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Chapter 4 gives the historical background of Optics and its applications to matter.

Chapter 4.Light and Matter – Dielectric Behaviour of Matter [“OPTICS” by Eugene Hecht, IIIrd Edition, Addison-Wesley-Longman Incorporation, Readings, Massachsetts].

Section 4.1. Brief History of Scientific and Technological Development in the field of Light.

Study of Light and its application in Human Society can be traced back to 1200 BCE. In Exodus 38.8 (a chapter in The Bible) we find the mention of “Looking Glass of the Women”. Early mirrors were made of polished copper and bronze. Evidence of the use of mirrors turned up in excavations of the workers’ quarters near the construction site of Pyramid during the ancient Egyptian Civilization. At that time it was made of Speculum – a copper alloy rich in tin. In Roman Civilization we find the use of convex lens as Magnifying Glass as well as Burning Glass.

After 475CE, with the fall of Western Roman Empire, dark ages descended in Europe and the center of Scientific Enquiry shifted to the Arab World. Islamic scholar Abu Ali al-Hassan Ibn al-Haytham (CE. 965-1041), known in the West as Alhazen, began his career as just another Islamic polymath. He was put in House Arrest by Al-Hakim, the Calipha of Cairo, because he failed to regulate the flow of Nile river. While in House Arrest for 10 years, Alhazen revolutionized the study of optics and laid the foundation for the scientific method. (Move over, Sir Isaac Newton.) Before Alhazen, vision and light were questions of philosophy. Alhazen considered vision and light in terms of mathematics, physics, physiology, and even psychology. In his Book of Optics , he discussed the nature of light and color. He accurately described the mechanism of sight and the anatomy of the eye. He was concerned with reflection and refraction. He experimented with mirrors and lenses. He discovered that rainbows are caused by refraction and calculated the height of earth’s atmosphere. In his spare time, he built the first camera obscura .

From 1000 CE to 1600 CE, there was only a modest revival of Scientific Enquiry and Research in Europe. The science of vision error correction by the use of Eye Glasses were introduced. Looking Glass or Mirror Technology was revived by the use of liquid amalagam of tin and mercury coated on the back of glasses. Use of multiple mirros and use of positive and negative lenses were in vogue in this era.

Section 4.1.1. The revival of Scientific Enquiry in 17 th Century in Europe -The Renessaince Period.

Table 1. Time-line of Scientific Research in Application of Light for Human Good.

Time Scientist Subject
October 2,1608 Hans Lippersley (1587-1619)Dutch Spectacle Maker Applies for a patent for the Refracting Telescope.
1609 Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), Padua, Italy. Builds his first Telescope for Astronomical Observation.
1609 onward Astronomical Discoveries of Galileo Galilei. Four satellites around Jupiter which are Io, Europa, Callisto and Ganymede. Galilie called them Medicean Stars;
Observed and analyzed the Sun spots;
He discovered the poke marked surface of Moon concluding that it had mountains and craters;
He saw the phases of Venus which lent support to the Copernican World View;
He identified Milky Way as our Home Galaxy. Till then it was mistakenly regarded as nebular cloud;
He observed Neptune but could not identify it as one of our Planets;
After 1609 Zacharius Jansenn(1588-1632), Dutchman. Invented Compound Microscope.
After 1609 Willebrored Snell (1591-1626) Discovered the Law of Refraction and measured Refractive Index of many mediums.
1657 Pierre de Fermat (1601-1665) Rederived the Law of Reflection using the Principle of the Least Time.

Interference and diffraction was observed.

But there was no consensus about the nature of light-is it a Wave or is it Corpuscular ?

Questions & Answers

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studies of microbes
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Assimilatory nitrate reduction is a process that occurs in some microorganisms, such as bacteria and archaea, in which nitrate (NO3-) is reduced to nitrite (NO2-), and then further reduced to ammonia (NH3).
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Prevent foreign microbes to the host
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they provide healthier benefits to their hosts
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They are friends to host only when Host immune system is strong and become enemies when the host immune system is weakened . very bad relationship!
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cell is the smallest unit of life
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Innocent
cell is the structural and functional unit of life
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is the fundamental units of Life
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part of a tissue or an organ being wounded or bruised.
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Binomial nomenclature
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Source:  OpenStax, Electrical and electronic materials science. OpenStax CNX. May 01, 2014 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11615/1.14
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