What is "medusa"

Medusa \Me*du"sa\, n. [L., fr. Gr. ?.]

1. (Class. Myth.) The Gorgon; or one of the Gorgons whose hair was changed into serpents, after which all who looked upon her were turned into stone.

2. [pl. Medusae.] (Zo["o]l.) Any free swimming acaleph; a jellyfish. Note: The larger medus[ae] belong to the Discophora, and are sometimes called covered-eyed medus[ae]; others, known as naked-eyed medus[ae], belong to the Hydroidea, and are usually developed by budding from hydroids. See Discophora, Hydroidea, and Hydromedusa. Medusa bud (Zo["o]l.), one of the buds of a hydroid, destined to develop into a gonophore or medusa. See Athecata, and Gonotheca. Medusa's head.

   1. (Zo["o]l.) An astrophyton.

   2. (Astron.) A cluster of stars in the constellation Perseus. It contains the bright star Algol.

"jellyfish," 1758, as genus name, from the name of one of the three Gorgons with snakes for hair, whose glance turned to stone him who looked upon it (attested in English from late 14c.). Her name is from Greek Medousa, literally "guardian," fem. present participle of the verb medein "to protect, rule over" (see Medea). The zoological name was chosen by Linnæus, suggested by the creature's long tentacles. Related: Medusoid.

n. (context zoology English) A non-polyp form of individual cnidarians, consisting of a gelatinous umbrella-shaped bell and trailing tentacles.

Medusa is one of the three Gorgons in Greek mythology.

Medusa may also refer to:

MEDUSA, (since 2004 MEDUSA4) is a CAD program used in the areas of mechanical and plant engineering by manufacturers and Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) companies. The system's history is closely tied to the beginnings of mainstream CAD and the research culture fostered by Cambridge University and the UK government as well as the resulting transformation of Cambridge into a world-class tech centre in the 1980s.

Medusa is a fictional character, a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.

Medusa is the second studio album by English hard rock band Trapeze. Recorded in 1970 at Morgan Studios, it was produced by The Moody Blues bassist John Lodge and released in November 1970 by Threshold Records. The album was preceded by the release of the single "Black Cloud" in 1970.

Medusa is the second solo album by the Scottish singer Annie Lennox, released in March 1995, and consists entirely of cover songs. It entered the UK Albums Chart at number 1 and peaked in the United States at number 11, spending 60 weeks on the Billboard 200 chart. It has since achieved double platinum status in both the United Kingdom and the United States and sold more than 6 million copies worldwide.

Caravaggio painted two versions of Medusa, the first in 1596 and the other presumably in 1597.

The first version is also known as Murtula, by the name of the poet who wrote about it, Gaspare Murtola (d. 1624): "Flee, for if your eyes are petrified in amazement, she will turn you to stone." It measures 48 by 55 cm and is signed Michel A F , "Michel Angelo made [this]", Michelangelo being Caravaggio's first name. This work is privately owned.

The second version, shown here, is slightly bigger (60×55 cm) and is not signed; it is held in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game, the medusa is a monstrous humanoid creature with a mass of writhing, hissing snakes instead of hair.

Medusa is the second studio album by Dutch darkwave band Clan of Xymox. It was released in November 1986 by 4AD. Founding member Pieter Nooten would re-record the songs "After the Call" and "Theme I" on his 1987 debut solo album Sleeps with the Fishes, following a brief split from the band.

Medusa is either of two paintings described in Giorgio Vasari's Life of Leonardo da Vinci as being among Leonardo's earliest works. Neither painting survived.

Medusa is a novel by Michael Dibdin, and is the ninth entry in the popular Aurelio Zen series.

Medusa is a marble sculpture of the eponymous character from the classical myth. It was executed by the Italian sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Its precise date of creation is unknown, but it is likely to have been executed in the 1630s. It was first documented in 1731 when presented to the Palazzo dei Conservatori in Rome, and is now part of the collections of the Capitoline Museums.

Medusa is a Kurt Austin novel, of the series NUMA Files. This book is the eighth of that series. The hardcover edition was released June 2, 2009. Other editions of this book were released on other dates.

Medusa is a steel roller coaster located at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo, California.

Medusa opened in 2000 as the first floorless roller coaster on the west coast. Built by Bolliger & Mabillard, the coaster features a -tall lift hill with a drop, and the first Sea serpent roll element ever built on a B&M coaster. The ride is the longest coaster in Northern California at long and is notable as having one of the largest vertical loops in the world at 128 ft. It also shares the height record in Northern California with another ride in the same park, V2: Vertical Velocity, at 150 feet high.

It features the following seven inversions:

• 128 foot tall Vertical Loop,
• Dive Loop,
• Zero G roll,
• 2 Flatspins (commonly known as corkscrews)
• Sea Serpent Roll (not to be confused with a cobra roll)

MEDUSA (Mob Excess Deterrent Using Silent Audio) is a directed-energy non-lethal weapon designed by WaveBand Corporation in 2003-2004 for temporary personnel incapacitation. The weapon is based on the microwave auditory effect resulting in a strong sound sensation in the human head when it is subject to certain kinds of pulsed/modulated microwave radiation. The developers claimed that through the combination of pulse parameters and pulse power, it is possible to raise the auditory sensation to a “discomfort” level, deterring personnel from entering a protected perimeter or, if necessary, temporarily incapacitating particular individuals.

In 2005, Sierra Nevada Corporation acquired WaveBand Corporation and ceased all work on the MEDUSA technology and did not pursue the technology further.

"Medusa" is the twelfth episode of the eighth season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files. It premiered on the Fox network on . The episode was written by Frank Spotnitz and directed by Richard Compton. "Medusa" is a "Monster-of-the-Week" story, unconnected to the series' wider mythology. The episode received a Nielsen rating of 8.2 and was viewed by 13.8 million viewers. Overall, the episode received mixed reviews from critics.

The series centers on FBI special agents Dana Scully ( Gillian Anderson) and her new partner John Doggett ( Robert Patrick)—following the alien abduction of her former partner, Fox Mulder ( David Duchovny)—who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files. In this episode, a string of bizarre deaths in the tunnels of the Boston subway system sees Doggett join a team of professionals underground to investigate. Meanwhile, Scully has to defy the train authorities above land, who are determined to get the trains up and running within hours.

"Medusa" was allotted a "huge budget", due mostly to the fact that a replica of the Boston subway had to be recreated. Robert Patrick later called the eventual set "the biggest damned thing I'd seen in my life." Cheri Montesanto-Medcalf and Matthew Mungle, the show's make-up effect producers, used several unorthodox ingredients to create the effect of melted flesh; in addition to the use of normal prosthetic make-up, the two also used a combination of figs and Fruit Roll-Ups.

Medusa is a c.1618 painting by the Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens, showing the severed head of Medusa. The snakes in the painting have been attributed to Frans Snyders. It is in the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Another copy is held in Moravian Gallery in Brno.

Medusa are a punk-influenced rock band, based in London, UK. Their cited influences include Sex Pistols, Nirvana and Van Halen.