ScienceDirect ® is a registered trademark of Elsevier B.V. ScienceDirect ® is a registered trademark of Elsevier B.V. Near-Infrared Photothermal Heating With Gold Nanostructures, Nanotechnology: The Science of the Invisible, An extraordinary work with glass made by the Romans in the fifth century AD demonstrates one of the greatest examples of nanotechnology in the ancient world. B. Karmakar, in Glass Nanocomposites, 2016. Nanometric pieces of metal have properties which deviate decisively from the behavior of bulk metals. The Lycurgus cup represents a short-lived technology developed by Roman glass workers. A predominant presence of palygorskite clays in the paint that were found to have a plate- or needle-shaped internal structure have been identified. Heat is then transferred from the nanoparticle to its surrounding through phonon–phonon interactions at a time scale of ∼ 100 ps, and the nanosystem returns to its initial state (Fig. The intense colors of many Medieval stained-glass windows resulted from nanosized metal oxide particles added to the glass during the fusion process. But the lack of tools to characterize these structures made them less significant for a long time. Until the Lycurgus Cup was acquired by the British Museum in the 1950’s (from the Rothschilds, meaning “red shield”), scientists had not examined it. The British Museum is home to the Lycurgus cup, made in Rome in the 4th century AD and known as one of the oldest nanotechnology-based marvels. Fig. After the first firing, the luster coating, consisting of metallic pigments (normally copper or silver compounds) mixed with clays, was brushed on over the glaze. A man of violent temper, he attacked Dionysos and one of his maenads, Ambrosia. How about goblets that when held up to the light changed from one color to another? The glass is an excellent encapsulating medium owing to its wide range of optical transmission from 0.2 to 20 μm depending on the glass matrix, formation of the thermodynamically favored bulk material and ease of synthesis. Industrial applications of nanomaterials include new product innovations in the field of construction materials, military goods, and nanomachining of nanowires, for protection against sun, biochips, copy protection materials, nano-rods for electronic applications, few layers of graphene, etc. The properties of the MGNCs largely dependent on the number density, size, size distribution, and shape of the metal nanophase. Most of these preparation methods are on par with green nanotechnology of the contemporary era that has been demonstrated in Rasashastra, a branch of Ayurveda [4] (Fig. The cup contains gold nanoparticles. Again, though the artisans producing lusterware lacked an understanding of the chemical processes that achieved the optical effects and were unaware that their empirical processes led to the creation of nanoparticles, the craft-based development of the requisite knowledge was remarkable. The ~ in front of medical instructs the search system to accept other related words as well. A Search Conducted on 25/4/13 Using Google Scholar, with All of the Words Anywhere in the Article and Constructed to Include Original Papers and Patents but not Citations to Earlier Work Over the Years 2008–2012. This effect is due to the colloidal dispersion of gold and silver nanoparticles, about 70 nm in diameter, in the glass which scatter the light. Early Christian Communion—Wine or Mingled Wine? In the Lycurgus cup, now housed in the British Museum, the 324 AD victory of Constantine over Licinius in Thrace was represented through the death of an enemy of Dionysius, Lycurgus, who is shown being overcome by vines. The Lycurgus Cup has been dated back to the 4th century Roman Empire. These effects, along with those from the oxide metals, appear to help account for the strong blue color. Son nom vient du thème qu'elle représente: un épisode d'un mythe raconté dans l'Iliade à propos de Lycurgue, roi des Édoniens de Thrace, fils de Dryas. This form of ceramic decoration, a type of luster, appeared in the Middle East in the ninth century or before and subsequently spread through Egypt, Spain, and other countries. This was developed in the author’s laboratory by an in situ process in a borosilicate glass using SnO as reducing agent. Lars Kool, Floris Dekker, Anton Bunschoten, Glen J Smales, Brian R Pauw, Aldrik H Velders, Vittorio Saggiomo, Gold and silver dichroic nanocomposite in the quest for 3D printing the Lycurgus cup, Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology, 