How Humans See In Bright And Low Light Oct 14, 2009
After exposure to light, key components of pigments called chromophores can leave the cells and travel to the nearby pigment epithelium near the retina. There the chromophore is restored and returned to the photoreceptor cells ... Exposure to bright light destroyed visual pigments in rods, and those cells could not recycle chromophores, says principal investigator Vladimir J. Kefalov, Ph. (Science Daily)
Methane-producing Molecule Can Also Repair DNA Jul 4, 2009
The archaeal cofactor F0 is a light-harvesting antenna chromophore in eukaryotes. PNAS Early Edition online, 1 July 2009 DOI. (Science Daily)
Carbon Nanotube Device That Can Detect Colors Of The Rainbow Constructed May 5, 2009
In the nanoscale color detector, light strikes a chromophore and causes a conformational change in the molecule, which in turn causes a threshold shift on a transistor made from a single-walled carbon nanotube ... He and Wong laid the groundwork with their theoretical research, with Wong completing the first-principles calculations that supported the hypothesis of how the chromophores were arranged on the nanotubes and how the chromophore isomerizations affected electronic properties of the... (Science Daily)
Nature Neuroscience Feb 8, 2009
Bright light vision requires rapid regeneration of the photosensitive chromophore in cone photoreceptors. This study demonstrates that such rapid regeneration is accomplished via a pathway that resides in retinal M. (Nature News Service)
