Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Body burden - Total amount of a substance in the body.
Bottom-Up - View where fundamental components are first considered, working upward to larger
perspectives. Contrast with top-down.
Butterfly effect - Sensitive dependence on initial conditions. Metaphor for the extreme sensitivity of
chaotic systems (see Chaos), in which small changes or perturbations lead to drastically different
outcomes. The phrase is derived from a butterfly flapping its wings in California, and thereby
initiating a change in weather patterns that results in the formation of a thunderstorm in Nebraska
(from Edward Lorenz in his 1963 article, “Deterministic Nonperiodic Flow,”
Journal
of
Atmospheric
Sciences
20: 130-41; although in his presentation to the New York Academy, it was not a butterfly
but a seagull's flapping of the wing that posited as the initial condition. Later in 1972, Lorenz used
the butterfly in the example).
Cancer - Disease of heritable, somatic mutations affecting cell growth and differentiation, characterized
by an abnormal, uncontrolled growth of cells. Malignant growth or tumor caused by abnormal and
uncontrolled cell division.
Carcinogen - Physical or chemical agent that induces cancer.
Cardinal virtues - Four paramount virtues in classical philosophy: justice, prudence, fortitude, or tem-
perance.
Case-control study - An epidemiologic study contrasting those with the disease of interest (cases)
to those without the disease (controls). The groups are then compared with respect to expo-
sure history, to ascertain whether they differ in the proportion exposed to the chemical(s) under
investigation.
Categorical imperative - Central theme of Immanuel Kant's deontological ethics (see Deontology or
deontological ethics) that sets one principle from which all specific moral imperatives are derived:
“Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become
a universal law” (
Groundwork
of
the
Metaphysic
of
Morals
[
Grundlegung
zur
Metaphysik
der
Sitten
], 1785).
Causation, causality - Relationship between causes and effects. Contrast with association.
Casuistry -
1. Analyzing actual cases by applying moral principles to inform ethical decision making (Cicero
is one of the first to apply this method).
2. Derogatory term to denote special and subtly deceptive argumentation.
Cell - Basic unit of life; autonomous, self-replicating unit that either constitutes a unicellular organism
or is a subunit of a multicellular organism; the lowest denomination of life.
Central nervous system - Portion of the nervous system that consists of the brain and the spinal cord.
Chaos theory - Exposition of the apparent lack of order in a system that nonetheless obeys specific
rules. Condition discovered by the physicist Henri Poincaré around the year 1900 that refers to
an inherent lack of predictability in some physical systems (i.e., Poincaré's concept of dynamical
instability).
Character - Description of a person's attributes, abilities, and traits, especially those related to moral
strength. Contrast with personality.
Charity - Virtue manifested by impartial love. In Christianity, coexists with faith and hope.
