Reduction (chemistry) 2026-10-13
In the electrochemistry examples here, reduction is gain of Electrons by a chemical species; it occurs at the cathode.
Salt bridge 2026-10-13
A salt bridge is an ionic connection between electrolyte compartments that limits bulk mixing while permitting electric charge transport. Its mobile ions compensate changes caused by the electrode half-reactions, keeping the bulk chemical solutions approximately electrically neutral during sustained electric current. It does not conduct Electrons like the external wire, and its ions need not be consumed at either electrode. The ionic return path and compensating ion flows are explained in Purdue University, Electrochemical Reactions: salt bridge and charge balance.
In a discharging Daniell cell, anions moving toward the anode compartment and cations moving toward the cathode compartment both contribute to the internal conventional current from anode toward cathode. This charge-balance role is compatible with a negative anode: terminal signs do not imply that the whole anode chemical solution is negatively charged. The simple compensating-inventory example in Daniell cell does not fix all individual ion fluxes; diffusion and the cell's other mobile ions can contribute. A real bridge also introduces electrical resistance and may introduce a junction electric potential difference, so its presence does not guarantee an exact thermodynamic cell reading. See IUPAC Gold Book: salt bridge and liquid-junction potential.
Streakline Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-13
A streakline at observation time is the set of present positions of all fluid elements that passed through one fixed release point during a specified history of injection. For continuous release over , solve a different initial value problem for each release time :Thus a pathline varies for one particle; a streakline varies while holding fixed. Interrupted release gives only the corresponding subsets of the streakline. A moving nozzle requires a time-dependent release position instead, so the standard fixed-point definition should not silently be applied to it. Continuous release makes streaklines easy to observe and useful for showing where material from one source has reached. [ref]
https://web.mit.edu/13.021/demos/lectures/lecture2.pdf. MIT Marine Hydrodynamics, lecture 2, section 1.2
In the analytical velocity field of pathline, a particle released at the origin at time followsObserve all particles together at time , after continuous release from :For , and , the streakline is the downward-curving parabola in metre coordinates. Releases at occupy , and , respectively. At , the streakline lies above the pathline and below the origin's streamline . All particles nevertheless have the same present velocity . The streakline slope generally differs from the present velocity slope ; they agree at the nozzle. The oldest particle is the downstream endpoint, which explains why the pathline and streakline meet there without being the same curve.
Each panel fixes one observation time. Coloured dots are the present positions of particles with the indicated release times; dashed pathlines show those particles' earlier histories. The black streakline connects present positions of the continuously released family, including release times between the sampled dots. After , particles already present keep moving and new ones enter at the origin, so the later streakline is not a frozen record of the earlier one. Injection beginning only at would show just of the curve. Both panels are diffusion-free analytical models, not experimental photographs.
Kline's contracting-channel demonstration switches from marking an element to continuous bubble production at a marking wire: the resulting trace is a streakline. The apparatus therefore changes the curve being displayed by changing the marking history, even with the same channel. A wire produces a family of traces; conceptually each fixed emitting location supplies its own streakline. Individual bubbles are markers rather than perfect fluid elements: Jean Hertzberg's teaching notes describe hydrogen production by electrolysis at a thin cathode wire and warn that larger bubbles have more buoyancy. [ref] [ref]
https://www.flowvis.org/Flow%20Vis%20Guide/particles-3-in-water/. Jean Hertzberg and Flow Vis course students, Particles 3: In Water
A dye version uses a small fixed injection port upstream in a transparent water channel, a dilute premix of dye with the channel water, illumination and a fixed optical camera. Start continuous injection at a recorded time and take a short exposure at : the visible filament approximates a streakline, not the accumulated pathline of one particle. Repeat with the same port and imaging geometry after changing the flow with time; compare the filament against local directions estimated from short displacements of sparse markers at . Agreement in a steady flow and possible disagreement when the flow changes are the predictions being tested; no measured curves are claimed here. The protocol follows Hertzberg's advice to use small ports, little injected volume and a dilute premix with matched density and viscosity. Check for nozzle disturbance by reducing injection rate, for buoyancy by watching the premix in still water, and for diffusion by comparing filament widths at different ages. Keep exposure short enough to suppress motion blur. Dye concentration approximates a passive scalar only when it has negligible feedback on the velocity field; finite port width, diffusion and out-of-plane motion limit how literally a visible filament can be read as a geometrical streakline. [ref]
https://www.flowvis.org/Flow%20Vis%20Guide/do-not-disturb-dyes-in-liquids/. Jean Hertzberg and Flow Vis course students, Dye Techniques 1: Do Not Disturb
Western blot transfer 2026-10-13
Western blot transfer moves separated proteins out of the gel onto a Western blot membrane, using an electric field across the gel thickness. Maintaining close contact preserves the lane pattern. Contact gaps, incomplete removal from the gel and passage through the receiving sheet can change how much protein is retained.
The original 1979 experiment pressed a wetted, -pore nitrocellulose Western blot membrane against the gel between scouring pads and plastic pipette-tray grids, held by elastic bands. The urea-gel assembly faced the cathode in acidic solution, with applied for one hour; the SDS-PAGE variant reversed polarity and used a glycine/methanol buffer solution. Stained gel/blot pairs checked pattern preservation. Corresponding labelled ribosome protein spots from two gels were compared through radioactive decay readouts after combustion. The stained gel remaining after transfer supplied a removal check; a second receiving sheet revealed breakthrough on overloading. These tests supported recovery for the examined urea-gel proteins, within experimental variation, while the SDS-PAGE results showed unequal staining recovery. Preserved band positions therefore did not establish universal quantitative transfer. [ref]
Electrophoretic transfer of proteins from polyacrylamide gels to nitrocellulose sheets: procedure and some applications by Harry Towbin and others. Towbin, Staehelin and Gordon, pp. 4350–4352: Electrophoretic Blotting Procedures, Figure 1, Figures 2–3 and Table 1
