Available online
Description
'Is there any truth in a connection between eating carrots and being able to see in the dark - what is 'night blindness'? Think of a continual response to new pictorial information in a fraction of... a second day after day for years and you would agree that the photochemistry of vision must be a remarkable process. Yet the knub of this process is a simple molecular transformation, cis-trans isomerisation, as Dr Edward Dratz from the University of California shows in a series of experiments carried out at queen mary college, university of London. The experiments consist of the dissection of an ox eye, the dissection and bleaching of a retina from a frog's eye, examination of the retina cells with a scanning electron microscope, absorption spectroscopy of a rod cell, extraction of the visual pigment, rhodopsin, from a number of retinas, experiments with rhodopsin - bleaching, absorption spectroscopy at room temperature and liquid nitrogen temperature, irradiation with blue light and the appearance and spectrum of bathorhodopsin. Explanation of the chemical processes involved are given using animated film.'
'Is there any truth in a connection between eating carrots and being able to see in the dark - what is 'night blindness'? Think of a continual response to new pictorial information in a fraction of... a second day after day for years and you would agree that the photochemistry of vision must be a remarkable process. Yet the knub of this process is a simple molecular transformation, cis-trans isomerisation, as Dr Edward Dratz from the University of California shows in a series of experiments carried out at queen mary college, university of London. The experiments consist of the dissection of an ox eye, the dissection and bleaching of a retina from a frog's eye, examination of the retina cells with a scanning electron microscope, absorption spectroscopy of a rod cell, extraction of the visual pigment, rhodopsin, from a number of retinas, experiments with rhodopsin - bleaching, absorption spectroscopy at room temperature and liquid nitrogen temperature, irradiation with blue light and the appearance and spectrum of bathorhodopsin. Explanation of the chemical processes involved are given using animated film.'
| Module code and title: | S341, "Photochemistry: light, chemical change and life" |
|---|---|
| Item code: | S341; 06 |
| First transmission date: | 13-06-1982 |
| Published: | 1982 |
| Rights Statement: | |
| Restrictions on use: | |
| Duration: | 00:24:00 |
| + Show more... | |
| Producer: | David Jackson |
| Contributors: | Jim Bowmaker; Edward Dratz |
| Publisher: | BBC Open University |
| Keyword(s): | Animation; Carrots; Cone; Eye dissection; Frog; Iris; Isomerisation; Retina; Rod; Vitreous humor |
| Master spool number: | HOU3831 |
| Production number: | FOUS215P |
| Videofinder number: | 2020 |
| Available to public: | no |
