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About the Cover
Cover: Demonstration of polarization-induced false colours. The upper row shows colour photographs of Epipremnum aureum (Aracea) taken through a linearly polarizing filter with vertical (left) and horizontal (right) transmission axis indicated by double-headed arrows. The brightness and colour differences between the two pictures demonstrate the strong polarization of light reflected from the plant surfaces. The middle and bottom rows show the brightness and polarization-induced false colours perceived by a trichromatic (red, green, blue) colour vision system with very high polarization sensitivity of the photoreceptors as a function of the direction of the head's dorso-ventral symmetry axis, the orientation of which is indicated by a red bar in the white disk. As both the green leaves and the red spatha of the flower are strongly polarizing, they have striking polarizational false colours, the hues of which change as the head rotates. This is how an insect with very highly polarization-sensitive photoreceptors would see the colours of the plant. In reality, the polarization sensitivity of the insect colour vision system is weak, which avoids such strong variations in perceived colour of specularly reflecting surfaces (see Horváth, Gál, Labhart and Wehner, pp. 3281-3298).
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