Color and the James Webb Space Telescope - uglyhack

uglyhack — Thu, 19 Jan 2023 20:56:58 GMT

@grindhold I've never thought about the chemistry of how your eyes actually receive light, that's pretty cool. I thought I'd spent a lot of time researching this, I guess proves there's always a deeper rabbit hole.

Color and the James Webb Space Telescope - grindhold

grindhold — Thu, 19 Jan 2023 10:19:56 GMT

the most fascinating aspect on all this to me is a chemical one: the active chemical compound in the eye is the aldehyde retinal. it features a double-bond that acts as a light-triggered molecular switch as it can undergo photoisomerization, a process in which the double-bond is being broken and reformed while flipping one side of the molecule around 180°. the fascinating thing is that the double-bond only corresponds to light if it is being struck by a photon of one distinct wavelength. it is only by being embedded into different types of rhodopsin that shifts that wavelength to create S M and L differentiation. But at its core its always the same little molecule. Another nice funfact would be that retinal is essentially a vitamin A molecule split in half which is why vitamin A is that essential to having good eyesight. Thanks for your video. It was fun to watch 😃

Color and the James Webb Space Telescope - Dmitry Matveyev

Dmitry Matveyev — Wed, 18 Jan 2023 15:08:27 GMT

Very cool