The Optics of Life
The Optics of Life

Author: Sönke Johnsen

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13: 0691139911

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Optics--a field of physics focusing on the study of light--is also central to many areas of biology, including vision, ecology, botany, animal behavior, neurobiology, and molecular biology. The Optics of Life introduces the fundamentals of optics to biologists and nonphysicists, giving them the tools they need to successfully incorporate optical measurements and principles into their research. Sönke Johnsen starts with the basics, describing the properties of light and the units and geometry of measurement. He then explores how light is created and propagates and how it interacts with matter, covering topics such as absorption, scattering, fluorescence, and polarization. Johnsen also provides a tutorial on how to measure light as well as an informative discussion of quantum mechanics. The Optics of Life features a host of examples drawn from nature and everyday life, and several appendixes that offer further practical guidance for researchers. This concise book uses a minimum of equations and jargon, explaining the basic physics of light in a succinct and lively manner. It is the essential primer for working biologists and for anyone seeking an accessible introduction to optics.

The Optics of Life
The Optics of Life

Author: Sönke Johnsen

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2012-01-19

Total Pages: 357

ISBN-13: 140084066X

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Optics—a field of physics focusing on the study of light—is also central to many areas of biology, including vision, ecology, botany, animal behavior, neurobiology, and molecular biology. The Optics of Life introduces the fundamentals of optics to biologists and nonphysicists, giving them the tools they need to successfully incorporate optical measurements and principles into their research. Sönke Johnsen starts with the basics, describing the properties of light and the units and geometry of measurement. He then explores how light is created and propagates and how it interacts with matter, covering topics such as absorption, scattering, fluorescence, and polarization. Johnsen also provides a tutorial on how to measure light as well as an informative discussion of quantum mechanics. The Optics of Life features a host of examples drawn from nature and everyday life, and several appendixes that offer further practical guidance for researchers. This concise book uses a minimum of equations and jargon, explaining the basic physics of light in a succinct and lively manner. It is the essential primer for working biologists and for anyone seeking an accessible introduction to optics.

Visual Ecology
Visual Ecology

Author: Thomas W. Cronin

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2014-08-10

Total Pages: 427

ISBN-13: 0691151849

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A comprehensive treatment of visual ecology Visual ecology is the study of how animals use visual systems to meet their ecological needs, how these systems have evolved, and how they are specialized for particular visual tasks. Visual Ecology provides the first up-to-date synthesis of the field to appear in more than three decades. Featuring some 225 illustrations, including more than 140 in color, spread throughout the text, this comprehensive and accessible book begins by discussing the basic properties of light and the optical environment. It then looks at how photoreceptors intercept light and convert it to usable biological signals, how the pigments and cells of vision vary among animals, and how the properties of these components affect a given receptor's sensitivity to light. The book goes on to examine how eyes and photoreceptors become specialized for an array of visual tasks, such as navigation, evading prey, mate choice, and communication. A timely and much-needed resource for students and researchers alike, Visual Ecology also includes a glossary and a wealth of examples drawn from the full diversity of visual systems. The most up-to-date overview of visual ecology available Features some 225 illustrations, including more than 140 in color, spread throughout the text Guides readers from the basic physics of light to the role of visual systems in animal behavior Includes a glossary and a wealth of real-world examples

Dissipative Solitons: From Optics to Biology and Medicine
Dissipative Solitons: From Optics to Biology and Medicine

Author: Nail Akhmediev

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2008-08-26

Total Pages: 484

ISBN-13: 3540782168

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The dissipative soliton concept is a fundamental extension of the concept of solitons in conservative and integrable systems. It includes ideas from three major sources, namely standard soliton theory developed since the 1960s; nonlinear dynamics theory; and Prigogine's ideas of systems far from equilibrium. These three sources also correspond to the three component parts of this novel paradigm. This book explains the above principles in detail and gives the reader various examples.

Measuring Shadows
Measuring Shadows

Author: Raz Chen-Morris

Publisher: Penn State Press

Published: 2016-03-31

Total Pages: 255

ISBN-13: 027107731X

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In Measuring Shadows, Raz Chen-Morris demonstrates that a close study of Kepler’s Optics is essential to understanding his astronomical work and his scientific epistemology. He explores Kepler’s radical break from scientific and epistemological traditions and shows how the seventeenth-century astronomer posited new ways to view scientific truth and knowledge. Chen-Morris reveals how Kepler’s ideas about the formation of images on the retina and the geometrics of the camera obscura, as well as his astronomical observations, advanced the argument that physical reality could only be described through artificially produced shadows, reflections, and refractions. Breaking from medieval and Renaissance traditions that insisted upon direct sensory perception, Kepler advocated for instruments as mediators between the eye and physical reality, and for mathematical language to describe motion. It was only through this kind of knowledge, he argued, that observation could produce certainty about the heavens. Not only was this conception of visibility crucial to advancing the early modern understanding of vision and the retina, but it affected how people during that period approached and understood the world around them.

The Light Fantastic
The Light Fantastic

Author: I. R. Kenyon

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 654

ISBN-13: 019856645X

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This thorough and self-contained introduction to modern optics covers, in full, the three components: ray optics, wave optics and quantum optics. Examples of modern applications in the current century are used extensively.

Seeing the Light
Seeing the Light

Author: David R. Falk

Publisher: Echo Point Books & Media

Published: 2019-01-28

Total Pages: 494

ISBN-13: 9781626541092

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Seeing the Light is the most accessible and comprehensive study of optics and light on the market. Each chapter is a self-contained lesson, making it easy to learn about specific optical concepts. Diagrams, photos, and illustrations help bring concepts to life, and sections at the ends of chapters explore the more advanced aspects of each topic.

How Things Work
How Things Work

Author: Louis A. Bloomfield

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2015-12-15

Total Pages: 512

ISBN-13: 1119013844

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How Things Work provides an accessible introduction to physics for the non-science student. Like the previous editions it employs everyday objects, with which students are familiar, in case studies to explain the most essential physics concepts of day-to-day life. Lou Bloomfield takes seemingly highly complex devices and strips away the complexity to show how at their heart are simple physics ideas. Once these concepts are understood, they can be used to understand the behavior of many devices encountered in everyday life. The sixth edition uses the power of WileyPLUS Learning Space with Orion to give students the opportunity to actively practice the physics concepts presented in this edition. This text is an unbound, three hole punched version. Access to WileyPLUS sold separately.