Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

Obsolete name for Down syndrome. Down syndrome refers to the 19th century English physician J. Langdon Down who described the condition in 1866. In great error, Langdon Down attributed the condition to a “reversion” to the “mongoloid race.” He held that evolution had been reversed and there had been a sort of backslide from the…

The study of biology on a molecular level including the structure, function, and makeup of biologically important molecules such as DNA, RNA, and proteins. The field of molecular biology involves many other areas of biology such as biochemistry and genetics.

1. In dermatology a mole is a pigmented spot on the skin. The medical term for mole is melanocytic nevus (a nevus composed of melanocytes). 2. In gynecology, a mass within the uterus formed of partly developed products of conception.3. In biochemistry, the molecular weight of a substance. In more technical terms, a mole is the number of atoms in exactly 12 g of carbon-12.…

An oral drug first approved by the FDA in 1998 for the treatment of narcolepsy, a condition in which there is an uncontrollable desire to sleep. Modafinil promotes wakefulness. In 2004 the FDA also approved modafinil for the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea and sleeping problems caused by shift work. Modafinil is said to be in common “off-label” use by…

Metallomembrane endopeptidase, also known as membrane metalloendopeptidase. MME is also called CALLA (Common Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia antigen) a cell surface marker for the most common form of acute lymphocytic leukemia. There is however some confusion regarding the specificity of this marker. MME is identical to neutral endopeptidase and is the target of antibodies directed against podocytes- cells which line the glomerulus or primary…

In medicine, the abbreviation for meningomyelocele (spina bifida), malignant melanoma, and multiple myeloma. (In lower case letters, mm stands for millimeter.)

A type of childhood leukemia in which a piece of chromosome 11 has been translocated (broken off and attached itself to another chromosome). Children with this type of leukemia have a particularly poor prognosis (outlook). The name comes from the fact that that the gene expression profiles in this disease differ from those seen in ALL and AML. They usually have…

One of a number of diseases characterized by a decrease in the amount of mitochondrial DNA in affected body tissues. Mitochondria are structures within cells that are important for converting food into an energy form that cells can use, and they contain a small amount of DNA, although most of a cell’s DNA resides within…

Misophonia: a rare disorder in which certain sounds provoke extreme reactions of dislike or hatred in the affected individual. An example of mild misophonia is an aversion to the sound of fingernails scraping a blackboard. When the condition is more severe, the offending sound can produce rage, disgust, panic, hatred, suicidal thoughts, or a desire to flee. It…

Contraction of the pupil. The opposite of miosis is mydriasis.