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Under Section "Publication by Marie Curie" I did a quick overview of the papers in which Marie Curie and collaborators publish the existence of new elements polonium and radium. Both are very understandable (except the chemistry), and have some cute terminology. I also cited those papers on her Wikipedia page: en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Marie_Curie&diff=1240252528&oldid=1238097626 Another good exercise in "old paper finding" + "Wikipedia markup/rules" as I looked at the Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Sciences a bit.
This was kickstarted by YouTube recommending me the following good video:
which led me into yet a quick nuclear physics binge. I shouldn't do this to myself. I also ended up writing some tentative answers on Quora:
The poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko by 
Ciro Santilli 34 Updated 2024-12-15 +Created 2024-08-14
Ciro Santilli 34 Updated 2024-12-15 +Created 2024-08-14
Do all gamma rays have the same energy during a given nuclear reaction? by Ciro Santilli 34 Updated 2024-12-15 +Created 2024-08-14
Ciro Santilli 34 Updated 2024-12-15 +Created 2024-08-14The following cobalt-60 diagrams suggest that some lines are clearly visible in specific nuclear reactions:
Also this one:
Alpha particles have low penetration depth by Ciro Santilli 34 Updated 2024-12-15 +Created 2024-08-14
Ciro Santilli 34 Updated 2024-12-15 +Created 2024-08-14They are stopped by:Therefore, alpha emitters are not too dangerous unless ingested.
- by a few centimeters of air
- a sheet of paper
- the skin
Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Sciences Tome 127 by Ciro Santilli 34 Updated 2024-12-15 +Created 2024-08-14
Ciro Santilli 34 Updated 2024-12-15 +Created 2024-08-14This one contains a PDF with OCR: archive.org/details/ComptesRendusAcademieDesSciences0127/page/n5/mode/2up
Gun-type fission weapons don't work with plutonium by Ciro Santilli 34 Updated 2024-12-15 +Created 2024-08-14
Ciro Santilli 34 Updated 2024-12-15 +Created 2024-08-14Gun-type fission weapons don't work with Plutonium-239 because of the presence of Plutonium-240 as an impurity which leads to fizzle.
Good mentions at: youtu.be/dgBDvnqMkT4?t=252
A nuclear reactor made to produce specific isotopes rather than just consume fissile material to produce electrical power. The most notably application being to produce Plutonium-239 for nuclear weapons from Uranium-238 being irradiated from Uranium-235-created fission.
Tome of the Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Sciences by Ciro Santilli 34 Updated 2024-12-15 +Created 2024-08-14
Ciro Santilli 34 Updated 2024-12-15 +Created 2024-08-14 Weapon grade Plutonium is cheaper than weapon grade Uranium by Ciro Santilli 34 Updated 2024-12-15 +Created 2024-08-14
Ciro Santilli 34 Updated 2024-12-15 +Created 2024-08-14Because you can generate plutonium-239 from uranium-238 in a breeder reactor, and then separate the plutonium-239 from the Uranium simply by using chemistry methods because you've created an element with different valence electrons.
Isn't it somewhat funny that it is easier to purify a synthetic element than a naturally occurring one?
This isotope shows up as an inevitable contaminant in Plutonium-239 for nuclear weapons, because it emits neutrons too fast and makes it harder to assemble the critical mass without fizzle.
It is the presence of this contaminant that made implosion-type fission weapon a necessity: Section "Gun-type fission weapons don't work with plutonium".
Plutonium-240 is a contaminant.
Strong alpha emitter. Can be used as an atomic battery.
Plutonium-238-oxide pellet glowing under its own heat
. Source. Unlike for nuclear applications, we don't need the pure metal, so the oxide 238PuO2 is used instead as it is more chemically stable.
Pinned article: ourbigbook/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:
- 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-calculusArticles 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 - 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.
- to OurBigBook.com to get awesome multi-user features like topics and likes
- as HTML files to a static website, which you can host yourself for free on many external providers like GitHub Pages, and remain in full control
Figure 2. You can publish local OurBigBook lightweight markup files to either OurBigBook.com or as a static website.
Figure 3. Visual Studio Code extension installation.
Figure 4. Visual Studio Code extension tree navigation.
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.Video 4. OurBigBook Visual Studio Code extension editing and navigation demo. Source. - Internal cross file references done right:
- Infinitely deep tables of contents:
Figure 6. Dynamic article tree with infinitely deep table of contents.Live URL: ourbigbook.com/cirosantilli/chordateDescendant 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