Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Santa María sänˈtä märēˈä [key], active volcano, 12,375 ft (3,772 m) high, SW Guatemala, in the Sierra Madre near the city of Quetzaltenango. Its eruption in 1902 was one of the largest of the...

(Encyclopedia) microelectronics, branch of electronic technology devoted to the design and development of extremely small electronic devices that consume very little electric power. Although the term is sometimes us...

(Encyclopedia) Guesde, Jules zhül gĕd [key], 1845–1922, French socialist, whose original name was Basile. Exiled for his support of the Paris commune, he became a confirmed Marxist after 1876 and, with Paul Lafa...

(Encyclopedia) Camp Fire Boys and Girls, American organization for boys and girls from birth to age 21, originally the Camp Fire Girls, for girls 6 to 18 years old. It was founded (1910) by Luther Halsey Gulick (186...

(Encyclopedia) Moscow or Muscovy, grand duchy of, state existing in W central Russia from the late 14th to mid-16th cent., with the city of Moscow as its nucleus. Its formation and eventual ascendancy over other Rus...

(Encyclopedia) bloat, excessive accumulation of gases in the rumen, the first stomach of a cud-chewing animal. Bloat is probably formed to a large extent by bacterial action. It occurs in all ruminants, but is most ...

(Encyclopedia) Hopkins, Sir Frederick Gowland, 1861–1947, English biochemist, educated at Cambridge and the Univ. of London. He was professor of biochemistry at Cambridge (1914–43). Among his contributions were ...

(Encyclopedia) Macphail, Agnes Campbell məkfālˈ [key], 1890–1954, Canadian legislator, b. Ontario. She was elected (1921) to the Canadian House of Commons as a representative of the United Farmers of Ontario an...

(Encyclopedia) papaverine pəpăvˈərēn [key], alkaloid found in opium that acts as a muscle relaxant and vasodilator. The drug relaxes the smooth muscle of the larger blood vessels and is used to increase the blo...

(Encyclopedia) haze, suspension in the atmosphere of minute dust or salt particles that are not individually seen but that nevertheless reduce visibility. So-called damp haze and dry haze produce different optical e...