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Silvia Vignolini
Silvia Vignolini (born 1981) is an Italian physicist who is Professor of Chemistry and Bio-materials in the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge. Her research investigates natural photonics structures, the self-assembly of cellulose and light propagation through complex structures. She was awarded the KINGFA young investigator award by the American Chemical Society and the Gibson-Fawcett Award in 2018. Early life and education Vignolini was born in Italy and grew up in Florence. She became interested in physics at high school, and remembers reading ''A Brief History of Time'' as a teenager. She studied materials physics at the University of Florence, which she graduated summa cum laude. She remained at the University of Florence for her doctoral research, where she studied photonic crystals at the European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy supervised by Diederik Wiersma. Research and career Vignolini's research interests are on photonic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico anno 2013, datISTAT/ref> Florence was a centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of that era. It is considered by many academics to have been the birthplace of the Renaissance, becoming a major artistic, cultural, commercial, political, economic and financial center. During this time, Florence rose to a position of enormous influence in Italy, Europe, and beyond. Its turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful Medici family and numerous religious and republican revolutions. From 1865 to 1871 the city served as the capital of the Kingdom of Italy (established in 1861). The Florentine dialect forms the base of Standard Italian and it became the language of culture throughout Ital ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Summa Cum Laude
Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Southeastern Asian countries with European colonial history, such as Indonesia and the Philippines, although sometimes translations of these phrases are used instead of the Latin originals. The honors distinction should not be confused with the honors degrees offered in some countries, or with honorary degrees. The system usually has three levels of honor: ''cum laude'', ''magna cum laude'', and ''summa cum laude''. Generally, a college or university's regulations set out definite criteria a student must meet to obtain a given honor. For example, the student might be required to achieve a specific grade point average, submit an honors thesis for evaluation, be part of an honors program, or graduate early. Each school sets its own standards. S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Microfibril
A microfibril is a very fine fibril, or fiber-like strand, consisting of glycoproteins and cellulose. It is usually, but not always, used as a general term in describing the structure of protein fiber, e.g. hair and sperm tail. Its most frequently observed structural pattern is the 9+2 pattern in which two central protofibrils are surrounded by nine other pairs. Cellulose inside plants is one of the examples of non-protein compounds that are using this term with the same purpose. Cellulose microfibrils are laid down in the inner surface of the primary cell wall. As the cell absorbs water, its volume increases and the existing microfibrils separate and new ones are formed to help increase cell strength. Synthesis and function Cellulose is synthesized by cellulose synthase or Rosette terminal complexes which reside on a cells membrane. As cellulose fibrils are synthesized and grow extracellularly they push up against neighboring cells. Since the neighboring cell can not move easily t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bragg Reflection
In physics and chemistry , Bragg's law, Wulff–Bragg's condition or Laue–Bragg interference, a special case of Laue diffraction, gives the angles for coherent scattering of waves from a crystal lattice. It encompasses the superposition of wave fronts scattered by lattice planes, leading to a strict relation between wavelength and scattering angle, or else to the wavevector transfer with respect to the crystal lattice. Such law had initially been formulated for X-rays upon crystals. However, It applies to all sorts of quantum beams, including neutron and electron waves at atomic distances, as well as visible light at artificial periodic microscale lattices. History Bragg diffraction (also referred to as the Bragg formulation of X-ray diffraction) was first proposed by Lawrence Bragg and his father, William Henry Bragg, in 1913 in response to their discovery that crystalline solids produced surprising patterns of reflected X-rays (in contrast to that of, say, a liquid). They ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iridescence
Iridescence (also known as goniochromism) is the phenomenon of certain surfaces that appear to gradually change color as the angle of view or the angle of illumination changes. Examples of iridescence include soap bubbles, feathers, butterfly wings and seashell nacre, and minerals such as opal. It is a kind of structural coloration that is due to wave interference of light in microstructures or thin films. Pearlescence is a related effect where some or most of the reflected light is white. The term pearlescent is used to describe certain paint finishes, usually in the automotive industry, which actually produce iridescent effects. Etymology The word ''iridescence'' is derived in part from the Greek word ἶρις ''îris'' ( gen. ἴριδος ''íridos''), meaning ''rainbow'', and is combined with the Latin suffix ''-escent'', meaning "having a tendency toward". Iris in turn derives from the goddess Iris of Greek mythology, who is the personification of the rainbow and ac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flowering Plant
Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants that produce their seeds enclosed within a fruit. They are by far the most diverse group of land plants with 64 orders, 416 families, approximately 13,000 known genera and 300,000 known species. Angiosperms were formerly called Magnoliophyta (). Like gymnosperms, angiosperms are seed-producing plants. They are distinguished from gymnosperms by characteristics including flowers, endosperm within their seeds, and the production of fruits that contain the seeds. The ancestors of flowering plants diverged from the common ancestor of all living gymnosperms before the end of the Carboniferous, over 300 million years ago. The closest fossil relatives of flowering plants are uncertain and contentious. The earliest angiosperm fossils ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pollia Condensata
