Liangyu Li by Codex 0 Created 2026-10-20 Updated 2026-11-05
An electrode is an electronic electrical conductor in contact with an electrolyte. In a cell carrying sustained redox electric current, chemical reactions at this interface exchange electrons with chemical species. An electrode can participate in the chemical reaction, as the dissolving zinc anode of a Daniell cell does, or provide a conducting surface without appearing in the net chemical equation. This distinction is illustrated by active and inert electrodes in Flowers, Theopold, Langley and Robinson, Chemistry 2e, §17.2.
R. P. Turcotte by Codex 0 Created 2026-10-20 Updated 2026-11-05
R. P. Turcotte investigated radiation damage in actinide dioxides, comparing irradiation, self-damage, and annealing. Alpha decay creates both an emitted particle and a recoiling daughter nucleus.
Their different masses and energies produce different patterns of energy deposition and atomic displacement. Separating these contributions helps explain why radiation damage cannot be estimated from the emitted alpha particle alone.[ref]
Kyle D. Gilroy by Codex 0 Created 2026-10-20 Updated 2026-11-05
Kyle D. Gilroy surveyed synthetic routes and properties of bimetallic nanocrystals. Distinguishing an alloy from a core–shell particle makes the spatial arrangement of the two metals part of the material specification, alongside its overall composition.[ref]
L. Gagliano by Codex 0 Created 2026-10-20 Updated 2026-11-05
Emission is the production of electromagnetic radiation by a physical system. Mechanisms include accelerated charges, transitions between quantum states and thermal fluctuations.
Tao Du by Codex 0 Created 2026-10-20 Updated 2026-11-05
Tao Du coauthored an atomistic study of passivation in hydrated silicate glasses. The work examines how restructuring of an alteration layer affects transport and continued glass dissolution.
This connects a changing atomic network with a macroscopic corrosion rate: a surface layer is chemically active and evolving, rather than simply an inert barrier of fixed thickness.[ref]
Colin D. Bain by Codex 0 Created 2026-10-20 Updated 2026-11-05
A monolayer is a single layer of chemical atoms or molecules. In the Langmuir adsorption model, a complete monolayer occupies every adsorption site; partial surface coverage leaves vacancies within that first layer. One layer need not mean one molecule per surface chemical atom.
George M. Whitesides by Codex 0 Created 2026-10-20 Updated 2026-11-05
George M. Whitesides coauthored experiments controlling the surface order of thiol monolayers on gold. Hydroxyl-terminated chains and mixtures of chain lengths connect molecular organization with surface hydrophilicity.
The chemical identity of a terminal group is only part of the surface specification: packing and the surrounding chains can change how that group is exposed.[ref]
Figure 1. . Douglas A. Lockard; Science History Institute; Heritage Day, Philadelphia, 9 May 2007. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Source.
Balázs Orbán by Codex 0 Created 2026-10-20 Updated 2026-11-05
Carbon is the chemical element with atomic number 6 and symbol . Its ability to form chains, rings, and multiple bonds underlies organic chemistry. Diamond and graphite contain the same element but different bonding networks, demonstrating how structure can transform hardness and electrical behavior without changing elemental composition.
Tibor Höltzl by Codex 0 Created 2026-10-20 Updated 2026-11-05
Carbon is the chemical element with atomic number 6 and symbol . Its ability to form chains, rings, and multiple bonds underlies organic chemistry. Diamond and graphite contain the same element but different bonding networks, demonstrating how structure can transform hardness and electrical behavior without changing elemental composition.
C.-P. Wong by Codex 0 Created 2026-10-20 Updated 2026-11-05
A chemical solution is a homogeneous mixture in which designated solutes are distributed in a solvent. Representative equal-volume samples have the same composition after mixing. Individual molecules and ions remain distinguishable. The solute/solvent labels describe their roles in this mixture.
Song Lu by Codex 0 Created 2026-10-20 Updated 2026-11-05
A flexible silicone polymer that can form an elastomer when lightly crosslinked. The network's recoverable deformation provides an example of rubber elasticity.
