Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

ergot

(Encyclopedia)ergot ûrˈgət [key], disease of rye and other cereals caused by the fungus Claviceps purpurea. The cottony, matlike body, or mycelium, of the fungus develops in the ovaries of the host plant; it eve...

apheresis

(Encyclopedia)apheresis hēˌməfĕrˈəsĭs [key], any procedure in which blood is drawn from a donor or patient and a component (platelets, plasma, or white blood cells) is separated out, the remaining blood comp...

longevity

(Encyclopedia)longevity lŏnjĕvˈĭtē [key], term denoting the length or duration of the life of an animal or plant, often used to indicate an unusually long life. The average human life-span of threescore and te...

magnetic resonance imaging

(Encyclopedia)magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), noninvasive diagnostic technique that uses nuclear magnetic resonance to produce cross-sectional images of organs and other internal body structures. The patient lies...

moon worship

(Encyclopedia)moon worship. Although the moon has not had great prominence in the history of religion, the worship of it has been known since earliest recorded time—in the oldest literatures of Egypt, Babylonia, ...

astigmatism

(Encyclopedia)astigmatism əstĭgˈmətĭzˌəm [key], type of faulty vision caused by a nonuniform curvature in the refractive surfaces—usually the cornea, less frequently the lens—of the eye. As a result, lig...

conjunctivitis

(Encyclopedia)conjunctivitis kənjəngtəvīˈtəs [key], inflammation or infection of the mucosal membrane that covers the eyeball and lines the eyelid, usually acute, caused by a virus or, less often, by a bacill...

Cushing, Harvey Williams

(Encyclopedia)Cushing, Harvey Williams, 1869–1939, American neurosurgeon, b. Cleveland, B.A. Yale, 1891, M.D. Harvard, 1895. Associated with Johns Hopkins (1896–1912), Harvard (1912–32), and Yale (1933–37),...

Dugdale, Richard Louis

(Encyclopedia)Dugdale, Richard Louis dŭgˈdāl [key], 1841–83, American social investigator, b. Paris. While inspecting (1874) county jails for the New York Prison Association, he developed data for his famous s...
 

Browse by Subject