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SUMMARY:Ab initio Colors
DTSTART:20130325T131500
DTSTAMP:20260407T135613Z
UID:35e556429fe78da4b16c7c8a4b59fa8090035b526066c0d76a8dbc1b
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Stefano Baroni\nScuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanz
 ati\, Trieste\, Italy\nI will present some recent work addressing the effe
 cts of the solvent (water) on the optical properties of natural dyes.  I 
 will break the ice with a short presentation of the physics and physiology
  of color vision\, in the style of popular science.  I will then introduc
 e some of the theoretical and computational techniques that are currently 
 used to model the optical properties of complex molecular systems and nano
 -structured materials.  These techniques will be demonstrated with the "p
 rediction" that grass is green\, and applied to the optical properties of 
 flavylium\, the die that gives aubergines and blueberries their typical de
 ep-purple coloration.  In the latter case I will show that the main effec
 t of the solvent is to provide a medium allowing thermal fluctuations to f
 ill the gaps that would otherwise characterize the spectrum of the dye at 
 low temperature\, thus considerably enhancing optical absorption in the vi
 sible range\, and making blueberries (deep) blue.
LOCATION:MXF 1 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==MXF%201
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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