Researchers have imprinted the surface of pralines with a pattern that splits incident light into the spectral colours. This makes the chocolate shimmer in beautiful rainbow hues - without the addition of any chemical substances. (Photograph: ETH Zurich / Giulia Marthaler)
Researchers have imprinted the surface of pralines with a pattern that splits incident light into the spectral colours. This makes the chocolate shimmer in beautiful rainbow hues - without the addition of any chemical substances. (Photograph: ETH Zurich / Giulia Marthaler) - Colours can be created in surprisingly different ways. And in addition to being pleasing to the eye, colour can also serve a useful purpose. -Asking why chocolate is brown is like asking why the sky is blue,- says Ralph Spolenak, Professor of Nanometallurgy in the Department of Materials at ETH Zurich. In both cases, particles scatter the light in such a way that only a certain part of it reaches our eyes: particles of cocoa powder make chocolate appear brown, while air molecules make the sky look blue. Particles are also responsible for a colour's intensity: the higher the cocoa content, the more the cocoa particles will influence how the light scatters, and the darker the chocolate will appear.
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