![]() ![]() In 1952, English biophysicist Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins (1916-) and molecular biologist Rosalind Elsie Franklin (1920-1958) used x-ray diffraction to photograph DNA. In 1937, a year after Debye’s Nobel, two other scientists-American physicist Clinton Joseph Davisson (1881-1958) and English physicist George Paget Thomson (1892-1975)-won the Prize in Physics for their discovery that crystals can bring about the diffraction of electrons.Īlso, in 1937, English physicist William Thomas Astbury (1898-1961) used x-ray diffraction to discover the first information concerning nucleic acid, which led to advances in the study of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), the building-blocks of human genetics. A decade later, Dutch-American physical chemist Peter Joseph William Debye (1884-1966) won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his studies in the diffraction of x rays and electrons in gases, which advanced understanding of molecular structure. Bernal (1901-1971) developed the Bernal chart, enabling scientists to deduce the crystal structure of a solid by analyzing photographs of x-ray diffraction patterns. Studies in diffraction advanced during the early twentieth century. Scientific Breakthroughs Made Possible By Diffraction Studies Laue’s work, which earned him the Nobel Prize in physics in 1914, also made it possible to measure the length of x rays, and, ultimately, provided a means for studying the atomic structure of crystals and polymers. ![]() Using crystals in his grating, he proved that x rays are part of the electromagnetic spectrum. In 1912, a few years after Einstein published his findings, German physicist Max Theodor Felix von Laue (1879-1960) created a diffraction grating, discussed below. Later, however, Albert Einstein (1879-1955) showed that light behaves both as a wave and, in certain circumstances, as a particle. The work of Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879), German physicist Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (1857-1894), and others confirmed that light did indeed travel in waves. (This and the History below are from ) History of Diffraction Gratings can now be made with much larger apertures than prisms, and in such form that they waste less light and give higher intrinsic dispersion and resolving power. By controlling the shape and size of the diffracting grooves (width approximately equal to a wavelength of light visible, as seen through a scanning electron microscope) when producing a grating and by illuminating the grating at suitable angles, a beam of light can be thrown into a single spectrum whose purity and brightness may exceed that produced by a prism. ![]() Since the angles at which constructive interference patterns are produced by a grating depend on the lengths of the waves being diffracted, the waves of various lengths in a beam of light striking the grating will be separated into a number of spectra, produced in various orders of interference on either side of an undeviated central image. 50 lbs.Īn optical device consisting of an assembly of microscopic narrow slits, grooves, or an array of dots which by diffracting light produces a large number of beams which can interfere in such a way as to produce spectra. I understand that recently after extensive renovations to the lobby, M-100 was moved to another location.Ĩ4 in. The final work was originally installed in the main lobby of the Air Force Research Center on Kirtland Air Force Base, Albuquerque, New Mexico. This technique allowed me to create a negative space painting. In order for me to accurately define the image of M-100, I dabbed black Alkyd paint with handmade tools for feathering the edge of dark spaces of the galaxy image. I adhered this film to hammered aluminum panels. The diffraction grating is imprinted into Mylar sheet then placed within a vacuum chamber in order to vapor deposit an aluminum mirror on the backside which amplies the visual experience. This spectrum shifting activity is accomplished by a rainbow hologram that acts like a diffraction grating. Compare above photos, left with right, for color changes. “M-100 Spiral Galaxy In Virgo” (left & right views)Īs you walk by the M-100 sculpture/painting, colors shift across the spectrum. ![]()
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