Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) coenzyme kō-ĕnˈzīm [key], any one of a group of relatively small organic molecules required for the catalytic function of certain enzymes. A coenzyme may either be attached by covalent bonds to a ...

(Encyclopedia) Northwest Passage, water routes through the Arctic Archipelago, N Canada, and along the northern coast of Alaska between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Even though the explorers of the 16th cent. de...

(Encyclopedia) euthanasia yo͞oˌthənāˈzhə [key], either painlessly putting to death or failing to prevent death from natural causes in cases of terminal illness or irreversible coma. The term comes from the Gre...

(Encyclopedia) Moynihan, Daniel Patrick moiˈnĭhănˌ [key], 1927–2003, American sociologist and politician, b. Tulsa, Okla., grad. Tufts (B.A., 1948; M.A., 1949; Ph.D., 1961). Raised in a poor neighborhood of Ne...

(Encyclopedia) National Recovery Administration (NRA), in U.S. history, administrative bureau established under the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933. In response to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's cong...

(Encyclopedia) Petrobras scandal, Brazilian corruption scandal involving executives at the government-controlled oil company, Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. (Petrobras), prominent politicians, and construction firms work...

(Encyclopedia)  Morgenthau, Robert Morris, , 1919-2009, b. New York, N.Y, Amherst College (B.A., 1941); Yale Univ. Law School (J.D., 1948). He was the son of Henry Mor...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Types of buttresses buttress, mass of masonry built against a wall to strengthen it. It is especially necessary when a vault or an arch places a heavy load or thrust on one part of a wall. In t...

(Encyclopedia) cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), emergency procedure used to treat victims of cardiac and respiratory arrest. CPR can be done in a hospital with drugs and special equipment or as a first-aid techn...

(Encyclopedia) Church Slavonic, language belonging to the South Slavic group of the Slavic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Slavic languages). Although it is still the liturgical language of m...