10.3762/bjnano.11.2, 11, (16-23), (2020). The nanometal may be silver (Ag), gold (Au), copper (Cu), platinum (Pt), palladium (Pd), etc. Reproduced with permission, Copyright©The Trustees of the British Museum, London. This means that the properties of the glass allow it to change color depending from which angle light is shown through. Fig. Since then, there have been numerous advocacies of this new philosophy. Warheit et al., 2004; Lam et al, 2004), but as yet there is no real agreement about the health effects. This peculiar dichroic effect is due to silver and gold nanoparticles present in the glass. Ambrosia called out to Mother Earth, who transformed … Jesus sent out 70 Disciples to preach His Good News. Thomas demonstrated Faraday's hypothesis using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM, Fig. Various natural alkalis, oxidants, mineral acids, and other agents seem to have little effect on the blue paint of the Maya. Interestingly, even minor amounts of nanosized particles in the impurities can be expected to have significant effects on optical properties due to the surface plasmon excitation effects. Picture “The Alchemist” by Pietro Longhi, 1661. Figure 3.1. A man of violent temper, he attacked Dionysos and one of his maenads, Ambrosia. The, Figure kindly provided by The British Museum, Advances in nanoparticle reinforcement in structural adhesives, Nanotechnology is not new, in that the use of nanoparticles to alter the properties of materials is not a modern idea. He cut and ground it until the figures were in high relief. Nanotechnology, as all medical and technological advances, can be used for man’s good or for evil. As the tale goes, Lycurgus banishes Dionysus from his kingdom, main to a sequence of unfortunate events … Number of papers when searched with keywords (A) “gold nanoparticles” or (B) “functionalization of gold nanoparticles.”. Jonah was in the belly of the “whale” 4 days. The coherent oscillation of the free electrons from one surface of the nanometal to the other is called surface plasmon resonance. The vase below shows the moment when Mother Earth has arrived and will save Ambrosia from Lycurgus and his evil behavior. All the names for our week days come from Roman and Norse/Anglo-Saxon gods. This is shown in Figure 1.20. This is the example of preparation of MGNCs by the reduction process. Download to read the full article text References. The mysterious Lycurgus Cup is made of dichroic glass and, when light from the front, appears green and turns bright red when a light from behind is shone on it. While the first demonstrations of plasmonic-heating at the beginning of the 20th century were related to visible light photothermal therapy (PTT), a huge amount of studies seeking to improve photothermal efficiency and to move PTT to the NIR were undertaken. The rapid relaxation of these exited electrons through electron–phonon interactions produces strong localized heat within ≈ 1 ps. The position of the LSPR wavelength is greatly dependent on the diameter, shape, and the refractive index of the surrounding. Figure 2.19. Effect of nanoparticles on the colors of the stained glass windows. If nanotechnology is used to cure diseases or to help identify microbes and clean up water sources, etc., it is good. The glass goblet known as the Lycurgus Cup appears jade green when lit from the front and appears red when lit from behind the cup. Normal indigo, however, is not acid resistant and its use would not in itself account for the many interesting properties of Mayan blue. The fantastic stories, for example Michael Crichton’s book Prey and Prince Charles’ ‘grey goo’ speech have not helped public perception (Radford, 2003). One of the consequences of the strong electromagnetic field enhancement around plasmonic nanostructures is local heat generation. The Lycurgus Cup is a “cage cup” which consists of an outer cage (hence “cage cup”) and an inner glass. The artist either blew or cast a thick blank glass. The scene on the cup depicts an episode from the myth of Lycurgus, a king of the Thracians (around 800 BC). At the present time, nanometal GNC is an exciting emerging area of research from the academic as well as technological point of views. McMahon, F.J. Currell, in Frontiers of Nanoscience, 2013. Advances in materials synthesis have produced a plethora of plasmonic nanomaterials of various size, shape, and composition which allows tuning their optical properties. In order to make the changing colors on