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Scientists Luck Upon a New Way To Make a Rainbow (sciencemag.org)
sciencehabit shares a report from Science Magazine: Chemists have stumbled across a new way to separate reflected light into the colors of the rainbow -- a phenomenon known as iridescence. The surprisingly simple technique, which is something of a hybrid of previously known ones, could have applications both scientific and aesthetic. In iridescence, an object reflects different colors at different angles, separating white light into its constituent colors.
Now, [researchers] at Pennsylvania State University in State College report producing iridescence in a new way. They happened across the effect in early 2017, when they cooked up micron-size spherical droplets containing two types of oil in which the lighter oil formed a lentil-shaped upper layer the researchers hoped to use as a lens. But surprisingly, when illuminated from above, the edges of the lentils glowed with a color that depended on their size and the angle at which they were viewed, the team reports today in Nature. Clarity came only with the computer simulations performed [the researchers]. Their analysis showed the iridescence emerges through a new mechanism that blends certain elements of the previously known ones. [...] Engineers already use thin-films and refractive particles to create iridescence in video displays, paints, and decorative wall coverings. With its simplicity and adjustability, the new effect could open ways to color the world. The effect can be explained in a much simpler system: "water droplets that condense and hang from the underside of the lid of a petri dish. Light waves entering near one edge of a droplet can bounce two or more times off the dome of the droplet before emerging near the other edge -- much as light reflects off the back of a raindrop in a rainbow. However, the light waves entering at slightly different distances from the center of the droplet can bounce different numbers of times. And waves bouncing different numbers of times can interfere and reinforce each other, as in diffraction or thin-film interference. As a result, different colors emerge at different angles, which can be controlled by changing the size of the droplet."
Now, [researchers] at Pennsylvania State University in State College report producing iridescence in a new way. They happened across the effect in early 2017, when they cooked up micron-size spherical droplets containing two types of oil in which the lighter oil formed a lentil-shaped upper layer the researchers hoped to use as a lens. But surprisingly, when illuminated from above, the edges of the lentils glowed with a color that depended on their size and the angle at which they were viewed, the team reports today in Nature. Clarity came only with the computer simulations performed [the researchers]. Their analysis showed the iridescence emerges through a new mechanism that blends certain elements of the previously known ones. [...] Engineers already use thin-films and refractive particles to create iridescence in video displays, paints, and decorative wall coverings. With its simplicity and adjustability, the new effect could open ways to color the world. The effect can be explained in a much simpler system: "water droplets that condense and hang from the underside of the lid of a petri dish. Light waves entering near one edge of a droplet can bounce two or more times off the dome of the droplet before emerging near the other edge -- much as light reflects off the back of a raindrop in a rainbow. However, the light waves entering at slightly different distances from the center of the droplet can bounce different numbers of times. And waves bouncing different numbers of times can interfere and reinforce each other, as in diffraction or thin-film interference. As a result, different colors emerge at different angles, which can be controlled by changing the size of the droplet."
I am so disappointed that it doesn't involve having me lucky charms.
(Okay, it's pretty cool)
We'v were playing around with this stuff since the 60s. Just because these particular newbies have never seen it before doesn't make it "new". Fucking dip-ship newbies.
Why all the black bars and rectangles on that sciencemag site? :-(
So, these scientists have never looked at an oil slick before?
Displays with wide color gamut, anyone?
Serious, anybody that has ever seen spilt oil knows it produces rainbows at its edges, and how is a drop of oil significant different from drops of water in this regard; this doesn't sound that new to me.
Real news on TV says they fart rainbows.
While they're filling up the oceans with plastic and hazardous waste, and their citizens are consuming more food, water, energy, resources, and producing more waste and polution per capita than any other country, their "scientists" are busy making rainbows.
"It's not our problem."
In a paved parking lot, cars with leaky engines leave behind a few drops oil. After a light drizzle, especially after a long dry period, you would see small patches of oily wet paving with colors of the rainbow. Usually very muted because of the dark back ground. I used to tell my daughter that they were pieces of dead rainbow that had fallen from the sky. There was a time she believed it. As she grew up she started pretending to believe it to indulge me. Then came a day, "will you stop saying that? It is not creative or funny anymore!". That's the day ...
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
What kind of retard says dip-ship
Trump.
As further proof of his stupidity, I offer:
* covfefe
* smocking
* #MAGA
* Walls work
* I fell in love with Kim Jong Un
If Clinton was President we would have troops fighting in Syria right now.
Where's me gold?
https://coincircle.com/l/mPKolRtVdZ
Clarity came only with the computer simulations performed [the researchers].
Much clarity. Very simulations. So the researchers.
More RGB lighting for your computer!
the lighter oil formed a lentil-shaped upper layer the researchers hoped to use
That sounds kind of phallic. Probably gay researchers since we all know there aren't any women working in STEM
Seriously, every friggin Compact Disk does this. The headline should read, "Researchers discover the Obvious - Again. Patents Pending."
Because everyone know that unicorns farts rainbows... right?
https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1038%2Fs41586-019-0946-4/MediaObjects/41586_2019_946_MOESM2_ESM.mov