Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) National Institutes of Health (NIH), agency of the U.S. Public Health Service, with headquarters in Bethesda, Md. It was established initially in 1887 as a laboratory in the U.S. Marine Hospital on St...

(Encyclopedia) dog days, name for the most sultry period of summer, from about July 3 to Aug. 11. Named in early times by observers in countries bordering the Mediterranean, the period was reckoned as extending from...

(Encyclopedia) Dowie, John Alexander douˈē [key], 1847–1907, founder of the Christian Catholic Church, b. Scotland. He emigrated (1860) to Australia, where he was ordained as a Congregational minister. Dowie's t...

(Encyclopedia) Jerne, Niels Kai nēls kī yĕrˈnə [key], 1911–94, British-Danish immunologist, b. London. He worked at the Danish State Serum Institute (1945–55) and was chief medical officer to the World Heal...

(Encyclopedia) Jos Plateau jôs [key], region, c.3,000 sq mi (7,770 sq km), alt. c.4,200 ft (1,280 m), central Nigeria, W Africa. The plateau, composed mainly of granite, slopes gently to the north and is covered by...

(Encyclopedia) Kornberg, Roger David, 1947–, American biochemist, b. St. Louis, Mo., Ph.D. Stanford, 1972; son of Arthur Kornberg. Kornberg held academic posts at Cambridge (1972–76) and Harvard (1976–78) befo...

(Encyclopedia) spasm, involuntary rigid muscle contraction, often persistent and often accompanied by pain. It usually has some underlying physical cause such as disease, strain, or injury to the muscle or nearby ti...

(Encyclopedia) Ehrlich, Paul poul ārˈlĭkh [key], 1854–1915, German bacteriologist. He directed (1896) an institute for serum research at Steglitz, near Berlin, that was transferred (1899) to Frankfurt-am-Main a...

(Encyclopedia) Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), economically, socially, and environmentally responsible methods and technologies for the raising and marketing of agricultural and horticultural products. Good agric...

(Encyclopedia) influenza or flu, acute, highly contagious disease caused by a RNA virus (family Orthomyxoviridae); formerly known as the grippe. There are three types of the virus, designated A, B, and C, but only t...