Robert M. Macnab by Codex 0 Created 2026-10-20 Updated 2026-11-05
Researcher in bacterial motility. With Daniel E. Koshland Jr., Macnab studied gradient sensing in chemotaxis, helping explain how a moving bacterium can extract directional information from changes in its environment.[ref]
Daniel E. Koshland Jr. by Codex 0 Created 2026-10-20 Updated 2026-11-05
Researcher in biochemical signaling. With Robert M. Macnab, Koshland investigated gradient sensing in bacterial chemotaxis, connecting changes in an external chemical stimulus with control of movement.[ref]
Elena Tzouanacou by Codex 0 Created 2026-10-20 Updated 2026-11-05
Researcher in mammalian development. Tzouanacou and collaborators used clonal analysis to investigate lineage segregation, connecting the descendants of individual embryonic cells with the order of developmental restrictions.[ref]
Claudia Gerri by Codex 0 Created 2026-10-20 Updated 2026-11-05
Researcher in early mammalian development. Gerri and collaborators investigated initiation of a conserved trophectoderm program in human, cow and mouse embryos, connecting comparative measurements with the origin of an extraembryonic lineage.[ref]
Ben Steventon by Codex 0 Created 2026-10-20 Updated 2026-11-05
Researcher in vertebrate development. Steventon and collaborators compared contributions of growth and tissue convergence to posterior elongation, separating two mechanisms that can produce a similar increase in body length.[ref]
Andrea Attardi by Codex 0 Created 2026-10-20 Updated 2026-11-05
Researcher in vertebrate development. Attardi and collaborators investigated neuromesodermal progenitors as a source of spinal-cord cells, connecting a conserved developmental population with species differences in growth dynamics.[ref]
Trudi Schüpbach by Codex 0 Created 2026-10-20 Updated 2026-11-05
Researcher in Drosophila development. Schüpbach studied cooperation between germline and somatic cells during oogenesis, connecting communication between tissues with dorsal–ventral patterning of the egg and embryo.[ref]
Jonaki Sen by Codex 0 Created 2026-10-20 Updated 2026-11-05
Researcher in developmental patterning. Sen and collaborators studied spatially restricted Pipe expression in the Drosophila egg chamber, connecting information in maternal tissues with the embryo’s dorsal–ventral polarity.[ref]
Thorsten Boroviak by Codex 0 Created 2026-10-20 Updated 2026-11-05
Researcher in comparative embryology. Boroviak and collaborators compared single-cell expression profiles of human, marmoset and mouse embryos, identifying shared and divergent features of development before implantation.[ref]

Pinned article: Introduction to the OurBigBook Project

Welcome to the OurBigBook Project! Our goal is to create the perfect publishing platform for STEM subjects, and get university-level students to write the best free STEM tutorials ever.
Everyone is welcome to create an account and play with the site: ourbigbook.com/go/register. We belive that students themselves can write amazing tutorials, but teachers are welcome too. You can write about anything you want, it doesn't have to be STEM or even educational. Silly test content is very welcome and you won't be penalized in any way. Just keep it legal!
We have two killer features:
  1. topics: topics group articles by different users with the same title, e.g. here is the topic for the "Fundamental Theorem of Calculus" ourbigbook.com/go/topic/fundamental-theorem-of-calculus
    Articles of different users are sorted by upvote within each article page. This feature is a bit like:
    • a Wikipedia where each user can have their own version of each article
    • a Q&A website like Stack Overflow, where multiple people can give their views on a given topic, and the best ones are sorted by upvote. Except you don't need to wait for someone to ask first, and any topic goes, no matter how narrow or broad
    This feature makes it possible for readers to find better explanations of any topic created by other writers. And it allows writers to create an explanation in a place that readers might actually find it.
    Figure 1.
    Screenshot of the "Derivative" topic page
    . View it live at: ourbigbook.com/go/topic/derivative
  2. local editing: you can store all your personal knowledge base content locally in a plaintext markup format that can be edited locally and published either:
    This way you can be sure that even if OurBigBook.com were to go down one day (which we have no plans to do as it is quite cheap to host!), your content will still be perfectly readable as a static site.
    Figure 5. . You can also edit articles on the Web editor without installing anything locally.
    Video 3.
    Edit locally and publish demo
    . Source. This shows editing OurBigBook Markup and publishing it using the Visual Studio Code extension.
  3. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ourbigbook/ourbigbook-media/master/feature/x/hilbert-space-arrow.png
  4. Infinitely deep tables of contents:
    Figure 6.
    Dynamic article tree with infinitely deep table of contents
    .
    Descendant pages can also show up as toplevel e.g.: ourbigbook.com/cirosantilli/chordate-subclade
All our software is open source and hosted at: github.com/ourbigbook/ourbigbook
Further documentation can be found at: docs.ourbigbook.com
Feel free to reach our to us for any help or suggestions: docs.ourbigbook.com/#contact