Notable Paper: Tuning The Electronic Absorption Of Protein-Embedded All-Trans-Retinal

The pigments in retinal photoreceptor cells absorb varying wavelengths of light, but the central chromophore, the molecule that actually absorbs the photon is identical.  Its ability to tune the responsiveness comes from the association with other opsins giving an organism the ability to respond from the near ultraviolet all the way to far red.  Interestingly, …