The science of rainbows: Today's Google Doodle fetes Angstrom's colorful work

 

Google on Wednesday paid tribute to Swedish physicist Anders Jonas Angstrom with a doodle marking his 200th birth anniversary.

 

Visitors to Google's homepage (www.google.com) for the day would see a doodle of Angstrom and his work on spectroscopy—the study of how matter and radiated energy interact, essentially allowing scientists to understand the chemical composition of an object based on the rainbow of colors that it produces under controlled conditions.

 

As with past doodles, clicking on the image will lead to a Google Search Results page for "Anders Jonas Angstrom."

 

Angstrom was born Aug. 13, 1814 in Sweden and was known for his research where he noted an electric spark can produce two spectra - from the metal of the electrode and from the gas where it passes.

 

Named after him is the Angstrom unit, which measures the wavelength of light. — Joel Locsin/TJD, GMA News