Key mitochondrial proteins aren't necessarily in mtDNA Updated 2025-07-16
This isn't completely surprising, since when mitochondria die, their DNA is kind of left in the cell, so it is not hard to imagine how genes end up getting uptaken by the nucleus. This is suggested at Power, Sex, Suicide by Nick Lane (2006) page 196.
A limiting factor appears to be that you can't just past those genes in the nucleus, further mutations are necessary for mitochondrial protein import to work, apparenty some kind of tagging with extra amino acids.
However, you likely don't want to remove all genes from the mitochondria because mitochondria have DNA because they need to be controlled individually.
Khan Academy Updated 2025-07-16
Kudos for being a not-for-profit. Also, anyone can create content: e-learning websites must allow students to create learning content. Oh, but TODO is possible for anyone to make content publicly visible? Course join links lik: www.khanacademy.org/join/MJZ6NSV7 require login. webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/165132/how-to-create-a-course-that-is-publicly-visible-without-the-need-to-login-on-kha If that's the case, it is a fatal flaw not shared by OurBigBook.com.
Kinnu Updated 2025-07-16
kitone/subtitleeditor Updated 2025-07-16
Not to be confused with Subtitle Edit.
Klein bottle Updated 2025-07-16
Klein-Gordon equation Updated 2025-07-16
A relativistic version of the Schrödinger equation.
Correctly describes spin 0 particles.
The most memorable version of the equation can be written as shown at Section "Klein-Gordon equation in Einstein notation" with Einstein notation and Planck units:
Has some issues which are solved by the Dirac equation:
- it has a second time derivative of the wave function. Therefore, to solve it we must specify not only the initial value of the wave equation, but also the derivative of the wave equation,As mentioned at Advanced quantum mechanics by Freeman Dyson (1951) and further clarified at: physics.stackexchange.com/questions/340023/cant-the-negative-probabilities-of-klein-gordon-equation-be-avoided, this would lead to negative probabilities.
- the modulus of the wave function is not constant and therefore not always one, and therefore cannot be interpreted as a probability density anymore
- since we are working with the square of the energy, we have both positive and negative value solutions. This is also a features of the Dirac equation however.
Bibliography:
- Video "Quantum Mechanics 12a - Dirac Equation I by ViaScience (2015)" at youtu.be/OCuaBmAzqek?t=600
- An Introduction to QED and QCD by Jeff Forshaw (1997) 1.2 "Relativistic Wave Equations" and 1.4 "The Klein Gordon Equation" gives some key ideas
- 2011 PHYS 485 lecture videos by Roger Moore from the University of Alberta at around 7:30
- www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqoIW85xwoU&list=PL54DF0652B30D99A4&index=65 "L2. The Klein-Gordon Equation" by doctorphys
- sites.ualberta.ca/~gingrich/courses/phys512/node21.html from Advanced quantum mechanics II by Douglas Gingrich (2004)
Knol Updated 2025-07-16
Very similar to OurBigBook.com!
People who worked on it:
- Udi Manber: project lead
- www.wired.com/2008/07/google-knol/ mentions various engineers. The original page had photos, including the full team photo, but these died, but are visible on the archive: web.archive.org/web/20151220002650/http://www.wired.com/2008/07/google-knol/.
- Ben McMahan: "Developed, launched, and maintained Knol", mentioned at:
- x.com/benjmcmahan
- www.benjaminmcmahan.com/ has email
ben.j.mcmahan@gmail.com
- Michael McNally (2007-2009), "project's technical lead": mentioned at: www.wired.com/2008/07/google-knol/,
- github.com/xiangtiandai Xiangtian Dai
xiangtian.dai@google.com - Mohsin Ahmed: can't find any online profiles
Replying to a listener phone-in question WNYC radio, mediated by Brian Lehrer.
It was about to launch it seems, and it was not clear at the time that anyone could write content, as opposed to only selected people.
It was about to launch it seems, and it was not clear at the time that anyone could write content, as opposed to only selected people.
Jimmy then corrects that misinformation. He then clearly states that since there can be multiple versions of each article, including opinion pieces, like OurBigBook.com, Knol would be very different to Wikipedia, more like blogging than encyclopedia.
