Camera Labs

I have been going on about Sunflowers and Fibonacci spirals without showing how close the link really is. The image on the right is a pure maths function where the X-Y co-ordinates of the points are directly related to the Golden Ratio (Phi). Phi is also the most irrational, irrational number there is. So it might not be too surprising to find out that the Sunflower seed-head pattern has infinite rotational symmetry. Infinite rotational symmetry has applications in optics, specifically with things called photonic quasicrystals - and I was able to file (and be granted) a Patent on an entirely new class of photonic quasicrystal - all thanks to the Sunflower seed-head provided by Nature

Greg

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Nexstar 11 GPS, 2 x Sky 90, M25C, MaximDL, Photshop CS3, Noel Carboni's Photoshop actions, 7 foot Pulsar fibreglass dome, Canon 40D, 100mm macro lens, 28-200mm zoom lens, 17-55mm f#2.8 zoom lens, 100-400mm zoom lens, 1.4x converter, 2x converter.
http://www.newforestobservatory.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12801949@N02/

Congrats on the patented photonic quasicrystal, what do you intend to do with it?

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"I'm playing all the right notes but not necessarily in the right order" - Eric Morecambe
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D7000 and too many lenses.

The Patent was granted years ago - this is old stuff I'm afraid and I'm just reminiscing in my early retirement
The Patent was owned by my University spin out company Mesophotonics which was bought out some years back by a Taiwanese company. They now own all the (basic and fundamental) photonic crystal Patents generated at the University of Southampton over a number of years.
Such is life in the world of big business and big bucks
Greg

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Nexstar 11 GPS, 2 x Sky 90, M25C, MaximDL, Photshop CS3, Noel Carboni's Photoshop actions, 7 foot Pulsar fibreglass dome, Canon 40D, 100mm macro lens, 28-200mm zoom lens, 17-55mm f#2.8 zoom lens, 100-400mm zoom lens, 1.4x converter, 2x converter.
http://www.newforestobservatory.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12801949@N02/