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disease

(Encyclopedia)disease, impairment of the normal state or functioning of the body as a whole or of any of its parts. Some diseases are acute, producing severe symptoms that terminate after a short time, e.g., pneumo...

sacramental

(Encyclopedia)sacramental, in the Roman Catholic Church, aid to devotion that is not a sacrament. Sacramentals are commonly divided into six classes: prayer, anointing, eating, confession, giving, and blessings. Ac...

stromatolite

(Encyclopedia)stromatolite, layered structures produced by the binding together of sediments by a thin layer of cyanobacteria. The layers, which are deposited very slowly, gradually produce rounded or hummocklike f...

Eve, in the Bible

(Encyclopedia)Eve [Heb.,=life], in the Bible, the first woman, wife of Adam and the mother of Cain, Abel, and Seth. Fashioned from Adam's rib, she was beguiled by the serpent into eating the forbidden fruit of the ...

magnetic resonance imaging

(Encyclopedia)magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), noninvasive diagnostic technique that uses nuclear magnetic resonance to produce cross-sectional images of organs and other internal body structures. The patient lies...

psychological test

(Encyclopedia)psychological test, any of a variety of testing procedures for measuring psychological traits and behavior, or for studying some specialized aspect of ability. Several forms of testing have arisen fro...

Diomedes

(Encyclopedia)Diomedes dīˌōmēˈdēz [key], in Greek legend. 1 Son of Tydeus, he was one of the principal Greek warriors in the Trojan War. Previously he had avenged his father's death in the expedition of the E...

Beers, Clifford Whittingham

(Encyclopedia)Beers, Clifford Whittingham, 1876–1943, American founder of the mental hygiene movement, b. New Haven, Conn., grad. Sheffield Scientific School, Yale, 1897. After the publication of A Mind That Foun...

junco

(Encyclopedia)junco or snowbird, small seed-eating bird of North America closely related to the sparrows. Juncos have white underparts and gray (sometimes also brown) backs. They travel in flocks. The dark-eyed jun...