the cup, the artist would have had to grind up gold and silver into nano grains finer than sand and fuse them proportionally into the glass in order to produce the subatomic effects we are now so many millennia later just beginning to fathom. Could Ancient Sparta Defeat Ancient Rome? Table 3.1 shows the results of searches using Google Scholar, illustrating the importance of gold nanoparticles to medicine. Further, it must be borne in mind that millions of tonnes of nano-and submicrometre particles are already in use. She then coiled herself about the king and held him captive, the scene captured on the Lycurgus Cup. Brief information is as follows. Figure 1.20. How small are nanostructures? This striking difference in colour between bulk gold and gold nanoparticles is testimony to the dramatic change in material properties—the colour change is due to a systematic shift to lower energy of the plasmon resonance of gold nanoparticles as the particle size decreases. One nanometer is a billionth of a meter (there are 25,400,000 nanometers in one inch). They emphasize the influence of the environment, and their concern led to the development of green synthesis as an alternate route. Chem Commun (Camb) 2004;1253–67, Fundamentals of Glass and Glass Nanocomposites. Not even nanotechnology.—Sandra Sweeny Silver, Slaves Were “Lifeless Tools” in Ancient Rome, The Exotic Animal Business in Ancient Rome. In soda-lime silicate glasses, the SPR bands of Ag, Au, and Cu are found to be at 410, 530, and 560 nm, respectively. The resulting nanosized gold or other metal must be protected by a capping ligand (such as sodium 3-mercaptopropionate, alkanethiols, xanthates, disulfides, di- and trithiols, resorcinarene, and tetrathiols [10–14]) to keep the particles dispersed. The most famous example is the Lycurgus Cup that was manufactured around 400 AD. The explanation for this phenomenon was obtained only in 1990 after scientists analyzed the cup using an atomic force microscope [18]. Simple models are presented of these effects at work. When lit from inside the cup looks reddish and the King Lycurgus looks purple (Figure 1.9(b)). Probably manufactured in Rome in the fourth century AD, and now housed in the British Museum, London, its dichroic glass takes its red colouration from nanoparticles embedded in the glass. After then it is known as Purple of Cassius and till now it became very popular for coloring potteries and porcelains. Watch the video below. Various aspects of MGNCs have been recently reviewed by Karmakar et al. If, as some fear, it leads to abortion and euthanasia, it is evil. The Lycurgus Cup … Search for more papers by this author. In order to make the changing colors on the cup, the artist would have had to grind up gold and silver into nano grains finer than sand and fuse them proportionally into the glass in order to produce … Unlike the blues of Europe and Asia, largely based on ground lapis lazuli, the origin of the Mayan blue was likely a dye known as anil, which is found in pre-Columbian textiles and is obtained from a local plant to produce indigo. Roman glassware has often been used to characterize the material cultural achievements of the late Roman Empire. Who ever heard of that? It was December 29, 1959, in a meeting of the American Physical Society at California Institute of Technology, when physicist Prof. Richard Feynman gave a talk entitled “There is Plenty of Room at the Bottom” that gave rise to the idea and concept of nanoscience. Michael F. Ashby, ... Daniel L. Schodek, in Nanomaterials, Nanotechnologies and Design, 2009. Know what else changes color? It was known, for example, that the introduction of certain materials from specific mines and according to empirically understood methods did indeed produce rich colors in glass. Photo by Lucas Livingston CC by 2.0. [100]. December 2007; Gold Bulletin 40(4):270-277; DOI: 10 .1007/BF03215599. Likewise, the intense ruby-colored stained glass is now known to have been obtained from the dispersion of solid silica particles or of nanosized gold particles within the glass. 1). Jonah was in the belly of the “whale” 4 days. Examination of the a 1,600-year-old Roman chalice at the British Museum, known as the Lycurgus Cup reveals ancient Romans were familiar nanotechnology. Some of the commonly used nanoparticles in industry includes titanium dioxide and zinc oxide nanoparticles in sunscreen, cosmetics, and some food products. Glass-producing techniques were highly developed, and workmanship was superb. 