Lycopene the structure of the molecule was determined by 1931. In its natural, all-"trans" form, the molecule is long and straight, constrained by its system of 11 conjugated double bonds. Each extension in this conjugated system reduces the energy required for electrons to transition to higher energy states, allowing the molecule to absorb visible light of progressively longer wavelengths. Lycopene absorbs all but the longest wavelengths of visible light, so it appears red. Plants and photosynthetic bacteria naturally produce all-"trans" lycopene. When exposed to light or heat, lycopene can undergo isomerization to any of a number of "cis"-isomers, which have a
Pigment also systematically biased. The following approximations assume a display device at gamma 2.2, using the sRGB color space. The further a display device deviates from these standards, the less accurate these swatches will be. Swatches are based on the average measurements of several lots of single-pigment watercolor paints, converted from Lab color space to sRGB color space for viewing on a computer display. Different brands and lots of the same pigment may vary in color. Furthermore, pigments have inherently complex reflectance spectra that will render their color appearance greatly different depending on the spectrum of the source illumination, a property