Google Knol: the future of academic journals? by Doug Belshaw (2010)
Source. Bibliography:
- Wikipedia & Knol: Why Knol Already Failed by gwern.net (2009). So there was some kind of monetary payment on the site. Interesting and sad.
Kosovo War Updated 2025-07-16
Lagrangian density Updated 2025-07-16
In the case of field however, we can expand the Lagrangian out further, to also integrate over the space coordinates and their derivatives.
Since we are now working with something that gets integrated over space to obtain the total action, much like density would be integrated over space to obtain a total mass, the name "Lagrangian density" is fitting.
Of course, if we were to write it like that all the time we would go mad, so we can just write a much more condensed vectorized version using the gradient with :
And in the context of special relativity, people condense that even further by adding to the spacetime Four-vector as well, so you don't even need to write that separate pesky .
The main point of talking about the Lagrangian density instead of a Lagrangian for fields is likely that it treats space and time in a more uniform way, which is a basic requirement of special relativity: we have to be able to mix them up somehow to do Lorentz transformations. Notably, this is a key ingredient in a/the formulation of quantum field theory.
Lagrangian mechanics lectures by Michel van Biezen (2017) Updated 2025-07-16
Author: Michel van Biezen.
Lattice Microbes Updated 2025-07-16
GPU accelerated, simulates the Craig's minimized M. genitalium, JCVI-syn3A at a particle basis of some kind.
Lab head is the cutest-looking lady ever: chemistry.illinois.edu/zan, Zaida (Zan) Luthey-Schulten.
- 2022 paper: www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(21)01488-4 Fundamental behaviors emerge from simulations of a living minimal cell by Thornburg et al. (2022) published on Cell
- faculty.scs.illinois.edu/schulten/lm/ actual source code. No Version control and non-code drop release, openess and best practices haven't reached such far obscure reaches of academia yet. One day.
- blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2022/01/20/living-cell-simulation/ Nvidia announcement. That's how they do business, it is quite interesting how they highlight this kind of research.
Lamb-Retherford experiment Updated 2025-07-16
Published as "Fine Structure of the Hydrogen Atom by a Microwave Method" by Willis Lamb and Robert Retherford (1947) on Physical Review. This one actually has open accesses as of 2021, miracle! journals.aps.org/pr/pdf/10.1103/PhysRev.72.241
Microwave technology was developed in World War II for radar, notably at the MIT Radiation Laboratory. Before that, people were using much higher frequencies such as the visible spectrum. But to detect small energy differences, you need to look into longer wavelengths.
This experiment was fundamental to the development of quantum electrodynamics. As mentioned at Genius: Richard Feynman and Modern Physics by James Gleick (1994) chapter "Shrinking the infinities", before the experiment, people already knew that trying to add electromagnetism to the Dirac equation led to infinities using previous methods, and something needed to change urgently. However for the first time now the theorists had one precise number to try and hack their formulas to reach, not just a philosophical debate about infinities, and this led to major breakthroughs. The same book also describes the experiment briefly as:
Willis Lamb had just shined a beam of microwaves onto a hot wisp of hydrogen blowing from an oven.
It is two pages and a half long.
They were at Columbia University in the Columbia Radiation Laboratory. Robert was Willis' graduate student.
Previous less experiments had already hinted at this effect, but they were too imprecise to be sure.
Laser Updated 2025-07-16
What makes lasers so special: Lasers vs other light sources.
How Lasers Work by Scientized (2017)
Source. An extremely good overview of how lasers work. Clearly explains the electron/photon exchange processes involved, notably spontaneous emission.
Talks about the importance of the metastable state to achieve population inversion.
Also briefly explains the imperfections that lead to the slightly imperfect non punctual spectrum seen in a real laser.
- youtu.be/_JOchLyNO_w?t=188 says LED is "also monochromatic", but that is not strictly true, it has way way larger frequency band than a laser. Only narrower compared to other sources such as incandescent light bulbs.
- youtu.be/_JOchLyNO_w?t=517 stimulated emission. This is the key to laser formation as it produces coherent photons.