4.2. Surprisingly, when lit outside the cup looks green (Figure 1.9(a)). The glaze was made by firing metal oxides. 1). Table 3.1. An outstanding example of such coloring is the, Nanomaterials, Nanotechnologies and Design, One of the most interesting specimens is the Roman-era, (Courtesy of Barbara Fash, Peabody Museum, Harvard University. Meanwhile, it is the intercalation (insertion of foreign atoms into the crystalline lattice of another material) of indigo molecules within the clay that may account for the corrosion resistance exhibited by the paint. Thousand-Year-Old Goblet Shows Ancient Romans Used Nanotechnology. Recently, nanotechnology has become a hot topic in science and engineering. The red color observed is a result of absorption of light (∼520 nm) by the gold particles. Bifunctional Nano Lycurgus Cup Array Plasmonic Sensor for Colorimetric Sensing and Surface‐Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy. The late roman (4th century AD) Lycurgus cup is made of cut glass and is displayed in the British Museum in London. Alchemists had knowledge of colloidal dispersions and potential applications; however, they did not have science-based explanations for the observed phenomena and did not follow rigorous experimental methods. 1. Then the piece was fired again but at a lower temperature and within a reducing atmosphere (a condition whereby a reducing agent chemically causes a change in a material with metallic compounds to a metallic state by removing nonmetallic constituents as it is itself oxidized by donating free electrons). La coupe de Lycurgue … Historically, noble metal nanoparticles, mostly gold, were employed as coloring agents. This could be the earliest example of applying nanoparticles for medicinal purposes. How Did Jesus Spend the Last Week of His Life? However, the esthetic beauty and appeal of gold or silver nanoparticles is evidenced by the, Step into a European mediaeval cathedral and admire the deep ruby reds found in the stained glass window and you could be witnessing an early application of gold nanoparticles. During the 1980s, the concept of nanotechnology began to flourish. This absorption has an orientational dependence. or core-shell nanostructures. By continuing you agree to the use of cookies. But the lack of tools to characterize these structures made them less significant for a long time. Even though AuNPs were utilized in the medieval period (e.g., the famous, (B) Reproduced with permission from the website of the Royal Institution of Great Britain. Lycurgus Cup. [16] modified AuNPs with long-chain alkanethiols, leading to significant progress in functionalization of AuNPs (Fig. Video of Lycurgus Cup changing colors in the British Museum. The associated surface plasmon effects (described previously) cause the appealing metallic sheen to develop. In brief, a metal precursor (such as KAu(CN)4 in Faraday's work and HAuCl4 [5], which is currently employed widely) is reduced by a reducing agent (such as phosphorous in Faraday's work and other currently used reagents like sodium citrate and NaBH4 [6–9]). Heat generated from gold nanoparticles has thus become an intensively investigated research area. The Lycurgus Cup, as it is known due to its depiction of a scene involving King Lycurgus of Thrace, is a 1,600-year-old jade green Roman chalice that changes colour depending on the direction of the light upon it. Lycurgus Cup: A Piece of Ancient Roman Nanotechnology Kaushik Patowary Dec 16, 2016 1 comments In the 1950s, the British Museum came into possession an ancient glass chalice called the Lycurgus Cup, so named for its depiction of Dionysus’s triumph over King Lycurgus of Thrace, who is shown entangled in grape vines, on the cup’s outer surface. It depicts Lycurgus, the temperamental king of Thrace and vehement opposer of Dionysus (a.K.A. King Lycurgus on the Lycurgus Cup, Roman, 4th century AD, British Museum. However, the nanoparticles used in adhesives are not free in the atmosphere, but are bound into a matrix. Bacchus), the god of wine from Greco-Roman mythology. Nanotechnology is not new, in that the use of nanoparticles to alter the properties of materials is not a modern idea. To produce this type of lusterware, a glaze was first applied over a design and the piece fired to produce a thin, hard coating. However, scientific interest in colloidal gold did not begin until the work of Michael Faraday in the mid-1850. Like the glass and ceramics examples described earlier, the process developed by Mayan artisans