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sepal

(Encyclopedia)sepal, a modified leaf, part of the outermost of the four groups of flower parts. The sepals of a flower are collectively called the calyx and act as a protective covering of the inner flower parts in...

Steptoe, Patrick Christopher

(Encyclopedia)Steptoe, Patrick Christopher, 1913–88, British surgeon, M.D. St. George Hospital Medical School, Univ. of London, 1939. Steptoe worked at Oldham General Hospital from 1951 to 1980, when he and Briti...

swim bladder

(Encyclopedia)swim bladder, large, thin-walled sac in some fishes that may function in several ways, e.g., as a buoyant float, a sound producer and receptor, and a respiratory organ. The swim bladder, or air bladde...

infertility

(Encyclopedia)infertility, inability to conceive or carry a child to delivery. The term is usually limited to situations where the couple has had intercourse regularly for one year without using birth control. The ...

Hooker, John Lee

(Encyclopedia)Hooker, John Lee, 1917–2001, American blues singer and guitarist, b. near Clarksdale, Miss. From a cotton-sharecropping family, he learned the blues from his stepfather and various visiting Delta bl...

Forssmann, Werner

(Encyclopedia)Forssmann, Werner vĕrˈnər fôrsˈmän [key], 1904–79, German physician and physiologist, M.D. Univ. of Berlin (1929). In the late 1920s, he developed the technique of cardiac catheterization, whe...

cellophane

(Encyclopedia)cellophane, thin, transparent sheet or tube of regenerated cellulose. Cellophane is used in packaging and as a membrane for dialysis. It is sometimes dyed and can be moisture-proofed by a thin coating...

Store Bælt Bridge

(Encyclopedia)Store Bælt Bridge stôˈrə bĕlt [key], link comprising two bridges and a tunnel, S Denmark, across the Store Bælt strait (see Store Bælt and Lille Bælt) between Sjælland and Fyn islands. The en...

notochord

(Encyclopedia)notochord nōˈtəkôrdˌ [key], in biology, supporting rod running most of the length of animals of the phylum Chordata and present at varying times in the life cycle. Composed of large cells packed ...

French horn

(Encyclopedia) CE5 French horn French horn, brass wind musical instrument. Fundamentally a metal tube of narrow conical bore, it is curved into circles because of its great length. The horn ends in a wide flare....
 

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