The Designing of Natural Colors. Tyndall Effect

What it is to be a Substance? and What it is to Exist? We need to establish knowledge about the man and the world on a firm basis and the information it provides must be tested for its accuracy and consistency with an external reality. We have to make the fundamental distinction between the living and the non-living matter. The scientific advances of the 19th and 20th centuries reinforced the materialistic position concerning the basic similarity of organic living and inorganic physical matter. The man is viewed as a product of natural evolution and is thought to be subject to the same laws of Physics and Chemistry or mechanistic principles.

We need a methodology to study philosophy and to understand philosophical statements. Logical Positivism, also known as Scientific Empiricism aims to clarify concepts in both everyday and scientific language. It describes analysis of language as the function of philosophy. This analysis of language and of concepts is important to understand questions of belief and ideology which affect what we think we ought to do individually and socially. I would use this method of ‘Applied Philosophy’ to analyze the concept of Spiritual Optics, the Spiritual dimension of biological coloration.

WHAT IS COLOR AND WHAT IS COLORATION?

The term ‘color’ refers to the spectral qualities of emitted or reflected light. The term ‘coloration’ is a dynamic and complex characteristic that has captured human interest and attention for a long time. The human interest to coloration ranges from purely aesthetic to the rigidly pragmatic.

BIOLOGICAL COLORATION:

Biological Coloration refers to the general appearance of an organism as determined by the quality and quantity of light that is reflected or emitted from its surface. This Coloration depends upon several factors:

1. The integrity and deployment of the structural units and features involved in the generation of color,

2. The color and distribution of the organism’s pigments, and the relative location of differently colored areas,

3. The shape, posture, position, and movement of the organism,

4. The quality and quantity of light striking the organism, including the seasonal light and temperature variations,

5. The psychological, behavioral, hormonal, and other physiological conditions associated with the use of color,

6. The visual capacity of the viewer.

The comprehensive understanding of biological coloration demands a study of Physics, Chemistry, Physiology, Biology, Psychology and other subjects. It is equally important to pay tribute to people who have contributed to a better understanding of the principles involved in color production. I am happy to introduce John Tyndall (1820-1893), Irish-British physicist, professor and Superintendent at the Royal Institution, London (1853-1887) to my readers. As a public intellectual, Tyndall’s was one of the loudest voices advocating a scientific explanation for the natural world and for life itself, a scientific naturalism.

WHOLE DUDE – WHOLE DESIGNER – TYNDALL EFFECT:

Sir Issac Newton concluded that bodies appear colored under white light because they reflect some of its spectral components more strongly than other components of the light spectrum. The mechanisms of color production in nature involves several factors and John Tyndall explained what is named as Tyndall Effect.

Colloidal particles are larger than molecules but, too small to be observed by a light microscope. Some examples are, emulsions like ink, milk, jellies, dust, or smoke in air, fog, and shaving foam, Styrofoam, and aerosols. The pigments of biological tissues that reflect, or transmit light are known as biochromes. Colors produced by the structural features of an organism, created by submicroscopic structures such as striations or facets are called schemochromes. The scattering, and polarization of a light beam by colloidal particles in a dispersed system was explained by Tyndall. The physical phenomena that generate structural blue colors are similar to the phenomena that make the sky to appear blue. In birds, the light reflective properties of feathers cause violet and blue light to be selectively reflected from feather surface in the case of violet/blue feathers, whereas white feathers reflect all light. Schemochromes result from the reflection, fractination, or scattering of incident light. 

The scattering of light to produce blue colors of structural origin, such as those of eyes, or of many feathers, occurs when small air vesicles, or suspended particles scatter the shorter wavelengths of blue light while allowing the remaining colors to be absorbed by an underlying layer of dark pigments. Reflection of the entire light spectrum imparts whiteness to flower petals, feathers, fur, and hair, is often produced by minute air spaces lying between finely divided materials.

The structural production of colors is often reinforced by pigments lying above or below the structures, and the two may act in combination; the greens of fishes, amphibians, reptiles most often arise from blue light scattered through a layer of yellow pigments.

Interference, the fractination of light into its constituent colors is produced by repeated reflection through ultra thin films and results in striking iridescence, as seen in peacock feathers, some insect wings, and pearls.

John Tyndall demonstrated why the sky is blue which was later explained theoretically by Lord Rayleigh.

The diffusion of light by large molecules is important to understand the phenomenon of biological coloration. These molecules are able to interact because of the design created with a purpose by the Whole Designer.

Who is the Artist? Who is the Designer?

No single function can explain the coloration of living things. We need a comprehensive theory that predicts the lines and patterns of coloration of plants and animals. An artist’s palette containing only three properly chosen colors is entirely adequate under most circumstances to produce the various visual effects of color that is observed. The optical mechanisms involved in the production of color are complex. Coloration is a dynamic and complex characteristic and the term must be clearly distinguished from the term ‘color’ which only refers to the spectral qualities of emitted or reflected light. It is apparent that plants, and animals have no cognitive abilities to produce the coloration by which they are recognized. However, the coloration displayed gives us a clue about the nature of the “Whole Artist” who could be using imagination, has feelings for the forms created and seeks satisfaction from the visual effects that he produced. If man has the ability called visual perception, he must use the ability to visualize the “Whole Artist” who is at work. I ask my readers to give attention to the three dimensions of Color Perception. These are, 1. The Designer or the Artist, 2. The Object of Perception, and 3. The visual capacity of the Viewer.

Simon Cyrene