| extraction and processing industry | The industry concerned with the removal of raw materials from the earth's crust and with their conversion into refined products. (12 Dec 1998) |
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| agriculture | The science of raising plants and/or animals for food, clothing or other useful products. (06 May 1997) |
| united states department of agriculture | A department of the united states government concerned with improving and maintaining farm income and developing and expanding markets for agricultural products. It also helps landowners in protecting the soil, water, forest, and other natural resources. It carries out rural development and conservation programs. Through inspection and grading services it safeguards and insures standards of quality in food supply and production. (12 Dec 1998) |
| book industry | The aggregate enterprise of manufacturing and technically producing books. (12 Dec 1998) |
| meat-packing industry | The aggregate enterprise of technically producing packaged meat. (12 Dec 1998) |
| chemical industry | The aggregate enterprise of manufacturing and technically producing chemicals. (12 Dec 1998) |
| drug industry | That segment of commercial enterprise devoted to the design, development, and manufacture of chemical products for use in the diagnosis and treatment of disease, disability, or other dysfunction, or to improve function. (12 Dec 1998) |
| industry | The aggregate of manufacturing or technically productive enterprises in a particular field, often named after its principle product, as "the automobile industry", "the steel industry". It includes the ownership and management of companies, factories, industrial plants, etc. (12 Dec 1998) |
| textile industry | The aggregate business enterprise of manufacturing textiles. (12 Dec 1998) |
| tobacco industry | The aggregate business enterprise of agriculture, manufacture, and distribution related to tobacco and tobacco-derived products. (12 Dec 1998) |
| food industry | The industry concerned with processing, preparing, preserving, distributing, and serving of foods and beverages. (12 Dec 1998) |
| food-processing industry | The productive enterprises concerned with food processing. (12 Dec 1998) |
| antibody technology | <molecular biology> Techniques for the synthesis of polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies for use in research, diagnostics and therapeutics. (09 Feb 1998) |
| assisted reproductive technology | Originally, a range of techniques for manipulating eggs and sperm in order to overcome infertility. Encompasses drug treatments to stimulate ovulation; surgical methods for removing eggs (e.g., laparoscopy and ultrasound-guided transvaginal aspiration) and for reimplanting embryos (e.g., zygot intrafallopian transfer (or ZIFT); in vitro and in vivo fertilization (e.g., artificial insemination and gamete intrafallopian transfer (or GIFT); ex utero and in utero foetal surgery; as well as laboratory regimes for freezing and screening sperm and embryos, and micromanipulating and cloning embryos. The field's first major success came in 1978 with the birth of "test-tube baby" Louise Brown, engineered by Steptoe, Edwards, et al., of England. As the technologies spread, they increasingly are being employed for purposes beyond infertility, i.e., to reduce the risk of, or avoid passing on, hereditary disease and to select for infant sex. Further uses that would aim at improving the "quality" of offspring have been widely discussed and raise profound legal and ethical questions. See: eugenics. (05 Mar 2000) |
| recombinant DNA technology | A series of procedures used to join together (recombine) DNA segments. A recombinant DNA molecule is constructed (recombined) from segments from 2 or more different DNA molecules. Under certain conditions, a recombinant DNA molecule can enter a cell and replicate there, autonomously (on its own) or after it has become integrated into a chromosome. (12 Dec 1998) |