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Florey, Howard Walter Florey, Baron

(Encyclopedia)Florey, Howard Walter Florey, Baron, 1898–1968, British pathologist, b. Australia. He was educated at Adelaide Univ. and at Cambridge and Oxford and returned to Oxford as professor of pathology in 1...

Dubos, René Jules

(Encyclopedia)Dubos, René Jules rənāˈ zhül dübōˈ [key], 1901–82, American bacteriologist, b. France, Ph.D. Rutgers, 1927. He joined the Rockefeller Institute (now Rockefeller Univ.) in 1927 and became pro...

bacitracin

(Encyclopedia)bacitracin băsˌĭtrāˈsĭn [key], antibiotic produced by a strain of the bacterial species Bacillus subtilis. It is widely used for topical therapy such as for skin and eye infections; it is effect...

biosphere

(Encyclopedia)biosphere, irregularly shaped envelope of the earth's air, water, and land encompassing the heights and depths at which living things exist. The biosphere is a closed and self-regulating system (see e...

animal

(Encyclopedia)animal, any member of the animal kingdom (kingdom Animalia), as distinguished from organisms of the plant kingdom (kingdom Plantae) and the kingdoms Fungi, Protista, and Monera in the five-kingdom sys...

adaptation

(Encyclopedia)adaptation, in biology, has several meanings. It can mean the adjustment of living matter to environmental conditions and to other living things either in an organism's lifetime (physiological adaptat...

pelvic inflammatory disease

(Encyclopedia)pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), infection of the female reproductive organs, usually resulting from infection with the bacteria that cause chlamydia or gonorrhea. The infection typically first affe...

osteomyelitis

(Encyclopedia)osteomyelitis ŏsˌtēōmīˌəlīˈtĭs [key], infection of the bone and bone marrow. Direct infection of bone usually occurs through open fractures, penetrating wounds, or surgical operations. Infec...

neomycin

(Encyclopedia)neomycin nēˌōmīˈsĭn [key], broad spectrum antibiotic effective against both gram positive and gram negative bacteria (see Gram's stain). It interferes with protein synthesis in sensitive bacteri...

diseases of plants

(Encyclopedia)diseases of plants. Most plant diseases are caused by fungi, bacteria, and viruses. Although the term disease is usually used only for the destruction of live plants, the action of dry rot and the rot...