Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Merezhkovsky, Dmitri Sergeyevich dəmēˈtrē syĭrgāˈyəvĭch mârĭshkôfˈskē [key], 1865–1941, Russian critic and novelist. His principal critical study is Tolstoi as Man and Artist; with an ...

(Encyclopedia) Gödel, Kurt göˈdəl [key], 1906–78, American mathematician and logician, b. Brünn (now Brno, Czech Republic), grad. Univ. of Vienna (Ph.D., 1930). He came to the United States in 1940 and was na...

(Encyclopedia) Castagno, Andrea del ändrĕˈä dĕl kästäˈnyō [key], c.1423–1457, major Florentine painter of the early Renaissance. His first recorded painting (1440; now destroyed), effigies of hanged men, ...

(Encyclopedia) Shapur II or Sapor II, 310–79, king of Persia (310–79), of the Sassanid, or Sassanian, dynasty. He was the posthumous son of Hormuz II and therefore was born king. His long reign was marked by gre...

(Encyclopedia) Stoddart, James Fraser, 1942–, British chemist, Ph.D. Univ. of Edinburgh, 1966. He began his career at Sheffield Univ., England, in 1970, then moved to Birmingham Univ., England, in 1990, the Univ. ...

(Encyclopedia) referendum, referral of proposed laws or constitutional amendments to the electorate for final approval. This direct form of legislation, along with the initiative, was known in Greece and other early...

(Encyclopedia) separation, in law, either the voluntary agreement of husband and wife to live apart or a partial dissolution of the marriage relation by court order. The marriage bond remains, and remarriage of eith...

(Encyclopedia) Grubbs, Robert Howard, 1942–2021, American chemist, b. near Possum Trot, Ky., Univ. of Florida (B.S., 1963; M.S., 1965), Columbia, Univ. (Ph.D, 1968)....

(Encyclopedia) Roderick rŏdˈərĭk [key], d. 711?, last Visigothic king in Spain (710–711?). After the death of King Witiza, a group of nobles chose Roderick, duke of Baetica, as successor to the king. Having de...

(Encyclopedia) cross-laminated timber (CLT), manufactured wood panels that consist of layers of boards glued together under pressure with the grain of the boards in one layer running perpendicular to the grain in ad...