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ARCHIVE
2010

jun days
• french & american recycled colored plastic

apr days
• color
concept &
theory widgets and apps

mar days
• red:
a portrait of a artist rothko

feb days
• talking
heads as figure/ground

jan days
• tanja's
black light dance party

ARCHIVE
2009

dec days
• tootsie roll pop wrappers colors & flavors

nov days
• stephen vitiello's four color sound

oct days
• atmospheric perspective

sept days
• a rainbow
of antioxidants
colors


aug days
• floor stain colorants

jul days
• minimal colors

jun days
• wildflowers cataloged by color

may days
• tennis court colors

apr days
• morandi's neutral colors

mar days
• grid colorists

feb days
• black as
film noir

jan days
• flood of toxic minerals used in paints

ARCHIVE
2008

dec days
• comple-mentary
colors

nov days
• kettle korn
packaging color change

oct days
• green fluorescent protein

sept days
• red palms - not green

aug days
• blue tunes

jul days
blue - textile museum

jun days
• “fiesta- ware”
colorants

may days
• “blue alchemy” hive gallery

apr days
• “sennelier” selecting
watercolours for travel

 

green jellyfishOsamu Shimomura/Marine Biological Laboratory,
via European Pressphoto Agency

 

green fluorescent protein

image on the left
Aequorea victoria, the jellyfish from which green fluorescent protein is derived.
– Kenneth Chang

Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie and Roger Y. Tsien won the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry (10/8/08) for taking the ability of the jellyfish to glow green and transforming it into a tool of molecular biology to watch the dance of living cells and the proteins within them.
– Kenneth Chang

   

Question: Is the green fluorescent color a form of light or from pigment (dye)? – crb

Answer: It's definitely a form of light. Fluorescence means some light hits the (in this case) protein, which then re-emits the light at a different (longer) wavelength. In this case the emitted light is green. It actually shoots out photons like a little flashlight.  Probably you'd shine essentially white light on it (from sunlight or from artificial lights) and it would light up green. This is very different from a dye, which absorbs most of the light that hits it, and reflects back what it doesn't absorb. This is a "subtractive" process. The photons that you see reflected were already present in the incident light. With fluorescence the photon you see was created de novo in the protein using the energy of the incident light. – Joel Cohen, Biophysicist

 

tubesPhoto released by the University of California
AP Photo/UC San Diego

 

Image on left
test tubes containing various fluorescent proteins developed by scientist RogerTsien.
— Associated Press

“It's not something out of the blue, but you never know when it's going to come or if it's going to come, so it's always a big surprise when it actually happen.
– Martin Chalfie



   

jellyfish mouseAP Photo/Harvard University, Livett- Weissman-Sanes-Lichtman

 

image on the left
brain cells of a laboratory mouse glowing with multicolor fluorescent proteins. — Associated Press

As a child Roger Y. Tsien was dazzled by colors, and that later helped him in his career. He said, “I feel a bit like a deer caught in headlights.” “I like pretty colors . . .this was a good opportunity.
— Kenneth Chang 10/8/08

“A deer caught in headlights.” – the effects on your rod cells being overwhelmed before your cone cells can adjust to the bright light. — crb

jellyfish multicAP Photo/Harvard University, Livett- Weissman-Sanes-Lichtman

 


image on the left
brain cells of a laboratory mouse glowing with multicolor fluorescent proteins.
— Associated Press

When exposed to ultraviolet light, the protein glows green. It can act as a marker on otherwise invisible proteins within cells to trace them as they go about their business. It can tag individual cells in tissue. And it can show when and where particular genes turn on and off.


         
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