Ion
noun
An atom or molecule which has lost or gained one or more electrons, and so has a positive or negative electric charge.
A sodium ion has a positive charge because it has lost an electron.
Often appears as...
- positive ion
- negative ion
Usage tips
Technical, Academic
noun
An atom or molecule which has lost or gained one or more electrons, and so has a positive or negative electric charge.
A sodium ion has a positive charge because it has lost an electron.
Often appears as...
- positive ion
- negative ion
Usage tips
Technical, Academic
Definition 1 of 1
Pro Tip 1/3Electric Charge
Ions have an electric charge, making them important in electricity and reactions.
In salt water, the sodium and chloride ions conduct electricity.
Pro Tip 2/3Common Types
The most common ions are cations with a positive charge and anions with a negative charge.
Sodium is a common cation, while chlorine is a common anion.
Pro Tip 3/3Scientific Context
Ions are often discussed in science classes or texts, not everyday conversation.
We'll need to calculate the number of magnesium ions in this solution.
Pro Tip 1/3Electric Charge
Ions have an electric charge, making them important in electricity and reactions.
In salt water, the sodium and chloride ions conduct electricity.
Pro Tip 2/3Common Types
The most common ions are cations with a positive charge and anions with a negative charge.
Sodium is a common cation, while chlorine is a common anion.
Pro Tip 3/3Scientific Context
Ions are often discussed in science classes or texts, not everyday conversation.
We'll need to calculate the number of magnesium ions in this solution.
Pro Tip 1/3Electric Charge
Ions have an electric charge, making them important in electricity and reactions.
In salt water, the sodium and chloride ions conduct electricity.
Pro Tip 2/3Common Types
The most common ions are cations with a positive charge and anions with a negative charge.
Sodium is a common cation, while chlorine is a common anion.
Pro Tip 3/3Scientific Context
Ions are often discussed in science classes or texts, not everyday conversation.
We'll need to calculate the number of magnesium ions in this solution.
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Video examples
Fred Jansen: How to land...
deep, frozen versions of our solar system. In the sky, they look like this. We know them for their tails. There are actually two tails. One is a dust tail, which is blown away by the solar wind. The other one is an ion tail, which is charged particles, and they follow the magnetic field in the solar system.
Video examples
Michael Levin: The...
and the important thing is that we don't apply electricity. What we do instead was we turned on and off the little transistors -- they're actual ion channel proteins -- that every cell natively uses to set up this electrical state. So now we have ways to turn them on and off,
Video examples
The surprising reason...
With a little time, they will flow back to the areas where they’re needed, sometimes with the help of active sodium and potassium pumps. So if you pause and rest, muscle fatigue will subside as these ions replenish throughout the muscle. The more regularly you exercise,
Video examples
Water Discovered In...
bit like a nice peaceful curtain draping over a window that's not moving. And instead, it looks like there's some sort of breeze gently fluttering that curtain. And what we were able to do is calculate what ions were generating those waves and it was water group ions.
Video examples
Cell membranes are way...
that allow specific molecules through, like sodium and potassium ions. Peripheral proteins floating in the inner face of the bilayer help anchor the membrane to the cell's interior scaffolding. Other proteins in cell membranes can help fuse two different bilayers.
Video examples
The secrets in volcanic...
do forensics with in our lab we can zap them with lasers and ion beams to find out how hot the magma is and how much water it contained in it before it erupted yes it's the water which we usually think of as the benign life-giving substance that in this case
Video examples
The high-stakes race to...
We can’t currently contain enough ions in a trap to make advanced computations, but one possible solution might be to connect many smaller traps that communicate with each other via photons rather than trying to create one big trap.
Video examples
Can 100 renewable...
And what about the all-important, oil-derived liquid fuels? The scientific challenge there is to store renewable energy in an easily transportable form. Recently, we've gotten better at producing lithium ion batteries,
Video examples
Opiates and Pangolin...
of the ions that are actually in the sample. - I came to this lab because I wanted to do something that I thought could make a difference. We're just doing our small part to help reduce illegal wildlife trade.
Video examples
Donald Sadoway: The...
to become magnesium ion, which then migrates across the electrolyte, accepts two electrons from the antimony, and then mixes with it to form an alloy. The electrons go to work in the real world out here,
Video examples
Fred Jansen: How to land...
deep, frozen versions of our solar system. In the sky, they look like this. We know them for their tails. There are actually two tails. One is a dust tail, which is blown away by the solar wind. The other one is an ion tail, which is charged particles, and they follow the magnetic field in the solar system.
Video examples
Michael Levin: The...
and the important thing is that we don't apply electricity. What we do instead was we turned on and off the little transistors -- they're actual ion channel proteins -- that every cell natively uses to set up this electrical state. So now we have ways to turn them on and off,
Video examples
The surprising reason...
With a little time, they will flow back to the areas where they’re needed, sometimes with the help of active sodium and potassium pumps. So if you pause and rest, muscle fatigue will subside as these ions replenish throughout the muscle. The more regularly you exercise,
Video examples
Water Discovered In...
bit like a nice peaceful curtain draping over a window that's not moving. And instead, it looks like there's some sort of breeze gently fluttering that curtain. And what we were able to do is calculate what ions were generating those waves and it was water group ions.
Video examples
Cell membranes are way...
that allow specific molecules through, like sodium and potassium ions. Peripheral proteins floating in the inner face of the bilayer help anchor the membrane to the cell's interior scaffolding. Other proteins in cell membranes can help fuse two different bilayers.
