Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Tsien, Roger Yonchien, 1952–2016, American biochemist, b. New York City, Ph.D. Cambridge, 1977. Tsien was a researcher at Cambridge (1977–81) and a professor at the Univ. of California, Berkeley (...

(Encyclopedia) Betzig, Robert Eric, 1960–, American physicist, b. Ann Arbor, Mich., Ph.D. Cornell, 1988. Betzig worked at AT&T Bell Laboratories from 1988 to 1996, when he become vice president of research and...

(Encyclopedia) Rosbash, Michael Morris, 1944–, American geneticist, b. Kansas City, Mo., Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1970. Rosbash has been a professor at Brandeis Univ. since 1974, and he is also ...

(Encyclopedia) Ponca, Native North Americans whose language belongs to the Siouan branch of the Hokan-Siouan linguistic stock (see Native American languages). According to tradition the group lived in the Ohio valle...

(Encyclopedia) parody, mocking imitation in verse or prose of a literary work. The following poem by Robert Southey was parodied by Lewis Carroll: “You are old, Father William,” the young man cried; “The few l...

(Encyclopedia) mako mäˈkō [key], heavy-bodied, fast-swimming shark, genus Isurus, highly prized as a game fish. Also known as the sharp-nosed mackerel shark, it is a member of the mackerel shark family, which als...

(Encyclopedia) aircraft carrier, ship designed to carry aircraft and to permit takeoff and landing of planes. The carrier's distinctive features are a upper deck (flight deck) that is flat and sometimes sloped to fu...

(Encyclopedia) franchise, in government, a right specifically conferred on a group or individual by a government, especially the privilege conferred by a municipality on a corporation of operating public utilities, ...

(Encyclopedia) stroboscope strŏbˈəskōp [key], optical instrument for making a moving object appear to be slowed down or stationary. This effect is created by interrupting the observer's view so that the object i...

(Encyclopedia) Logan, John Alexander, 1826–86, American politician, Union general in the Civil War, b. Murphysboro, Ill. He fought in the Mexican War and practiced law in Illinois. A Democrat who supported Stephen...