Photoreceptor cells in our eyes can adjust to both weak and strong light levels, but we still don't know exactly how they do it. Emeritus Professor Fumio Hayashi of Kobe University and his colleagues ...

A group of researchers discovered that the rhodopsin -- a protein in the eye that detects light -- of whale sharks has changed to efficiently detect blue light, which penetrates deep-sea water easily.

Rhodopsin, the light sensor of the mammalian visual system, is embedded in the disc membranes of photoreceptor cells. The image above shows an electrospray mass spectrometer, in a darkened, red-lit ...

It is almost ten years since the scientific journal Science called optogenetics the "breakthrough of the decade". Put simply, the technique makes it possible to control the electrical activity of ...

In a new study at University of California, Irvine, researchers have revealed the impact of native lipids on rhodopsin signaling and regeneration, which may usher in a new paradigm for discovery of ...

This image shows the structure of rhodopsin embedded in a membrane. The red structure in the middle is the retinal chromophore responsible for absorbing visible light. (Image credit: Kiser et al., ...

Seeing starts in the rods and cones, two different types of sensory cells in the retina of the eye. The rods are responsible for dark vision and are particularly sensitive to light as a result. A ...

Any living organism that directly harnesses the sun's energy uses one of three types of energy-converting pigments: chlorophyll, which gives plants their green color, bacteriochlorophyll, or retinal ...

Photoreceptor cells in our eyes can adjust to both weak and strong light levels, but we still don't know exactly how they do it. Researchers now revealed that the photoreceptor protein rhodopsin forms ...