Video examples
The secrets in volcanic...
do forensics with in our lab we can zap them with lasers and ion beams to find out how hot the magma is and how much water it contained in it before it erupted yes it's the water which we usually think of as the benign life-giving substance that in this case
Video examples
The high-stakes race to...
We can’t currently contain enough ions in a trap to make advanced computations, but one possible solution might be to connect many smaller traps that communicate with each other via photons rather than trying to create one big trap.
Video examples
Can 100 renewable...
And what about the all-important, oil-derived liquid fuels? The scientific challenge there is to store renewable energy in an easily transportable form. Recently, we've gotten better at producing lithium ion batteries,
Video examples
Opiates and Pangolin...
of the ions that are actually in the sample. - I came to this lab because I wanted to do something that I thought could make a difference. We're just doing our small part to help reduce illegal wildlife trade.
Video examples
Donald Sadoway: The...
to become magnesium ion, which then migrates across the electrolyte, accepts two electrons from the antimony, and then mixes with it to form an alloy. The electrons go to work in the real world out here,
Example 1 of 10
Quote examples
Jo Beverley
British Writer
There's a magical energy and power from the ocean. I was born in a room overlooking the sea, in the middle of a storm. Perhaps, then, it's not surprising that shores touch my soul. Science might disagree, but I think there's a difference in the air on a coast - the positive ions, perhaps.
Quote examples
Jean-Marie Lehn
French Scientist
Receptor chemistry, the chemistry of artificial receptor molecules, may be considered a generalized coordination chemistry, not limited to transition metal ions but extending to all types of substrates: cationic, anionic or neutral species of organic, inorganic or biological nature.
Quote examples
Gilbert Newton Lewis
American Scientist
We frequently define an acid or a base as a substance whose aqueous solution gives, respectively, a higher concentration of hydrogen ion or of hydroxide ion than that furnished by pure water. This is a very one sided definition.
Quote examples
Scott Stossel
American Journalist
To say that my anxiety is reducible to the ions in my amygdala is as limiting as saying that my personality or my soul is reducible to the molecules that make up my brain cells or to the genes that underwrote them.
Quote examples
Robert Crippen
American Astronaut
We were on the dark side of the Earth when we started to see outside the window this soft pink glow, which is a lot of little angry ions out there going very fast. We were hitting them very fast.
Quote examples
August Krogh
Danish Scientist
The affinity of blood or pure haemoglobins for oxygen is a complex phenomenon, depending upon a number of conditions, the most important of which are temperature and hydrogen ion concentration.
Quote examples
Gerhard Herzberg
German Physicist
For polyatomic free radicals and ions, one is dependent both for the ground states and the excited states on the study of electronic spectra to obtain the shapes and the geometrical parameters.
Quote examples
Johannes Stark
Physicist
By allowing the positive ions to pass through an electric field and thus giving them a certain velocity, it is possible to distinguish them from the neutral, stationary atoms.
Quote examples
Lars Onsager
Norwegian Scientist
The thermodynamic properties of electrolyte solutions can be determined from the measurements of the voltage between electrodes reversible to both ions.
Quote examples
Regis Philbin
American Entertainer
I think there's a little bit of sizzling here. Honestly, I can feel it. The ions are flying back and forth.
Quote examples
Jo Beverley
British Writer
There's a magical energy and power from the ocean. I was born in a room overlooking the sea, in the middle of a storm. Perhaps, then, it's not surprising that shores touch my soul. Science might disagree, but I think there's a difference in the air on a coast - the positive ions, perhaps.
Quote examples
Jean-Marie Lehn
French Scientist
Receptor chemistry, the chemistry of artificial receptor molecules, may be considered a generalized coordination chemistry, not limited to transition metal ions but extending to all types of substrates: cationic, anionic or neutral species of organic, inorganic or biological nature.
Quote examples
Gilbert Newton Lewis
American Scientist
We frequently define an acid or a base as a substance whose aqueous solution gives, respectively, a higher concentration of hydrogen ion or of hydroxide ion than that furnished by pure water. This is a very one sided definition.
Quote examples
Scott Stossel
American Journalist
To say that my anxiety is reducible to the ions in my amygdala is as limiting as saying that my personality or my soul is reducible to the molecules that make up my brain cells or to the genes that underwrote them.
Quote examples
Robert Crippen
American Astronaut
We were on the dark side of the Earth when we started to see outside the window this soft pink glow, which is a lot of little angry ions out there going very fast. We were hitting them very fast.
Quote examples
August Krogh
Danish Scientist
The affinity of blood or pure haemoglobins for oxygen is a complex phenomenon, depending upon a number of conditions, the most important of which are temperature and hydrogen ion concentration.
Quote examples
Gerhard Herzberg
German Physicist
For polyatomic free radicals and ions, one is dependent both for the ground states and the excited states on the study of electronic spectra to obtain the shapes and the geometrical parameters.
Quote examples
Johannes Stark
Physicist
By allowing the positive ions to pass through an electric field and thus giving them a certain velocity, it is possible to distinguish them from the neutral, stationary atoms.
Quote examples
Lars Onsager
Norwegian Scientist
The thermodynamic properties of electrolyte solutions can be determined from the measurements of the voltage between electrodes reversible to both ions.
Quote examples
Regis Philbin
American Entertainer
I think there's a little bit of sizzling here. Honestly, I can feel it. The ions are flying back and forth.
Example 1 of 10
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