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Murad, Ferid

(Encyclopedia)Murad, Ferid, 1936–, American pharmacologist, b. Whiting, Ind., M.D., Ph.D. Western Reserve Univ. (now Case Western Reserve Univ.), 1965. Murad taught at the Univ. of Virginia (1975–81), Stanford ...

lactic acid

(Encyclopedia)lactic acid, CH3CHOHCO2H, a colorless liquid organic acid. It is miscible with water or ethanol. Lactic acid is a fermentation product of lactose (milk sugar); it is present in sour milk, koumiss, leb...

tonsils

(Encyclopedia)tonsils, name commonly referring to the palatine tonsils, two ovoid masses of lymphoid tissue situated on either side of the throat at the back of the tongue. The pharyngeal tonsils, or adenoids, are ...

optical character recognition

(Encyclopedia)optical character recognition (OCR), method for the machine-reading of typeset, typed, and, in some cases, hand-printed letters, numbers, and symbols using optical sensing and a computer. The light re...

Pap test

(Encyclopedia)Pap test, Pap smear, or Papanicolaou test păpˌənēˈkəlou [key], medical procedure used to detect cancer of the uterine cervix (see uterus). A scraping, brushing, or smear, is taken from the surf...

Furchgott, Robert Francis

(Encyclopedia)Furchgott, Robert Francis, 1916–2009, American biochemist, b. Charleston, S.C., Ph.D. Northwestern Univ., 1940. Furchgott spent his entire career as a professor (1956–89) at the State Univ. of New...

Horvitz, H. Robert

(Encyclopedia)Horvitz, H. Robert (Howard Robert Horivtz), 1947–, American geneticist, b. Chicago, Ill., Ph.D. Harvard, 1974. Horvitz has been a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 1978. W...

Khorana, Har Gobind

(Encyclopedia)Khorana, Har Gobind, 1922–2011, American biochemist, b. Raipur (now in Pakistan), Ph.D. Univ. of Liverpool, 1948. He became a U.S. citizen in 1966, and was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute...

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...

blue baby

(Encyclopedia)blue baby, infant born with a congenital heart defect that causes a bluish coloration of the skin as a result of cyanosis (deoxygenated blood). The color is most noticeable around the lips and at the ...