- youtu.be/_JOchLyNO_w?t=581 spontaneous emission happens too fast (100 ns), which is not enough time for stimulated emission to happen. Metastable electrons to the rescue.
- youtu.be/_JOchLyNO_w?t=832 the parallel mirrors select perpendicular photons preferentially
Laser vendor Updated 2025-07-16
Latin phrase Updated 2025-07-16
Levi-Civita symbol as a tensor Updated 2025-07-16
An Introduction to Tensors and Group Theory for Physicists by Nadir Jeevanjee (2011) shows that this is a tensor that represents the volume of a parallelepiped.
It takes as input three vectors, and outputs one real number, the volume. And it is linear on each vector. This perfectly satisfied the definition of a tensor of order (3,0).
LA-UR Updated 2025-07-16
Publicly released documents from the Los Alamos National Laboratory are marked with this identifier. This is for example the case of each video on ther YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/@LosAlamosNationalLab. E.g. Video "Historic, unique Manhattan Project footage from Los Alamos by Los Alamos National Lab" is marked with "LA-UR 11-4449".
www.osti.gov/biblio/1372821 contains "How to Get an LA-UR: Using RASSTI to Release Your Work" which is of interest: permalink.lanl.gov/object/tr?what=info:lanl-repo/lareport/LA-UR-17-26023. That document documents the acronym's expansion, plus it leaks some internal-only URLs such as lasearch.lanl.gov/oppie/service.
TODO is there somewhere you can search for the document for a given identifier? Some PDFs are listed at: sgp.fas.org/othergov/doe/lanl/index2b.html
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Updated 2025-07-16
Founded partly due to the influence of Edward Teller who thought Los Alamos National Laboratory was not making good progress on thermonuclear weapons, large part of which was developed there.
LC circuit Updated 2025-07-16
When Ciro Santilli was studying electronics at the University of São Paulo, the courses, which were heavily inspired from the USA 50's were obsessed by this one! Thinking about it, it is kind of a cool thing though.
That Wikipedia page is the epitome of Wikipedia failure to explain things in a way that is of any interest to any learner. Video 1. "Tutorial on LC resonant circuits by w2aew (2012)" is the opposite.
Tutorial on LC resonant circuits by w2aew (2012)
Source. - youtu.be/hqhV50852jA?t=239 series LC circuit on a breadboard driven by an AC source. Shows behaviour on oscilloscope as source frequency is modified. We clearly see voltage going to zero at resonance. This is why thie circuit can be seen as a filter.
- youtu.be/hqhV50852jA?t=489 shows the parallel LC circuit. We clearly see current reaching a maximum on resonance.
Introduction to LC Oscillators by USAF (1974)
Source. - youtu.be/W31CCN_ZF34?t=740 mentions that LC circuit formation is the root cause for Audio feedback with a quick demo. Not very scientific, but cool.
LC circuit by Eugene Khutoryansky (2016)
Source. Exactly what you would expect from an Eugene Khutoryansky video. The key insight is that the inductor resists to changes in current. So when current is zero, it slows down the current. And when current is high, it tries to keep it going, which recharges the other side of the capacitor. Lean (proof assistant) Updated 2026-01-30
Source code:
- github.com/leanprover/lean4 why a separate repo per version... but it is what it is.
- github.com/leanprover/lean
The way Lean and Coq mix programming and mathematics is a thing of great beauty. This is especially notable in lean as you start to play with with things such as:
partialenv lean functions, and usingterminates_byto prove that certain functions terminate. Lean requires explicitly known if functions terminate or not to be able to use them in proofs.noncomputablefunctions. Lean allows you to define mathematical functions which you can't actually execute, and it tracks that explicitly
They are huge fans of Unicode characters! Check this out from a formal proof of the prime number theorem: github.com/AlexKontorovich/PrimeNumberTheoremAnd/blob/fbdbb5310d036d33b9797b35f3b04b08f2447a6e/PrimeNumberTheoremAnd/ZetaBounds.lean Here's map to Ascii: proofassistants.stackexchange.com/questions/954/does-lean-have-a-standard-ascii-representation/5289#5289
Their dependency graph thingy is just beautiful however: alexkontorovich.github.io/PrimeNumberTheoremAnd/web/dep_graph_document.html
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