News tagged with visible light
Improving on the amazing: Scientists seek new conductors for metamaterials
(Phys.org) -- Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory have designed a method to evaluate different conductors for use in metamaterial structures, which are engineered to exhibit ...
Apr 24, 2012 |
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Metal oxides hold the key to cheap, green energy
Harnessing the energy of sunlight can be as simple as tuning the optical and electronic properties of metal oxides at the atomic level by making an artificial crystal or super-lattice 'sandwich' says a Binghamton ...
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Apr 19, 2012 |
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Low-temperature method 'grows' transparent zinc oxide films for use in displays, solar cells
The displays on flat-screen TVs and smartphones, as well as the panels on solar cells, all require materials that not only conduct electricity but are also highly transparent to visible light. One transparent ...
Apr 12, 2012 |
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Far-out photosynthesis
Photosynthesis maintains Earth's habitability for life as we know it, and shapes the way we search for habitable worlds around distant stars. Scientists have discovered a microbe that can use low-energy light ...
Mar 16, 2012 |
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Space Image: Enceladus, Saturn's moon
(PhysOrg.com) -- Below a darkened Enceladus, a plume of water ice is backlit in this view of one of Saturn's most dramatic moons.
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Mar 16, 2012 |
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New WISE mission catalog of entire infrared sky released
(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA unveiled a new atlas and catalog of the entire infrared sky today showing more than a half billion stars, galaxies and other objects captured by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer ...
Mar 15, 2012 |
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Tailored optical material from DNA: Nano spiral staircases modify light
In the human body genetic information is encoded in double-stranded deoxyribonucleic acid building blocks, the so-called DNA. Using artificial DNA molecules, an international team of scientists headed by the ...
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Mar 14, 2012 |
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Researchers revolutionize electron microscope
Researchers at the University of Sheffield have revolutionised the electron microscope by developing a new method which could create the highest resolution images ever seen.
Mar 05, 2012 |
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A bad day on Venus gets even worse
Contrary to its alluring name, Venus is the planet from hell, with an atmosphere so hot, toxic and heavy that any visitor would risk being simultaneously melted, suffocated and crushed.
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Feb 29, 2012 |
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APEX turns its eye to dark clouds in Taurus
(PhysOrg.com) -- A new image from the APEX (Atacama Pathfinder Experiment) telescope in Chile shows a sinuous filament of cosmic dust more than ten light-years long. In it, newborn stars are hidden, and dense ...
Feb 15, 2012 |
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Chemists harvest light to create 'green' tool for pharmaceuticals
(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of University of Arkansas researchers, including an Honors College undergraduate student, has created a new, "green" method for developing medicines. The researchers used energy from ...
Feb 09, 2012 |
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Building a better light bulb
Scientists study the movement of charge carriers to design an organic LED that is energy efficient and still casts a warm, natural glow.
Feb 01, 2012 |
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Image: Closest Dione flyby
(PhysOrg.com) -- Flying past Saturn's moon Dione, Cassini captured this view which includes two smaller moons, Epimetheus and Prometheus, near the planet's rings.
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Jan 23, 2012 |
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Researchers uncover transparency limits on transparent conducting oxides
Researchers in the Computational Materials Group at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) have uncovered the fundamental limits on optical transparency in the class of materials known as transparent ...
Jan 18, 2012 |
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A breakthrough in superlens development: Cheap, simple lens to let us see a single virus
A superlens would let you see a virus in a drop of blood and open the door to better and cheaper electronics. It might, says Durdu Guney, make ultra-high-resolution microscopes as commonplace as cameras in ...
Jan 09, 2012 |
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Visible spectrum
The visible spectrum is the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that is visible to (can be detected by) the human eye. Electromagnetic radiation in this range of wavelengths is called visible light or simply light. A typical human eye will respond to wavelengths from about 380 to 750 nm. In terms of frequency, this corresponds to a band in the vicinity of 790–400 terahertz. A light-adapted eye generally has its maximum sensitivity at around 555 nm (540 THz), in the green region of the optical spectrum (see: luminosity function). The spectrum does not, however, contain all the colors that the human eyes and brain can distinguish. Unsaturated colors such as pink, and purple colors such as magenta are absent, for example, because they can only be made by a mix of multiple wavelengths.
Visible wavelengths also pass through the "optical window," the region of the electromagnetic spectrum that passes largely unattenuated through the Earth's atmosphere. (Blue light scatters more than red light, which is why the sky appears blue.) The human eye's response is defined by subjective testing (see CIE), but atmospheric windows are defined by physical measurement.
The "visible window" is so called because it overlaps the human visible response spectrum. The near infrared (NIR) windows lie just out of human response window, and the Medium Wavelength IR (MWIR) and Long Wavelength or Far Infrared (LWIR or FIR) are far beyond the human response region.
Many species can see wavelengths that fall outside the "visible spectrum". Bees and many other insects can see light in the ultraviolet, which helps them find nectar in flowers. Plant species that depend on insect pollination may owe reproductive success to their appearance in ultraviolet light, rather than how colorful they appear to us. Birds too can see into the ultraviolet (300-400 nm), and some have sex-dependent markings on their plumage, which are only visible in the ultraviolet range.
For more information about Visible spectrum, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
