Optical
Lipids are highly polar molecules which when self assembled into bilayers creates a highly birefringent layer where the optical properties parallel are very different to those perpendicular. This effect, studied by dual polarisation interferometry has been used to measure dynamic reorganisation of the layer due to temperature, ionic strength, and molecular interactions with e.g. antimicrobial peptides.
Read more about this topic: Lipid Bilayer Characterization
Famous quotes containing the word optical:
“It is said that a carpenter building a summer hotel here ... declared that one very clear day he picked out a ship coming into Portland Harbor and could distinctly see that its cargo was West Indian rum. A county historian avers that it was probably an optical delusion, the result of looking so often through a glass in common use in those days.”
—For the State of New Hampshire, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“There is an optical illusion about every person we meet.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“People who have realized that this is a dream imagine that it is easy to wake up, and are angry with those who continue sleeping, not considering that the whole world that environs them does not permit them to wake. Life proceeds as a series of optical illusions, artificial needs and imaginary sensations.”
—Alexander Herzen (1812–1870)