Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

Abbreviation for: 1.Cognitive therapy; and, more often today2. Computerized tomography, as in CT scan. CT is pronounced as the letters C and T.

A watery fluid, continuously produced and absorbed, which flows in the ventricles (cavities) within the brain and around the surface of the brain and spinal cord. The CSF is produced by the choroid plexus, a series of infolded blood vessels projecting into the cerebral ventricles, and it is absorbed into the venous system. If production exceedes absorption, the CSF…

Popular name for both the parasite, Cryptosporidium parvum, and the disease it causes, cryptosporidiosis.

In anatomy, variously a blind alley, a tube with no exit, a depression, or a pit in an otherwise fairly flat surface. For example, the tonsillar crypts are little pitlike depressions in the tonsils.

Literally, “cold therapy.” Cryotherapy, sometimes referred to as cryosurgery, is a procedure used to destroy tissue of both benign and malignant lesions by the freezing and re-thawing process. Liquid nitrogen is the most commonly used freezing source for cryotherapy. Examples of the uses of cryotherapy in medicine are the treatment (removal) of various types of skin lesions , the treatment…

A chamber that can maintain very low temperatures. Medical laboratories use a cryostat to preserve frozen tissue samples while a microtome, an extremely sharp cutting instrument mounted inside cryostats, slices the tissue into pieces thin enough to be observed under a microscope. The sliced piece must be so thin as to look nearly transparent. A pathologist, a laboratory doctor…

An abnormal and persistent fear of cold, including cold weather and cold objects. Sufferers from cryophobia experience anxiety even though they realize their fear is irrational. To avoid cold, they may live in a warm climate, dress more warmly than necessary, stay indoors on cold days, and avoid cold foods and ice cubes. “Cryophobia” is derived from…

An expression of suicidal intent in the hope of receiving help and being rescued. A cry for help may take many different forms such as a telephone call, a message left on an answering phone, a note left in a conspicuous place, or an e-mail message. It may also be a symbolic gesture such as a superficial cut on…

An injury that occurs because of pressure from a heavy object onto a body part. A crush injury may also arise from squeezing of a body part between two objects. Depending upon their severity, crush injuries can be complicated by bleeding, bruising, broken bones, open wounds, poor circulation, or breakdown of muscle (rhabdomyolysis).

A nonmedical term in common usage for the region where the legs come together, the place where the lower limbs divide. The word “crotch” is thought to be related to the word “crutch” since the first crutches were likely fashioned from the crotch of a tree, the place where its limbs divide.