All articles starting with M

Matricaria

Matricaria (chamomile genus) is a small Asteraceae genus of six annual fragrant herbs native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere; its species M. chamomilla yields the herbal medicine matricariae flos.

Matricaria chamomilla

Matricaria chamomilla (German chamomile, syn. Matricaria recutita) is an annual Asteraceae herb whose flower heads yield chamomile tea and essential oil rich in α-bisabolol and chamazulene; clinical trials suggest modest sleep-quality benefits and generally mild, self-limiting adverse events.

Matricide

Matricide is the killing of one's mother, a rare crime (under 2% of known-relationship U.S. homicides), usually by adult sons, often linked to psychosis; also a central theme in Greek tragedy and psychoanalytic theory.

Matrícula Consular

Matrícula Consular (matrícula consular de alta seguridad, MCAS): Mexican consular ID card for citizens abroad, issued since 1871, five-year validity, proving nationality, identity, and domicile without immigration status; distinct from Spain's consular registration.

Sep 24, 2026

Matrícula de Tributos

The Matrícula de Tributos, also known as the Códice Moctezuma, is a Mesoamerican pictorial manuscript recording tribute owed by subject towns to the Triple Alliance, kept in Mexico City.

Matriculation

Matriculation: formal enrollment of a student as a university member, from Latin matricula (register). Covers medieval registers, Cambridge 1544, US degree-candidacy status, and the matric secondary-school exam sense.

Matriculation in South Africa

Matriculation (matric) in South Africa is Grade 12 and the National Senior Certificate exam run by DBE, IEB, and SACAI under Umalusi; 903,561 state candidates and an 88% pass rate in 2025.

Sep 29, 2026

Matrigel invasion assay

The Matrigel invasion assay is a cell biology assay that measures the ability of cells, typically cancer cells, to penetrate a layer of Matrigel as a readout of invasive potential.

Matrikas (मातृका)

Matrikas (मातृका), or Saptamatrikas, are the seven Hindu mother goddesses Brahmani, Maheshvari, Kaumari, Vaishnavi, Varahi, Indrani, and Chamunda, each the shakti of a male god, depicted with his weapons and mount, flanked by Virabhadra and Ganesha, and worshiped from Kushana times onward.

Matrilineality

Matrilineality: kinship descent, inheritance, and belonging traced through the female line (matriliny), as among the Minangkabau, Khasi, Mosuo, and Akan. Distinct from matriarchy; often paired with matrilocal or avunculocal residence and mother's-brother inheritance.

Matrilineality in Judaism

Matrilineality in Judaism: the halakhic rule that Jewish status follows the mother, codified in Mishnah Kiddushin 3:12, developed after the Babylonian exile, modified by Reform Judaism's 1983 resolution, and distinct from Israel's Law of Return.

Matrilysin (MMP-7)

Matrilysin (MMP-7, formerly PUMP-1) is the smallest human matrix metalloproteinase, a zinc-dependent epithelial protease lacking a hemopexin domain, active in matrix remodeling, cancer progression, and fibrotic lung disease biomarkers.

Matrimonial Causes Act 1937

Matrimonial Causes Act 1937: English divorce reform statute from A. P. Herbert's Private Member's Bill, adding desertion (3 years), cruelty and incurable insanity (5 years) to adultery, with a three-year bar and new nullity grounds.

Matrimonial property in the United Kingdom and Ireland

Matrimonial property in the United Kingdom and Ireland dictates asset division upon divorce, with England and Wales using needs-based discretion and Scotland using a statutory fair-sharing model.

Matrine

Matrine (苦参碱) is a tetracyclic quinolizidine alkaloid found in Sophora plants and the principal bioactive compound of the Chinese medicine Kushen, studied for anticancer and anti-inflammatory effects.

Matrioshka brain

A Matrioshka brain is a hypothetical megastructure, proposed by Robert J. Bradbury in 1999, in which nested Dyson spheres turn a star's full power output into computation.

Matriphagy

Matriphagy is the consumption of a mother by her offspring, seen in spiders such as Stegodyphus and Amaurobius ferox and in the pseudoscorpion Paratemnoides nidificator, usually after regurgitation feeding, boosting offspring growth and survival at the cost of the semelparous mother's life.

Matriptase

Matriptase (ST14, MT-SP1, S01.302) is a type II transmembrane serine protease of epithelial surfaces, activated by two cleavages and instantly inhibited by HAI-1; it activates pro-HGF, PAR-2, and prostasin and is dysregulated in epithelial cancers.

Matrix

A matrix is a rectangular array of numbers arranged in rows and columns, the central object of linear algebra, used to represent linear transformations and systems of equations.

Matrix (mathematics)

A matrix is a rectangular array of numbers arranged in rows and columns, treated as a single mathematical object; James Joseph Sylvester first used the term in 1850.

Matrix Bands

Matrix bands are thin metal or plastic walls placed around a tooth during Class II dental restorations to shape proximal contours and contacts; circumferential (Tofflemire) and sectional systems are the main types, with sectional favored for composites.

Matrix calculus

Matrix calculus, also called matrix differentiation, extends differential calculus to functions whose arguments or values are vectors or matrices, and is central to statistics, econometrics, and machine learning.

Sep 19, 2026

Matrix Capital (hedge fund)

Matrix Capital Management is a long/short equity hedge fund co-founded by David Goel and Paul Ferri in 1999 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, which grew to $11 billion.

Matrix completion

Matrix completion is the problem of recovering an unknown low-rank matrix from a small sample of its entries, famously applied in the Netflix Prize recommender competition.

Matrix converter

A matrix converter is a direct AC-to-AC power converter that uses nine bidirectional switches to control voltage and frequency without a DC link, commercialized by Yaskawa in 2005.

Matrix decomposition

A matrix decomposition, or matrix factorization, represents a matrix as a product of simpler matrices such as LU, Cholesky, QR, and the singular value decomposition.

Matrix effect

A matrix effect is an alteration of an analyte's response in a mass spectrometric assay caused by interfering, often unidentified sample matrix components, most commonly seen in LC-MS as ion suppression or enhancement.

Matrix exponential

The matrix exponential, or exponential of a matrix, generalizes the scalar exponential to square matrices via a convergent power series and gives the closed-form solution of linear differential systems.

Matrix extracellular phosphoglycoprotein

Matrix extracellular phosphoglycoprotein (MEPE, OF45), a SIBLING-family secreted phosphoprotein on chromosome 4q22.1 regulating bone mineralization and phosphate homeostasis; its ASARM peptide inhibits mineralization and links to PHEX, XLH, and osteomalacia tumors.