Kara Rogers
Encyclopædia Britannica Editor
Connect with Kara Rogers
Kara Rogers is the senior editor of biomedical sciences at Encyclopædia Britannica, where she oversees a range of content from medicine and genetics to microorganisms. She joined Britannica in 2006 and has been a member of the National Association of Science Writers since 2009.
Primary Contributions (387)
Midazolam, drug used to induce general anesthesia, to reduce anxiety during medical procedures, and to treat acute and severe seizures. Midazolam is classified as a benzodiazepine drug, owing to its core chemical structure (a benzene ring fused with a diazepine ring) and its ability to produce a…
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Publications (4)
The Quiet Extinction: Stories of North America’s Rare and Threatened Plants (October 2015)
In the United States and Canada, thousands of species of native plants are edging toward the brink of extinction, and they are doing so quietly. They are slipping away inconspicuously from settings as diverse as backyards and protected lands. The factors that have contributed to their disappearance are varied and complex, but the consequences of their loss are immeasurable. With extensive histories of a cast of familiar and rare North American plants, The Quiet Extinction explores...
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Out of Nature: Why Drugs from Plants Matter to the Future of Humanity (February 2012)
About half of all species under threat of extinction in the world today are plants. The loss of plant biodiversity is disturbing for many reasons, but especially because it is a reflection of the growing disconnect between humans and nature. Plants have been used for millennia in traditional systems of healing and have held a significant place in drug development for Western medicine as well. Despite the recent dominance of synthetic drug production, natural product discovery remains the backbone...
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The Chemical Reactions of Life: From Metabolism to Photosynthesis (Biochemistry, Cells, and Life) (January 2011)
The development and evolution of all species can, in many ways, be traced to a few biochemical reactions that facilitate metabolic and/or photosynthetic changes in each life form. Indeed, advances in the field of biochemistry have intimately depended on the study of these processes and the way basic molecules fragment and synthesize to produce elements vital to the survival of each organism. This insightful volume considers the various types, causes, and results of different reactions that operate...
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The Cell (Biochemistry, Cells, and Life) (January 2011)
This volume examines the organization of various types of cells and provides an in-depth look at how cells operate alone to generate new cells and act as part of a larger network with others. --from publisher description