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antiseptic

(Encyclopedia)antiseptic, agent that kills or inhibits the growth of microorganisms on the external surfaces of the body. Antiseptics should generally be distinguished from drugs such as antibiotics that destroy mi...

Hershey, Alfred Day

(Encyclopedia)Hershey, Alfred Day, 1908–1997, American microbiologist, b. Owosso, Mich., Ph.D., Michigan State College (now Michigan State Univ.), 1934. Hershey was a professor at the Washington Univ. School of M...

lactose

(Encyclopedia)lactose lăkˈtōs [key] or milk sugar, white crystalline disaccharide (see carbohydrate). It has the same empirical formula (C12H22O11) as sucrose (cane sugar) and maltose but differs from both in st...

Yonath, Ada E.

(Encyclopedia)Yonath, Ada E., 1939–, Israeli crystallographer, Ph.D. Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovat, Israel, 1968. Yonath has been a researcher and professor at the Weizmann Institute since 1970. She was ...

cacao

(Encyclopedia)cacao kəkäˈō, –kāˈ– [key], tropical tree (Theobroma cacao) of the family Sterculiaceae (sterculia family), native to South America, where it was first domesticated and was highly prized by t...

cheese

(Encyclopedia)cheese, food known from ancient times and consisting of the curd of milk separated from the whey. The numerous cheeses (often named for their place of origin) depend for their distinctive qualities ...

syphilis

(Encyclopedia)syphilis sĭfˈəlĭs [key], contagious sexually transmitted disease caused by the spirochete Treponema pallidum (described by Fritz Schaudinn and Erich Hoffmann in 1905). Syphilis was not widely reco...

prion

(Encyclopedia)prion prēˈŏn [key], abnormal form of a protein found in mammals, now generally believed to cause a group of diseases known as prion diseases or transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, which are ...

Ciliophora

(Encyclopedia)Ciliophora sĭlˌē-ŏfˈərə [key], phylum in the kingdom Protista consisting of the ciliates, or ciliophores, complex freshwater or saltwater protozoans that swim by the coordinated beating of thei...

fever

(Encyclopedia)fever, elevation of body temperature above the normal level, which in humans is about 98℉ (37℃) when measured orally. Fever is considered to be a symptom of a disorder rather than a disease in its...