Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) slate, fine-grained rock formed when sedimentary rocks such as shale are metamorphosed by great pressure. Slate splits into perfectly cleaved, broad thin layers; this characteristically regular and pl...

(Encyclopedia) fold, in geology, bent or deformed arrangement of stratified rocks. These rocks may be of sedimentary or volcanic origin. Although stratified rocks are normally deposited on the earth's surface in hor...

(Encyclopedia) Rowland, Frank Sherwood, 1927–2012, American chemist, b. Delaware, Ohio, Ph.D. Univ. of Chicago, 1952. Rowland taught at Princeton from 1952 to 1956 and at the Univ. of Kansas from 1956 to 1964, whe...

(Encyclopedia) Peres, Shimon shēˈmōn pârˈĕs [key], 1923–2016, Israeli politician, b. Wiszniew, Poland (now Vishnyeva, Belarus) as Shimon Perski. His family immigrated to Palestine in 1934; his grandparents, ...

(Encyclopedia) national bank, in the United States, financial institution of a class authorized by Congress in acts of 1863 and 1864. The acts were intended to provide a way of marketing the large bond issues made n...

(Encyclopedia) Tibaldi, Pellegrino pāl-lāgrēˈnō tēbälˈdē [key], 1527–96, Italian baroque painter and architect, whose real name was Pellegrino di Tibaldo de' Pellegrini. He studied in Bologna, and his ear...

(Encyclopedia) Jaurès, Jean zhäN zhōrĕsˈ [key], 1859–1914, French Socialist leader and historian. A brilliant student and teacher, he entered the chamber of deputies in 1885 and subsequently became a Socialis...

(Encyclopedia) keratin kĕrˈətĭn [key], any one of a class of fibrous protein molecules that serve as structural units for various living tissues. The keratins are the major protein components of hair, wool, nail...

(Encyclopedia) transition elements or transition metals, in chemistry, group of elements characterized by the filling of an inner d electron orbital as atomic number increases. This includes the elements from titani...

(Encyclopedia) Fehling's solution fāˈlĭngz [key], deep-blue, alkaline solution used to test for the presence of aldehydes (e.g., formaldehyde, HCHO) or other compounds that contain the aldehyde functional group, ...