Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Kyushu kyo͞oˈsho͞o [key], island (1990 pop. 13,064,955), c.13,760 sq mi (35,640 sq km), S Japan. It is the third largest, southernmost, and most densely populated of the major islands of Japan. It ...

(Encyclopedia) Aravena, Alejandro 1967–, Chilean architect, b. Santiago, grad. Pontifical Catholic Univ. of Chile, Santiago (1992). Inspired by public service as much as by aesthetic concerns, he has focused on in...

(Encyclopedia) weed, common term for any wild plant, particularly an undesired plant, growing in cultivated ground, where it competes with crop plants for soil nutrients and water. In their natural habitat, wildflow...

(Encyclopedia) Bezos, Jeffrey Preston bāˈzōs [key], 1964– American business executive and on-line retailing pioneer, b. Albuquerque, N.M., grad. Princeton (B.S.E., 1986). He worked in computer technology for se...

(Encyclopedia) Sandage, Allan Rex, 1926–2010, American astronomer, b. Iowa City, Iowa, Ph.D. California Institute of Technology, 1953. He was a graduate student under Walter Baade and an assistant to Edwin Hubble....

(Encyclopedia) Gibson, William, 1948–, Canadian science fiction writer, b. Conway, S.C., moved to Canada in the 1960s. He first published short stories in sci-fi magazines; many are collected in Burning Chrome (19...

(Encyclopedia) go or i-go, a board game popular in Japan that probably originated in China or India as long ago as the third millennium b.c. The board is marked by a grid of 19 horizontal and 19 vertical lines to fo...

(Encyclopedia) universe, totality of matter and energy in existence. The study of the origin of the universe, or cosmos, is known as cosmogony, and that of its structure and evolution, cosmology. The age of the univ...

(Encyclopedia) color-field painting, abstract art movement that originated in the 1960s. Coming after the abstract expressionism of the 1950s, color-field painting represents a sharp change from the earlier movement...

(Encyclopedia) cloister, unroofed space forming part of a religious establishment and surrounded by the various buildings or by enclosing walls. Generally, it is provided on all sides with a vaulted passageway consi...