When Reinitzer first observed the strange melting behavior of cholesteryl benzoate, he reached out to the microscopist Otto Lehmann for help. Lehmann had built a unique tool: a polarizing optical microscope with a heating stage. This opened up the world of liquid crystals, and continues to be one of the first methods employed in the characterization of liquid crystals. The video to the right is of cholesteryl benzoate. We are seeing what Lehmann would have seen more than a century ago. | |
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Here's today's fun fact: the majority of organic solids are birefringent. Take, for example, urea:
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Vance Williams
is a Professor of Chemistry at Simon Fraser University. Archives
October 2015
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