bernhard Riemann) gāˈôrk frēˈdrĭkh bĕrnˈhärt rēˈmän [key], 1826–66, German mathematician. He studied at the universities of Göttingen and Berlin and w...

(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...

(Encyclopedia) Sturm und Drang shto͝orm o͝ont dräng [key] or Storm and Stress, movement in German literature that flourished from c.1770 to c.1784. It takes its name from a play by F. M. von Klinger, Wirrwarr; od...

(Encyclopedia) geopolitics, method of political analysis, popular in Central Europe during the first half of the 20th cent., that emphasized the role played by geography in international relations. Geopolitical theo...