Steve Axford
05-09-2014, 5:17pm
Whilst doing a bit of re-reading about structural colours, I came across lots of references to photonic crystals. I had heard of these before, but previously took little notice. This time I looked deeper and soon realised why I took so little notice before. The maths is mind boggling. It is all about quantum things and lost me before they even started, but I persisted with the non-mathematical side of it, and I then came across molecular assemblers.
Just to go back a bit, photonic crystals are sometimes described as being the optical analogue of an electrical transister and are touted as being the potential basis for optical computers. Photonic crystals are assemblies of molecules with a very specific nanostructure. They can only be produced by molecular assemblers which are defined as a "proposed device able to guide chemical reactions by positioning reactive molecules with atomic precision". Well, it seems that these molecular assemblers have been present in nature for a very long time. One example is creating photonic crystals, another is DNA synthesis. We have yet to do this, but it can't be that far away.
I know this has nothing to do with photography (well, I don't think it has???), but it stuck me as quite fascinating. The possibilities are .... well, we just don't know what the possibilities are.
If you are interested in these things, do a search on Google, there is lots, some of it way to specialised, but some of it quite good.
Just to go back a bit, photonic crystals are sometimes described as being the optical analogue of an electrical transister and are touted as being the potential basis for optical computers. Photonic crystals are assemblies of molecules with a very specific nanostructure. They can only be produced by molecular assemblers which are defined as a "proposed device able to guide chemical reactions by positioning reactive molecules with atomic precision". Well, it seems that these molecular assemblers have been present in nature for a very long time. One example is creating photonic crystals, another is DNA synthesis. We have yet to do this, but it can't be that far away.
I know this has nothing to do with photography (well, I don't think it has???), but it stuck me as quite fascinating. The possibilities are .... well, we just don't know what the possibilities are.
If you are interested in these things, do a search on Google, there is lots, some of it way to specialised, but some of it quite good.