Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) anticoagulant ănˌtēkōăgˈyələnt [key], any of several substances that inhibit blood clot formation (see blood clotting). Some anticoagulants, such as the coumarin derivatives bishydroxycoumarin...

(Encyclopedia) John Day, river, 281 mi (452 km) long, rising in several branches in the Strawberry Mts., NE Oreg., and flowing W, then N to the Columbia River. Unnavigable, the river is used to irrigate vegetable fa...

(Encyclopedia) Saint Austell sŭnt ôˈstəl; [key], town (1991 pop. 36,639), Cornwall, SW England, at the mouth of the Fowey River on St. Austell Bay. China clay (discovered there c.1755) is produced and exported, ...

(Encyclopedia) Christian of Anhalt, 1568–1630, prince of Anhalt (1603–30). He was a firm Calvinist and a skilled diplomat. As adviser to Frederick IV, elector palatine, he sought to build a strong Protestant all...

(Encyclopedia) Pleistocene epoch plīˈstəsēn [key], 6th epoch of the Cenozoic era of geologic time (see Geologic Timescale, tablegeologic timescale, table). According to a classification that considered its depos...

(Encyclopedia) Steno, Nicolaus nēls stānˈsən [key], 1638–86, Danish anatomist, geologist, and Roman Catholic prelate. He lived principally in Copenhagen, Paris, and Florence. He investigated the heart, brain, ...

(Encyclopedia) Triceratops trīsĕrˈətŏps [key] [Gr., = three-horn face], genus of ornithischian quadruped dinosaurs of the late Cretaceous period. Because of some variations in sample fossils, it was thought...

(Encyclopedia) amber, fossilized tree resin. Amber can vary in color from yellow to red to green and blue. The best commercial amber is transparent, but some varieties are cloudy. To be called amber, the resin must ...

(Encyclopedia) decay of organic matter or putrefaction, process whereby heterotrophic organisms, including some bacteria, fungi, saprophytic plants, and lower animals, utilize the remains of once-living tissue as a ...

(Encyclopedia) Weidenreich, Franz vīˈdĕnrīkh [key], 1873–1948, German anatomist and physical anthropologist. He was educated at the universities of Munich, Kiel, Berlin, and Strasbourg. In 1921 he became profe...