Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) National Academy of Sciences, with headquarters in Washington, D.C., a private organization of leading American scientists and engineers devoted to the furtherance of science and its use for the gener...

(Encyclopedia) Manabe, Syukuro, 1931– , Japanese climatologist and meteorologist, D.Sc. University of Tokyo, 1958. Manabe has been instrumental in the development of...

(Encyclopedia) Tulun tŭlo͞onˈ [key] inhabited atoll, Papua New Guinea, SW Pacific, in the N Solomons Islands chain 45 mi (72 km) NE of Buka. Also known as the Carteret Islands, Carteret Atoll, and Kilinailau, the...

(Encyclopedia) Eliasson, Olafur, 1967–, Danish sculptor, architect, and installation artist. His work is influenced by nature and natural phenomena. Early works involved frozen water droplets, electric fans, and s...

(Encyclopedia) United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) or Earth Summit, an 11-day meeting held in June, 1992, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to discuss the global conflict between economic devel...

(Encyclopedia) Hansen, James Edward, 1941–, American astrophysicist and climatologist, b. Denison, Iowa, Ph.D. Univ. of Iowa, 1967. In 1967 he joined the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and served as director...

(Encyclopedia) erosion ĭrōˈzhən [key], general term for the processes by which the surface of the earth is constantly being worn away. The principal agents are gravity, running water, near-shore waves, ice (most...

(Encyclopedia) permafrost, permanently frozen soil, subsoil, or other deposit, characteristic of arctic and some subarctic regions; similar conditions are also found at very high altitudes in mountain ranges. In 196...

(Encyclopedia) Ban Ki-Moon bän gē-mo͞on [key], 1944–, South Korean diplomat, secretary-general of the United Nations (2007–16), b. Chungju, grad. Seoul National Univ. (B.S., 1970), Kennedy School of Governmen...

(Encyclopedia) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, scientific research centers run by the Univ. of California, located in Berkeley, Calif., and Livermore, Calif., respec...