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acquired characteristics
acquired characteristics modifications produced in an individual plant or animal as a result of mutilation, disease, use and disuse, or any distinctly environmental influence. Some examples are docking of tails, malformation caused by disease, and muscle atrophy. The belief in the inheritability of...
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pathology
pathology study of the cause of disease and the modifications in cellular function and changes in cellular structure produced in any cell, organ, or part of the body by disease. The changes in tissue include degeneration, atrophy, hypertrophy, hyperplasia, and inflammation. The microscope is an i...
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Erechtheum
Erechtheum [for Erechtheus ], Gr. Erechtheion, temple in Pentelic marble, on the Acropolis at Athens. One of the masterpieces of Greek architecture, it was constructed between c.421 BC and 405 BC to replace an earlier temple to Athena destroyed by the Persians. Its design is sometimes ascribed t...
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tyrosine
tyrosine , organic compound, one of the 20 amino acids commonly found in animal proteins. Only the l -stereoisomer appears in mammalian protein. It is not essential to the human diet, since it can be synthesized in the body from phenylalanine . When the enzyme that catalyzes the transformation...
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adaptation
adaptation in biology, has several meanings. It can mean the adjustment of living matter to environmental conditions and to other living things either in an organism's lifetime (physiological adaptation) or in a population over many many generations (evolutionary adaptation). The word can also refe...
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insulin
insulin hormone secreted by the β cells of the islets of Langerhans, specific groups of cells in the pancreas . Insufficiency of insulin in the body results in diabetes . Insulin was one of the first products to be manufactured using genetic engineering .
Action
In general, insu...
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Ptolemaic system
Ptolemaic system , historically the most influential of the geocentric cosmological theories, i.e., theories that placed the earth motionless at the center of the universe with all celestial bodies revolving around it (see cosmology ). The system is named for the Greco-Egyptian astronomer Ptolemy (...
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creed
creed [Lat. credo =I believe], summary of basic doctrines of faith. The following are historically important Christian creeds.
1 The Nicene Creed, beginning, "I believe in one God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible, and in one Lord Jesu...
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Benedictine
Benedictine a monk or nun of a Christian religious order following the rule of St Benedict, established c.540. The Rule of St Benedict was gradually adopted by most Western monastic houses, sometimes with their own modifications. Benedictines were also known as Black Monks from the colour of their ...
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eau de Cologne
eau de Cologne , dilute perfume [commonly called cologne in English] introduced c.1709 in Cologne, Germany, by Jean Marie Farina. It was probably a modification of a popular formula made before 1700 by Paul Feminis, an Italian in Cologne, and was based on bergamot and other citrus oils. The water of...
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