Welcome to Citizendium

From Citizendium
Revision as of 12:41, 20 June 2008 by imported>Larry Sanger
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Logo400grbeta small.png
Natural Sciences       Social Sciences       Humanities
Arts       Applied Arts and
Sciences
      
Recreation

A new wiki encyclopedia project—and more!

  • We aim at reliability and quality, not just quantity.
  • We welcome participation from everyone knowledgeable, broadly or narrowly, about any of the world's innumerable subjects— in some cases, writers may be gently guided by experts.
  • We write under our real names—and are both collegial and congenial.
  • We now have [[:Category:CZ Live|Template:Articles number+ articles]] and are gathering speed.
  • Eduzendium participants write for academic credit.

Write for the Citizendium—knowledge is fun!

  • Sign up—we need both authors and editors (you might be both!)
  • Then, get a quick start.
  • Remember, we are an open, young project—it's easy to get involved!

Learn about us

Important new community pages

  • WatchKnow will be a free, non-profit, K-12 educational video contest, currently under planning and development. We're hiring.
  • Myths and Facts: we might be different than you think!
  • We are organizing Workgroup Weeks--our biggest initiative yet. Citizens, get involved, and watch our numbers multiply!

Support us

 

(CC) Photo: Tanya Puntti
Each sentence you add is another drop in an expanding sea of words.

Some of our finest [ about ]

Approved.png
Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality.

Often attributed to the Dalai Lama

Article of the Week [ about ]

Phosphorus is a chemical element with the atomic number Z = 15. Unlike other elements in group VA of the periodic table, phosphorus is never found as a pure element in nature, but only in combination with other elements.

It is present in all living organisms in the form of organophosphates and as calcium phosphates such as hydroxyapatite (Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2) and fluoroapatite (Ca10(PO4)6F2), substances found in teeth and bones. Many cell signaling cascades in living organisms operate by a series of phosphorylation events in which a phosphate group (PO4)2− is either added to a protein by a kinase or removed from a protein by a phosphorylase.

Both red phosphorus and tetraphosphorus trisulfide are used in common matches because they are easily ignited by heat. However, the agricultural industry is the largest user of phosphorus in the form of fertilizers. The radioactive isotope 32P is used to radiolabel compounds for scientific studies. Phosphorus and arsenic share many chemical properties.

Production of elemental phosphorus

Calcium phosphate (phosphate rock), mostly mined in Florida and North Africa, can be heated to 1200-1500 Celsius with sand, which is mostly SiO2, and coke (impure carbon) to produce vaporized tetraphosphorus, P4, (mp. 44.2 C) which is subsequently condensed into a white power under water to prevent oxidation. Even under water, white phosphorus is slowly converted to the more stable red phosphorus allotrope (mp. 597C). Both the white and red allotropes of phosphorus are insoluble in water.[more...]


New Draft of the Week [ about ]

Dazed and Confused is a song rewritten and arranged by British rock group Led Zeppelin, based on an original composition by Jake Holmes, also titled "Dazed and Confused". Led Zeppelin's heavier and electric Dazed and Confused was considered so significantly different from the Holmes acoustic version that the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) assigned the unique serial registration of 340128276[1] to its copyright, lodged by the newly created music publisher Superhype Music in 1968. Led Zeppelin's Dazed and Confused has since been widely covered and was an early performance highlight for the group. [more...]