Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Hartwell, Leland Harrison, 1939–, American cell biologist, b. Los Angeles, Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1964. He is a professor at the Univ. of Washington (1968–) and since 1997 ha...

(Encyclopedia) vitiligo, condition that causes irregular patches of skin to lose pigment and turn white. The exact cause is unknown, but it occurs when the immune system attacks and destroys melanocytes, the cells t...

(Encyclopedia) Sharp, Phillip Allen, 1944–, American geneticist, b. Falmouth, Ky., Ph.D., Univ. of Illinois, 1969. Sharp joined the faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1974, where he has spent ...

(Encyclopedia) Bessemer, Sir Henry bĕsˈəmər [key], English engineer and inventor, b. Charleton, Hertfordshire. He made experiments to obtain stronger material for gun manufacture and discovered the basic princip...

(Encyclopedia) Rainier III rĕnyāˈ [key], 1923–2005, prince of Monaco (1949–2005), a member of the Grimaldi family, which has ruled the tiny principality since 1297. Fiercely anti-Nazi, Ranier served with dist...

(Encyclopedia) Dempsey, Jack (William Harrison Dempsey), 1895–1983, American boxer, b. Manassa, Colo. Dempsey, called the “Manassa Mauler,” emerged from fights on saloon floors near mining camps to become (191...

(Encyclopedia) Roberts, Richard John, 1943–, British biochemist, Ph.D., Univ. of Sheffield, 1968. Roberts joined James D. Watson's Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York in 1972, becoming assistant director for...

(Encyclopedia) Sardou, Victorien vēktôryăNˈ särdo͞oˈ [key], 1831–1908, French dramatist. Author of some 70 plays, he won great popularity with his light comedies and pretentious historical pieces, but his r...

(Encyclopedia) angioplasty ănˈjēōplăsˌtē [key], any surgical repair of a blood vessel, especially balloon angioplasty or percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty, a treatment of coronary artery disease....

(Encyclopedia) Grace, 1929–82, princess consort of Monaco, b. Philadelphia as Grace Patricia Kelly. She acted on stage and television in New York, and made her film debut in 1951. Cool, blonde, and patrician, she ...