Chromatograph flower
Instil marvel and understanding of chemical processes and the workings of nature in the minds and hearts of people visiting Leiden Museum Night.
Team
Creative concept: Marjolein Pijnappels, Barbara Wagensveld
Flower illustration: Marjolein Pijnappels
Design: Maya Knepflé
Using science to color a flower
In our True Colors pop-up lab in Hortus Botanicus during the Leiden Museum Night participants experimented the specially cultivated Nocturna musealis (museum night flower), using chemistry and markers.
With a technique called chromatography, you can pull pin colors apart. We color the museum night flower by letting water run through the paper, this pulls up the ink from the markers. The pigments that weigh the least are dragged up the fastest. Heavy pigments are left behind. You can see how colors are structured and at the same time color your museum night flower!
The (visible) color spectrum
Humans only see a tiny portion of all the light. Light consists of radiation with waves. We only see waves with a length of 380 to 780 nanometers (1 nanometer = 1 billionth of a meter). That is why we see no X-rays and UV radiation (too short), and no infrared and radio waves (too long). But other animals can! Fish for example can see infra-red light and bees can see UV-light.
Experiment + experience
By experimenting with the flower, dozens of visitors experienced first hand how chemistry works using something as ordinary as markers, paper and water.