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New understanding of how we see colors

(Medical Xpress)—Scientists have until now not fully understood how animals see in color, since visual pigments in eyes contain exactly the same chromophore (light absorbing segment of the molecule) and yet can absorb different ...

Medical research created Dec 07, 2012 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (11) | comments 0 | with audio podcast report

Eye color may indicate risk for serious skin conditions

Eye color may be an indicator of whether a person is high-risk for certain serious skin conditions. A study, led by the University of Colorado School of Medicine, shows people with blue eyes are less likely to have vitiligo. ...

Genetics created May 06, 2012 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (10) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Laser treatment can make your brown eyes blue

Just like the old Crystal Gayle song, a new laser technology could soon allow you to turn those boring brown eyes of your to a rich and beautiful blue. But you better make sure that blue eyes are what you really want because ...

Other created Nov 04, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (11) | comments 21 | with audio podcast report

Grapes may help prevent age-related blindness

Can eating grapes slow or help prevent the onset of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a debilitating condition affecting millions of elderly people worldwide? Results from a new study published in Free Radical Biology an ...

Ophthalmology created Jan 12, 2012 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (8) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Scientists find vitamin D crucial in human immune response to tuberculosis

Not just important for building strong bones, an international team of scientists has found that vitamin D also plays an essential role in the body's fight against infections such as tuberculosis.

Medical research created Oct 12, 2011 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (5) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

New melanoma driver genes found in largest DNA sequencing study to date

(Medical Xpress) -- Yale Cancer Center geneticists, biochemists, and structural biologists have painted the most comprehensive picture yet of the molecular landscape of melanoma, a highly aggressive and often ...

Genetics created Jul 29, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Cells from skin create model of blinding eye disease

For the first time, Wisconsin researchers have taken skin from patients and, using induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology, turned them into a laboratory model for an inherited type of macular degeneration.

Genetics created Nov 08, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Giant hogweed can cause burns and blindness

(PhysOrg.com) -- The U.S Department of Agriculture is warning residents in a variety of states to be on the lookout for the Heracleum Mantegazzianum, or giant hogweed. This plant in native to Central Asia ...

Ophthalmology created Jul 11, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast report

Why animals don't have infrared vision

On rare occasion, the light-sensing photoreceptor cells in the eye misfire and signal to the brain as if they have captured photons, when in reality they haven't. For years this phenomenon remained a mystery. Reporting in ...

Neuroscience created Jun 09, 2011 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (4) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Study is first to find significant link between sleepiness and vitamin D

A new study suggests that there is a significant correlation between excessive daytime sleepiness and vitamin D, and race plays an important factor.

Health created Dec 14, 2012 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (4) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Three new gene faults found to increase melanoma risk by 30 percent

An international team of researchers has discovered the first DNA faults linked to melanoma - the deadliest skin cancer - that are not related to hair, skin or eye colour.

Genetics created Oct 09, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Study finds linchpin of skin response to UVA light

Last year, a team of researchers at Brown University discovered that certain skin cells use a light-sensitive receptor found outside of the eye to sense ultraviolet light and quickly begin pumping out melanin ...

Medical research created Jan 21, 2013 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

People with darker skin still at risk for melanoma

(HealthDay) -- Skin cancer is more common among white people, but people with darker skin are also at risk, a dermatology expert cautions.

Cancer created Jul 26, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Research finds protein that prevents light-induced retinal degeneration

Research led by Minghao Jin, PhD, Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology and Neuroscience at the LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans Neuroscience Center of Excellence, has found a protein that protects retinal photoreceptor ...

Neuroscience created Feb 12, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Modified protein could become first effective treatment for vitiligo

Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine researchers have developed a genetically modified protein that dramatically reverses the skin disorder vitiligo in mice, and has similar effects on immune ...

Medical research created Feb 27, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Pigment

A pigment is the material that changes the color of light it reflects as the result of selective color absorption. This physical process differs from fluorescence, phosphorescence, and other forms of luminescence, in which the material itself emits light.

Many materials selectively absorb certain wavelengths of light. Materials that humans have chosen and developed for use as pigments usually have special properties that make them ideal for coloring other materials. A pigment must have a high tinting strength relative to the materials it colors. It must be stable in solid form at ambient temperatures.

For industrial applications, as well as in the arts, permanence and stability are desirable properties. Pigments that are not permanent are called fugitive. Fugitive pigments fade over time, or with exposure to light, while some eventually blacken.

Pigments are used for coloring paint, ink, plastic, fabric, cosmetics, food and other materials. Most pigments used in manufacturing and the visual arts are dry colourants, usually ground into a fine powder. This powder is added to a vehicle (or matrix), a relatively neutral or colorless material that acts as a binder.

The worldwide market for inorganic, organic and special pigments had a total volume of around 7.4 million tons in 2006. Asia has the highest rate on a quantity basis followed by Europe and North America. In 2006, a turnover of 17.6 billion US$ (13 billion Euro) was reached mostly in Europe, followed by North America and Asia.

A distinction is usually made between a pigment, which is insoluble in the vehicle (resulting in a suspension), and a dye, which either is itself a liquid or is soluble in its vehicle (resulting in a solution). The term biological pigment is used for all colored substances independent of their solubility. A colorant can be both a pigment and a dye depending on the vehicle it is used in. In some cases, a pigment can be manufactured from a dye by precipitating a soluble dye with a metallic salt. The resulting pigment is called a lake pigment.

For more information about Pigment, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.