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kosher

(Encyclopedia)kosher [Heb.,=proper, i.e., fit for use], in Judaism, term used in rabbinic literature to mean what is ritually correct, but most widely applied to food that is in accordance with dietary laws based o...

placenta

(Encyclopedia)placenta pləsĕnˈtə [key] or afterbirth, organ that develops in the uterus during pregnancy. It is a unique characteristic of the higher (or placental) mammals. In humans it is a thick mass, about ...

aerobics

(Encyclopedia)aerobics ârōˈbiks [key], [Gr.,=with oxygen], system of endurance exercises that promote cardiovascular fitness by producing and sustaining an elevated heart rate for a prolonged period of time, the...

tamoxifen

(Encyclopedia)tamoxifen təmŏkˈsĭfĕnˌ [key], synthetic hormone used in the treatment of breast cancer. Introduced in 1978, tamoxifen is used to prevent recurrences of cancer in women who have already undergone...

Vane, Sir John Robert

(Encyclopedia)Vane, Sir John Robert, 1927–2004, British pharmacologist, Ph.D. Oxford, 1953. With B. I. Samuelsson and Sune K. Bergström, Vane was awarded the 1982 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The trio ...

Tertullian

(Encyclopedia)Tertullian (Quintus Septimus Florens Tertullianus) tûrtŭlˈyən [key], c.160–c.230, Roman theologian and Christian apologist, b. Carthage. He was the son of a centurion and was well educated, espe...

rattan

(Encyclopedia)rattan rătănˈ [key], name for a number of plants of the genera Calamus, Daemonorops, and Korthalsia climbing palms of tropical Asia, belonging to the family Palmae (palm family). Rattan leaves, unl...

reserpine

(Encyclopedia)reserpine rĕsûrˈpēn [key], alkaloid isolated from the root of the snakeroot plant (Rauwolfia serpentina), a small evergreen climbing shrub of the dogbane family native to the Indian subcontinent. ...

Semenza, Gregg Leonard

(Encyclopedia)Semenza, Gregg Leonard, 1956–, American oncologist and molecular biologist, b. New York City, Ph.D. Univ. of Pennsylvania, 1984. Semenza has spent his entire career at the Johns Hopkins School of Me...

prostaglandin

(Encyclopedia)prostaglandin prŏsˌtəglănˈdən [key], any of a group of about a dozen compounds synthesized from fatty acids in mammals as well as in lower animals. Prostaglandins are highly potent substances th...