did not involve an understanding of chemistry or nanomaterials as we know them today but rather a persistent search in visual effects in the service of fine art. It is sure ancient glassmakers had words for what they did, but those words are lost and we must speak in modern nomenclature. In addition to the direct catalytic effect, this opens the possibility of photocatalysis with noble metal clusters. The Lycurgus cup has now assumed an almost iconic status in the nanomaterial field as an early example of the surface plasmon phenomenon, in which waves of electrons move along the surface of metal particles when light is incident onto them (see Section 7.5 for a detailed description of the surface plasmon phenomenon). One of the most interesting specimens is the Roman-era Lycurgus cup. Up to the sixteenth century, there was no significant achievement in this respect. FIGURE 1.10. Now, the most important application for nanotechnology is in the medical field. It was not until the 1990’s when broken pieces of the same variegated glass from ancient Rome were examined that they discovered Roman glass-makers were experts in our relatively new field of nanotechnology, technology specializing in very teeny, nano particles. Noble metal nanoparticles and clusters, mostly gold, have been in continuous use in biological and medical investigations over the past decade: bioconjugation chemistry, protein tagging, biomolecule labeling, inhibition of HIV fusion, and growth inhibition of bacteria are but a few of their applications. He issued a challenge to scientists to work at this scale, a challenge that is now being taken up. Results have clearly indicated that various luster characteristics can be described in terms of the presence of different levels of silver or copper nanoparticles within the glassy matrix. When my daughter and I and friends were in Budapest some years ago, my Kathy bought some beautiful Hungarian hand-made, etched-glass goblets with forest animals on them. 'old"ulletin developedb y3 ax - eeksa nd# ollont oi nvestigatem ethodso f stonee ngravingi nt hea ncientw orld; = )ntheancient#lassicalworld decorativegemstonesof The spectacularly dichroic, Optical Properties of Noble Metal Clusters from the Ab Initio Perspective, Nanometric pieces of metal have properties which deviate decisively from the behavior of bulk metals. The Lycurgus Cup is a Roman glass cage cup, or diatretum, made of dichroic glass. I should like you to use them at banquets on feast-days. According to researchers, a Roman goblet may be a 1600-year-old example of nanotechnology. An outstanding example of such coloring is the Lycurgus cup which dates from probably the 4th century AD and is shown today in the British Museum. In fact, the inventions of MGNCs have a long history. The Mayan blue has long been admired for its marvelous color qualities as well as its inherent resistance to deterioration and wear over long periods of time. Interested in investigating the interaction of light and matter, he was the first to recognize that the reduction of gold chloride leads to a “ruby colored” solution, which scatters light. It was only in 1908 that Gustav Mie provided the theoretical explanation of the scattering and absorption of spherical colloidal particles. Thus, the interesting properties of the final product result from a complex sequence of circumstances involving naturally occurring nanomaterials. It is now in the British Museum, London. The glass appears green when illuminated from the outside (a) and purple-red when illuminated from the inside (b). Hence, the Lycurgus cup came out from the nanotechnology of Roman Empire as the first contribution in the area of MGNCs. A man of violent temper, Lycurgus attacked the god of wine Dionysius and one of his female followers, Ambrosia. 4. This was a consequence of Lycurgus’s assault on the god Dionysius and Ambrosia”. One of the definitive points in the history of nanotechnology came in a lecture by Richard Feynman, in 1959, entitled ‘There is plenty of room at the bottom’ (Feynman, 1959). Michael Faraday's gold colloids. Many of the reasons gold nanoparticles are being used across a wide spectrum of applications have been covered in a Nature special edition.3 More specifically, the reasons gold nanoparticles make particularly attractive general cancer therapeutics are outlined in Ref. Limited by the available characterization technology, the development of nanoscience and the nanotechnology of gold was restricted to some extent during the first