Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

kidney, artificial

(Encyclopedia)kidney, artificial, mechanical device capable of assuming the functions ordinarily performed by the kidneys. In treating cases of kidney failure a tube is inserted into an artery in the patient's arm ...

Foster, Norman Robert, Baron Foster of Thames Bank

(Encyclopedia)Foster, Norman Robert, Baron Foster of Thames Bank, 1935–, British architect, b. Manchester, grad. Manchester Univ. school of architecture (1961), Yale school of architecture (M.A., 1962). Foster an...

blister

(Encyclopedia)blister, puffy swelling of the outer skin (epidermis) caused by burn, friction, or irritants like poison ivy. A response of the body to protect deeper tissue, blisters generally contain serum, the liq...

McCulloch v. Maryland

(Encyclopedia)McCulloch v. Maryland, case decided in 1819 by the U.S. Supreme Court, dealing specifically with the constitutionality of a Congress-chartered corporation, and more generally with the dispersion of po...

Black, Eugene Robert

(Encyclopedia)Black, Eugene Robert, 1898–1992, American financier, b. Atlanta, grad. Univ. of Georgia (B.A., 1917). After serving in the navy during World War I and working at the investment firm Harris, Forbes, ...

spleen

(Encyclopedia)spleen, soft, purplish-red organ that lies under the diaphragm on the left side of the abdominal cavity. The spleen acts as a filter against foreign organisms that infect the bloodstream, and also fil...

papaverine

(Encyclopedia)papaverine pəpăvˈərēn [key], alkaloid found in opium that acts as a muscle relaxant and vasodilator. The drug relaxes the smooth muscle of the larger blood vessels and is used to increase the blo...

erythroblastosis fetalis

(Encyclopedia)erythroblastosis fetalis ərĭthˌrəblăstōˈsĭs [key], hemolytic disease of a newborn infant caused by blood group incompatibility between mother and child. Although the Rh factor is responsible f...

umbilical cord

(Encyclopedia)umbilical cord ŭmbĭlˈĭkəl [key], cordlike structure about 22 in. (56 cm) long in the pregnant human female, extending from the abdominal wall of the fetus to the placenta. Its chief function is t...

International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes

(Encyclopedia)International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), specialized agency of the United Nations. A member of the World Bank Group (see International Bank for Reconstruction and Developmen...