toxin

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Young sportswoman resting after running, sweat

Can You Really Sweat Out Toxins?

Discover

Odissi Indian classical female dancer on white background. (Indian dancer; classical dancer; Indian dance)

6 Classical Dances of India

In this aerial photo, structures are damaged and destroyed October 15, 2005 in Balakot, Pakistan. It is estimated that 90% of the city of Balakot was leveled by the earthquake. The death toll in the 7.6 magnitude earthquake that struck northern Pakistan on October 8, 2005 is believed to be 38,000 with at least 1,300 more dead in Indian Kashmir. SEE CONTENT NOTES.

6 of the World’s Deadliest Natural Disasters

Secret Service Agent Listens To Earpiece

Secret Service Code Names of 11 U.S. Presidents

The Lost Colony of Roanoke, North Carolina, where 115 people mysteriously disappeared c. 1590. John White discovers the word Croatoan carved onto a tree upon his return to the deserted Roanoke Colony in 1590

The Lost Colony of Roanoke

The Colosseum, Rome, Italy. Giant amphitheatre built in Rome under the Flavian emperors. (ancient architecture; architectural ruins)

New Seven Wonders of the World

bird. mourning dove. pigeon and dove. Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura) family Columbidae.

Nikola Tesla's Weird Obsession with Pigeons

Parsons Weems' Fable, oil on canvas by Grant Wood, 1939; in the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. Catalog entry: The historian Mason Locke Weems, commonly known by his clerical title, Parson Weems, pulls back a curtain to point at 6-year-old George Washington. Bearing an adult head and holding an axe, George gazes blankly up at his father, Augustine, who questions his son while holding a partially cut cherry tree. All of this takes place in front of a 20th-century brick building, which Wood modeled after his own home in Iowa. The scene illustrates the fable of Washington and the cherry tree, which Weems invented in 1806 for the first president's biography. Wood playfully suggests the artifice of the tale here, presenting the story in the manner of a costumed stage play rather than a real event. Amid the action, two Black figures pick cherries in the background, a reference to Washington' slaveholding past and a reminder of of what often gets left out in historical mythmaking.

Did George Washington Really Say, “I Can’t Tell a Lie”?

toxin: Facts & Related Content

Written and fact-checked by The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Facts

Also Known As	biological poison • biotoxin

Topics

neurotoxin endotoxin exotoxin phytotoxin zootoxin holothurin toxalbumin enterotoxin microbial toxin hemotoxin protein hormone lipid carbohydrate nucleic acid steroid vitamin isoprenoid amino acid enzyme

Quiz

44 Questions from Britannica’s Most Popular Health and Medicine Quizzes

A Yorkshire terrier dressed up as a veterinarian or doctor on a white background. (dogs)

A Visit with the Word Doctor: Medical Vocabulary Quiz

Demystified

Young sportswoman resting after running, sweat

Can You Really Sweat Out Toxins?