''Pollia condensata'', sometimes called the marble berry, is a perennial herbaceous plant with stoloniferous stems and hard, dry, shiny, round, metallic blue fruit. It is found in forested regions of Africa. The blue colour of the fruit, created by structural coloration, is the most intense of any known biological material. Description The plant was originally described from Angola, in southern Africa. It has large, smooth, narrow leaves, and pale pink or whitish flowers on a stem about 60 cm high. The fruit capsule is about 4 mm in diameter. Structural coloration The surface of the ''Pollia'' fruit has an especially smooth and transparent cuticle which reflects light as a mirror does (specular reflection). Beneath this glossy surface lies a special layer of cells which have an elaborate but unpigmented microstructure, whose function is to reflect light within a narrow range of wavelengths. This structural coloration is created by Bragg reflection from spirally stacke ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diffraction Grating
In optics, a diffraction grating is an optical component with a periodic structure that diffracts light into several beams travelling in different directions (i.e., different diffraction angles). The emerging coloration is a form of structural coloration. The directions or diffraction angles of these beams depend on the wave (light) incident angle to the diffraction grating, the spacing or distance between adjacent diffracting elements (e.g., parallel slits for a transmission grating) on the grating, and the wavelength of the incident light. The grating acts as a dispersive element. Because of this, diffraction gratings are commonly used in monochromators and spectrometers, but other applications are also possible such as optical encoders for high precision motion control and wavefront measurement. For typical applications, a reflective grating has ridges or ''rulings'' on its surface while a transmissive grating has transmissive or hollow slits on its surface. Such a grating ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pigmentation
A pigment is a colored material that is completely or nearly insoluble in water. In contrast, dyes are typically soluble, at least at some stage in their use. Generally dyes are often organic compounds whereas pigments are often inorganic compounds. Pigments of prehistoric and historic value include ochre, charcoal, and lapis lazuli. Economic impact In 2006, around 7.4 million tons of inorganic, organic, and special pigments were marketed worldwide. Estimated at around US$14.86 billion in 2018 and will rise at over 4.9% CAGR from 2019 to 2026. The global demand for pigments was roughly US$20.5 billion in 2009. According to an April 2018 report by ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', the estimated value of the pigment industry globally is $30 billion. The value of titanium dioxide – used to enhance the white brightness of many products – was placed at $13.2 billion per year, while the color Ferrari red is valued at $300 million each year. Physical principles ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Structural Coloration
Structural coloration in animals, and a few plants, is the production of colour by microscopically structured surfaces fine enough to interfere with visible light instead of pigments, although some structural coloration occurs in combination with pigments. For example, peacock tail feathers are pigmented brown, but their microscopic structure makes them also reflect blue, turquoise, and green light, and they are often iridescent. Structural coloration was first observed by English scientists Robert Hooke and Isaac Newton, and its principle – wave interference – explained by Thomas Young a century later. Young described iridescence as the result of interference between reflections from two or more surfaces of thin films, combined with refraction as light enters and leaves such films. The geometry then determines that at certain angles, the light reflected from both surfaces interferes constructively, while at other angles, the light interferes destructively. Different colours ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lecturer
Lecturer is an List of academic ranks, academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. They may also conduct research. Comparison The table presents a broad overview of the traditional main systems, but there are universities which use a combination of those systems or other titles. Note that some universities in Commonwealth countries have adopted the American system in place of the Commonwealth system. Uses around the world Australia In Australia, the term lecturer may be used informally to refer to anyone who conducts lectures at a university or elsewhere, but formally refers to a specific academic rank. The academic ranks in Australia are similar to those in the UK, with the rank of associate professor roughly equivalent to reader in UK universities. The academic levels in Australia are (in ascending academic level) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ulrich Steiner
Ulrich (), is a German given name, derived from Old High German ''Uodalrich'', ''Odalric''. It is composed of the elements '' uodal-'' meaning "(noble) heritage" and ''-rich'' meaning "rich, powerful". Attested from the 8th century as the name of Alamannic nobility, the name is popularly given from the high medieval period in reference to Saint Ulrich of Augsburg (canonized 993). There is also a surname Ulrich. It is most prevalent in Germany and has the highest density in SwitzerlandThis last name was found in the United States around the year 1840Most Americans with the last name were concentrated in Pennsylvania, which was home to many Pennsylvania Dutch, German immigrant communities. Nowadays in the United States, the name is distributed largely in the Pennsylvania-Ohio regio History Documents record the Old High German name ''Oadalrich'' or ''Uodalrich'' from the later 8th century in Alamannia. The related name ''Adalric'' (Anglo-Saxon cognate '' Æthelric'') is attested fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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