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typhoid fever

(Encyclopedia)typhoid fever acute, generalized infection caused by Salmonella typhi. The main sources of infection are contaminated water or milk and, especially in urban communities, food handlers who are carriers...

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 ...

Velasco, José María

(Encyclopedia)Velasco, José María hōsāˈ märēˈä vāläsˈkō [key], 1840–1912, Mexican landscape painter; teacher of Diego Rivera. A gifted artisan descended from a family of shawl weavers, he entered the...

Fox sisters

(Encyclopedia)Fox sisters, family of American spiritualists including Margaret, 1836–93, Leah, 1814–90, and Catherine, 1841–92. In 1848, Margaret and Catherine claimed to hear mysterious rappings in their Arc...

Fuller, Loie

(Encyclopedia)Fuller, Loie lōˈē [key], 1862–1928, American dancer and theatrical innovator, b. Fullersburg, Ill., as Mary Louise Fuller. She began her career as a child, performing in burlesque, vaudeville, th...

Johnson, Uwe

(Encyclopedia)Johnson, Uwe üˈvā yônˈzôn [key], 1934–84, German novelist. Johnson's works explore the complex effects on the average German of the postwar division of their nation, both halves of which he se...

Kendall, Edward Calvin

(Encyclopedia)Kendall, Edward Calvin, 1886–1972, American biochemist, b. South Norwalk, Conn., grad. Columbia (B.S., 1908; Ph.D., 1910). At St. Luke's Hospital, New York City, he did research on the thyroid gland...

Strozzi, Bernardo

(Encyclopedia)Strozzi, Bernardo strôtˈtsē [key], 1581–1644, Italian painter, b. Genoa. He is considered one of the greatest of the generation of early 17th-century Italian painters who made the transition fro...

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...

Burns, Ken

(Encyclopedia)Burns, Ken (Kenneth Lauren Burns), 1953–, American documentary filmmaker, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., grad. Hampshire College (1975). Acting as producer, director, and cinematographer, Burns typically explor...