Surgery, branch of medicine concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of injuries and the excision and repair of pathological conditions by means of operative procedures (see also anesthesia;...

Washington University, at St. Louis, Mo.; coeducational; est. as Eliot Seminary 1853, opened 1854, renamed 1857. It has a well-known medical school and school of social work as well as researc...

Radiation weapon or radiological weapon, a bomb or warhead that uses conventional chemical explosives to disperse radioactive material, sometimes called a dirty bomb. Designed to produce radia...

Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), an independent U.S. government commission, created by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 and charged with licensing and regulating civilian use of nucle...

Pneumothorax, collapse of a lung with escape of air into the pleural cavity between the lung and the chest wall. The cause may be traumatic (e.g., gunshot or stab wound), spontaneous (rupture ...

Food and Drug Administration (FDA), agency of the Public Health Service division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is charged with protecting public health by ensuring th...

Americium, artificially produced radioactive chemical element; symbol Am; at. no. 95; mass no. of most stable isotope 243; m.p. about 1,175°C; b.p. about 2,600°C; sp. gr. 13.67 at 20°C; valenc...

Curie, family of French scientists. Pierre Curie, 1859–1906, scientist, and his wife, Marie Sklodowska Curie, 1867–1934, chemist and physicist, b. Warsaw, are known for their work on radioacti...

Uranium, radioactive metallic chemical element; symbol U; at. no. 92; at. wt. 238.0289; m.p. 1,132°C; b.p. 3,818°C; sp. gr. 19.1 at 25°C; valence +3, +4, +5, or +6. Uranium is a hard, dense, m...