Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) mechanics, branch of physics concerned with motion and the forces that tend to cause it; it includes study of the mechanical properties of matter, such as density, elasticity, and viscosity. Mechanics...

(Encyclopedia) biology, the science that deals with living things. It is broadly divided into zoology, the study of animal life, and botany, the study of plant life. Subdivisions of each of these sciences include cy...

(Encyclopedia) Watson, James Dewey, 1928–, American biologist and educator, b. Chicago, Ill., grad. Univ. of Chicago, 1947, Ph.D. Univ. of Indiana, 1950. With F. H. C. Crick he began (1951) research on the molecul...

(Encyclopedia) Blind River, town, S Ont., Canada, on North Channel of Lake Huron. It is the center of the Algoma uranium fields. Just to the east of the town is Ontari...

(Encyclopedia) lyric, in ancient Greece, a poem accompanied by a musical instrument, usually a lyre. Although the word is still often used to refer to the songlike quality in poetry, it is more generally used to ref...

(Encyclopedia) Bennett, James Gordon, 1841–1918, American newspaper proprietor, b. New York City; son of James Gordon Bennett. Educated mostly in France, he took over (1867) from his father the management of the N...

(Encyclopedia) Starr, Belle, 1848?–89, American outlaw, b. near Carthage, Mo. Her original name was Myra Belle (or Maybelle) Shirley. Her family members were Confederate sympathizers, and her father was a farmer w...

(Encyclopedia) Powell, John Wesley, 1834–1902, American geologist and ethnologist, b. Mt. Morris (now part of New York City). The family moved to Illinois, where Powell joined the Natural History Society, making c...

(Encyclopedia) Domesday Book do͞omzˈdā [key], record of a general census of England made (1085–86) by order of William I (William the Conqueror). The survey ascertained the economic resources of most of the cou...

(Encyclopedia) body-marking, painting, tattooing, or scarification (cutting or burning) of the body for ritual, esthetic, medicinal, magic, or religious purposes. Evidence from prehistoric burials, rock carvings, an...