Thanks! I'm honestly surprised how difficult it is for plants and animals to obtain a blue color. It really goes to show how complex nature can be when something that seems so negligible requires a ton of manipulation.
Yes, the colors in nature are amazing. What is the evolutionary reason for so many of them? If you haven't already, have a look at the Lilac breasted roller, one of the most beautiful birds, I think it has 7 different colors. Such beauty.
Thanks! My wife Tina and I have several hydrangeas in our garden and they are a source of wonder for us. Ideally, perhaps, we would "dead-head" them as was done by the gardeners we no longer have. We leave them there and they age into a subtle decripitude, as we all do, if we last long enough.
I have never looked at the theory of dyes, but I guess that parts of the molecule resonate like a tuning fork. I guess that in this case, removing some hydrogens (not much of a loss of mass) and/or the bare oxygens somehow finding peace with a nearby captive aluminium ion makes the molecule resonate at a higher frequency, to accentuate blue wavelengths rather than lower frequency, longer, more green, yellow, orange or red waves.
This was a great antidote to the important but stressy corruptitude which is the main concern of most of the Substacks I read, not to mention https://zerohedge.com.
They really do make for a great display. I was just surprised at how many homes had hydrangeas, and it kind of made me want some for myself as most stores are really pushing these things out! Even as they age they take on a nice appearance...until the browning and shriveling. At least we can fend that off with moisturizing! 😂
When it comes to colors the general assumption is that resonance (the ability to delocalize electrons within a system) is what is important to the color. On a basic level when a photon hits one of these compounds it can excite an electron to a higher energy state, and when it collapses back down it will release that photon with a specific wavelength. Conjugation of a molecule manipulates the resonance state of a structure, and therefore alters the energy requirement to excite an electron to a higher state.
It's all rather complex, but in this case the aluminum is likely helping to keep the delphinidin in a quinodal base structure, and this structure's resonance results in a release of photons that fall within the blue wavelength.
One reason I write these articles is because they are a reprieve to a lot of the stuff that is going on. It's partially to take a look at something otherwise considered trivial, but it also helps to provide perspective to things that we may not have thought of before.
...the complexity of Blue. A great title for a book. Excellent read. Thanks!
Thanks! I'm honestly surprised how difficult it is for plants and animals to obtain a blue color. It really goes to show how complex nature can be when something that seems so negligible requires a ton of manipulation.
Yes, the colors in nature are amazing. What is the evolutionary reason for so many of them? If you haven't already, have a look at the Lilac breasted roller, one of the most beautiful birds, I think it has 7 different colors. Such beauty.
Thanks! My wife Tina and I have several hydrangeas in our garden and they are a source of wonder for us. Ideally, perhaps, we would "dead-head" them as was done by the gardeners we no longer have. We leave them there and they age into a subtle decripitude, as we all do, if we last long enough.
I have never looked at the theory of dyes, but I guess that parts of the molecule resonate like a tuning fork. I guess that in this case, removing some hydrogens (not much of a loss of mass) and/or the bare oxygens somehow finding peace with a nearby captive aluminium ion makes the molecule resonate at a higher frequency, to accentuate blue wavelengths rather than lower frequency, longer, more green, yellow, orange or red waves.
This was a great antidote to the important but stressy corruptitude which is the main concern of most of the Substacks I read, not to mention https://zerohedge.com.
They really do make for a great display. I was just surprised at how many homes had hydrangeas, and it kind of made me want some for myself as most stores are really pushing these things out! Even as they age they take on a nice appearance...until the browning and shriveling. At least we can fend that off with moisturizing! 😂
When it comes to colors the general assumption is that resonance (the ability to delocalize electrons within a system) is what is important to the color. On a basic level when a photon hits one of these compounds it can excite an electron to a higher energy state, and when it collapses back down it will release that photon with a specific wavelength. Conjugation of a molecule manipulates the resonance state of a structure, and therefore alters the energy requirement to excite an electron to a higher state.
It's all rather complex, but in this case the aluminum is likely helping to keep the delphinidin in a quinodal base structure, and this structure's resonance results in a release of photons that fall within the blue wavelength.
One reason I write these articles is because they are a reprieve to a lot of the stuff that is going on. It's partially to take a look at something otherwise considered trivial, but it also helps to provide perspective to things that we may not have thought of before.