The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) is the afterglow radiation from the Big Bang, providing crucial evidence for the Big Bang theory and our understanding of the early universe. It is a faint, uniform background radiation that fills the universe and can be detected in every direction in space.
A Costas array is a special type of combinatorial design that arises in the field of mathematics, specifically in the study of sequences and arrays. Named after the mathematician John P. Costas, who introduced them, Costas arrays have applications in radar, communications, and various areas of engineering.
Coulomb blockade is a quantum mechanical phenomenon that occurs in small conductive structures, such as small metal or semiconductor particles (quantum dots) or single-electron transistors. It is characterized by the suppression of electrical conduction due to the electrostatic repulsion between charged particles—specifically, electrons. In a typical scenario, when an electron is added to a small conductor, it experiences a Coulomb energy barrier due to the presence of other electrons already in the conductor.
The Watson interferometer is a type of interferometer known for its use in optical measurements and experiments involving the interference of light waves. It is named after the physicist who developed it, although there may be some variation in the name and someone's identification with the invention. Interferometers, in general, work by splitting a beam of light into two paths that are later recombined to create an interference pattern.
Watson Wyatt Worldwide was a global consulting firm that specialized in human capital and financial management. Founded in 1998 through the merger of Watson Wyatt & Company and the Wyatt Company, it offered services in areas such as employee benefits, talent management, retirement planning, and compensation consulting. The firm worked with clients to improve their workforce management and organizational effectiveness.
Crab mentality is a metaphor that describes a phenomenon where individuals within a group pull down or undermine those who are trying to succeed or rise above their current situation. The term originates from the behavior of crabs in a bucket, where if one crab tries to escape, the others will often pull it back down instead of allowing it to escape.
A real plane curve is a mathematical object that can be described as a continuous curve in the two-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system (the XY-plane) defined by real-valued functions. In more formal terms, it can be represented by a set of points \((x, y)\) where \(x\) and \(y\) satisfy certain equations involving real numbers.
The twisted cubic is a specific type of space curve in three-dimensional space, often discussed in the context of algebraic geometry and differential geometry. It can be defined parametrically as a function of a single variable \( t \): \[ \mathbf{c}(t) = (t, t^2, t^3) \] for \( t \) in the real numbers, \( \mathbb{R} \).
"Blowing up" can refer to a variety of contexts and meanings depending on the subject matter. Here are a few common interpretations: 1. **Explosions**: In a literal sense, "blowing up" can refer to something exploding or bursting apart, such as a bomb or a balloon. 2. **Popularity/Success**: In a figurative sense, especially in social media or entertainment, "blowing up" means achieving sudden and significant success or widespread recognition.
An elliptic surface is a type of algebraic surface that has a fibration structure, meaning it can be viewed as a family of elliptic curves. In more technical terms, an elliptic surface is a smooth projective surface \(S\) over a base scheme, typically taken to be the complex numbers, which admits a morphism to a base scheme \(B\) such that for every point in \(B\), the fiber over that point is an elliptic curve.
The Iitaka dimension is a concept from algebraic geometry, specifically in the study of algebraic varieties and their properties. It is named after Shigeharu Iitaka, who introduced the notion. The Iitaka dimension of a projective variety (or more generally, a proper algebraic variety) is a measure of the growth rate of global sections of line bundles on the variety.
Arpad Elo was a Hungarian-American physics professor and chess player, best known for developing the Elo rating system. This system is used to calculate the relative skill levels of players in two-player games such as chess. The Elo rating system assigns a numerical rating to each player, which can increase or decrease based on match results against other players, taking into account the relative ratings of the opponents.
Curly Lawrence could refer to various things depending on the context. It could be: 1. **A Person**: It might refer to a specific individual, such as a historical figure, actor, musician, or local personality, depending on the context in which the name arises. 2. **A Character**: Curly Lawrence might be a character from a book, movie, or television show.
"Cryptography stubs" typically refer to placeholder or skeletal code, definitions, or documentation related to cryptographic algorithms, protocols, or concepts that are not fully fleshed out. In software development, especially within open-source projects or educational contexts, stubs can serve as a starting point for implementing cryptographic functionality.
Gilles Brassard is a prominent Canadian computer scientist known for his significant contributions to the fields of quantum computing and quantum cryptography. He is particularly recognized for his work in developing protocols for quantum key distribution, most notably the BB84 protocol, which he co-created with Charles Bennett in 1984. This protocol is one of the first and most widely studied methods for secure communication using quantum mechanics principles.
The Curtin–Hammett principle is a fundamental concept in organic chemistry that describes the relationship between equilibrium and reactivity in cases where two or more conformers or isomers lead to different reaction products. It is particularly relevant in situations where the reaction pathway involves a transition state that is more similar to one of the reactants than the others.
Cyclol is not a widely recognized term in scientific literature or common usage, up to my last update in October 2023. It is possible that it may refer to a specific product, chemical compound, or brand that has emerged after that time, or it could be a misspelling or variation of another term.
Cyclolysis is a term used in the context of chemical reactions, particularly in organic chemistry. It refers to the process of forming a cyclic compound from a linear or open-chain precursor through a reaction where the molecule undergoes a rearrangement that creates one or more cycles. This process often involves the breaking and forming of bonds to create ring structures.

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 2.
    You can publish local OurBigBook lightweight markup files to either https://OurBigBook.com or as a static website
    .
    Figure 3.
    Visual Studio Code extension installation
    .
    Figure 4.
    Visual Studio Code extension tree navigation
    .
    Figure 5.
    Web editor
    . 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.
  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