Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) poisonous plant, any plant possessing a property injurious to man or animal. Plants may be poisonous to the touch (e.g., poison ivy, poison sumac), or orally toxic (e.g., poison hemlock, deadly amanit...

(Encyclopedia) Surgut so͞orˈgo͞ot [key], city (1989 pop. 248,000), in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Region, Siberian Russia, on the Ob river. An oil and gas center as well as a port, it is connected by rail and pip...

(Encyclopedia) Belaya byĕlˈəyə [key] [Rus.,=white], river, c.880 mi (1,420 km) long, Bashkortostan, E European Russia. It rises in the Ural Mts. and winds generally NW past Beloretsk, Sterlitamak (where it becom...

(Encyclopedia) Browne, Thomas Alexander, pseud. Rolf Boldrewood rōf bôlˈdərwo͝odˌ, rôlf [key], 1826–1915, Australian author. A squatter, a magistrate, and a commissioner in the gold fields, he wrote many bo...

(Encyclopedia) Evans-Pritchard, Edward Evan, 1902–73, English social anthropologist. He made several expeditions to Africa. His major contributions lie in the fields of social anthropology and comparative religion...

(Encyclopedia) Lorde, Audre, 1934–1992, African-American poet, essayist, and civil rights activist, b. New York City, grad. Columbia (M.L.S. 1961). Lorde was born to...

(Encyclopedia) biotechnology, the use of biological processes, as through the exploitation and manipulation of living organisms or biological systems, in the development or manufacture of a product or in the technol...

(Encyclopedia) jurisprudence jo͝orˌĭspro͞odˈəns [key], study of the nature and the origin and development of law. It is variously regarded as a branch of ethics or of sociology. Many of the major systematic ph...

(Encyclopedia) Scythia sĭthˈēə [key], ancient region of Eurasia, extending from the Danube on the west to the borders of China on the east. The Scythians flourished from the 8th to the 4th cent. b.c. They spoke ...

(Encyclopedia) geriatrics jĕrēăˈtrĭks [key], the branch of medicine concerned with conditions and diseases of the aged. Many disabilities in old age are caused by or related to the deterioration of the circulat...