Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

gluten

(Encyclopedia)gluten, mixture of proteins present in the cereal grains. The long molecules of gluten, insoluble in water, are strong and flexible and form many cross linkages. This gives flour its characteristic ch...

enteritis

(Encyclopedia)enteritis ĕnˌtərīˈtĭs [key], inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. Acute enteritis is not usually serious except in infants and older people, in whom the accompanying diarrhea can cause de...

Q fever

(Encyclopedia)Q fever, disease caused by Coxiella burnetii, a small, Gram-negative bacterium. The bacterium infects livestock (cattle, goats, and sheep) and other domesticated animals, and is found in the urine, fe...

antisense

(Encyclopedia)antisense, DNA or RNA manipulated in a laboratory so that its components (nucleotides) form a complementary copy of normal, or “sense,” messenger RNA (mRNA; see nucleic acid). Antisense techniques...

Szostak, Jack William

(Encyclopedia)Szostak, Jack William, 1952–, American molecular biologist, b. London, England, Ph.D. Cornell, 1977. Szostak has been a professor at Harvard Medical School and a researcher at Massachusetts General ...

alcoholism

(Encyclopedia)alcoholism, 04/00 disease characterized by impaired control over the consumption of alcoholic beverages. Alcoholism is a serious problem worldwide; in the United States the wide availability of alcoho...

Marburg virus

(Encyclopedia)Marburg virus: see Marburg virus disease; hemorrhagic fever. ...

embryo screening

(Encyclopedia)embryo screening, procedure (see genetic testing) in which a single cell is removed from an embryo two or three days after it has been conceived through in vitro fertilization and tested for genetic a...

scabies

(Encyclopedia)scabies skāˈbēz [key], highly contagious parasitic skin disease caused by the itch mite (Sarcoptes scabiei). The disease is also known as itch. It is acquired through close contact with an infested...

Colorado tick fever

(Encyclopedia)Colorado tick fever or mountain tick fever, acute disease caused by infection with a double-stranded RNA virus (a Coltvirus) that is transmitted to humans by Rocky Mountain wood ticks (Dermacentor and...