few decades after the advent of Faraday's “ruby fluid.” But since the invention of the electron microscope in 1932 by Knoll and Ruska [15], the development of nanotechnology has significantly accelerated; > 13,000 papers have been published in 2016 with key words “gold nanoparticles” or “gold colloidal” (Fig. Early knowledge relied on craft-based trial and error to achieve effects. In the case of gold nanospheres, the plasmon resonance frequency can be tuned within the visible spectrum by changing the diameter from 30 to 300 nm. Finally, small gold clusters are catalytically active, unlike the rather inert bulk material. Some oxidized elements were near the surface. The Lycurgus Cup is the only intact example we have of what is now called “dichroic glass.” “Di-chroic” means “two-colors” in Greek. A representative transmission electron microscopic (TEM) image of the MGNCs [102] is shown in Figure 1.21b. Many researchers throughout the globe have prepared different types of MGNCs in diverse glass matrices by different techniques [75–93]. August 29, 2013 / 4 Comments. Figure 2.22. Window from Chartres Cathedral. That branch of science is called nanomedicine. T/F, 3. Current studies indicate that even during fracture of a nanoparticle-modified epoxy material, only a few nanoparticles are released into the atmosphere. While applying nanomaterials in commercial products, they are … 4.1C) [3]. (b) TEM image of nanosilver-borosilicate glass nanocomposite obtained by using Sb2O3 as reducing agent followed by heat treatment [102]. Figure 1.11 depicts alchemists experimenting around 1661. The following are examples of the use of nanotechnology in ancient times. The meaning in Hebrew of the word “day” always means a 24 hour period of time. Scientists are still not sure how that was accomplished. in the paper 2007 by Freestone & al "Lycurgus cup : a roman nanotechnology" , the authors mention and SHOW pictures on page 273 figures 6a and 6bof a blank made RECENTLY by Corning Inc. , as a reproduction of the Lycurgus cup material. The dichroic effect of the Lycurgus cup has puzzled scientists for long time and it was only later discovered to be caused by the size, shape and composition of the (gold and silver) nanoparticles embedded in the glass (Barber & Freestone, 1990; Brill, 1965). The Romans had permeated the Lycurgus glass chalice with silver and gold particles that had been ground up so finely they were only 50 nanometers in diameter, less than one thousandth the size of a grain of salt. Detail of Feathered Serpent from a wall painting at Cacaxtla, Mexico. The purple color results due to the absorption by the larger particles while the green color is attributed to the light scattering by colloidal dispersions of silver particles with size >40 nm. The optical applications range from surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, biomolecule sensing, labeling of biomolecules, cancer therapy, and the plasmonic absorption enhancement in solar cells, to nanophotonics, and nanoplasmonics. Nanobiotechnology is another recently developed branch of science in which a biology-based, application-oriented frontier of research is explored using a hybrid discipline of nanoscience and biotechnology with an equivalent contribution by each. When Rome died, we entered the Dark Ages. Figure 1.10 shows an example of how gold and silver nanoparticles of different sizes were applied to stained glass windows. Sa notoriété vient de sa faculté de changer de couleur en fonction de son exposition à la lumière. In fact, the Roman Emperor Hadrian who reigned from 117-138 AD sent his sister and brother-in-law Servianus two such amazing goblets in the 100’s AD! Photograph is the images of Lycurgus cup. S. Szunerits, R. Boukherroub, in Encyclopedia of Interfacial Chemistry, 2018. Since the inception of science, there has been a steady growth and rapid evolution of chemistry. In recognition of his extraordinary contribution in the science and technology of colloids, he was honored with the Noble Prize in Chemistry in 1925. An extraordinary work with glass made by the Romans in the fifth century AD demonstrates one of the greatest examples of nanotechnology in the ancient world. (The Trustees of the British Museum/ CC BY NC SA 4.0 ) Although the Romans used the technology as decoration, nanotechnology is being applied to other areas of life today. Examination of the 1,600-year-old Roman chalice at the British Museum, known as the Lycurgus Cup reveals ancient Romans were familiar nanotechnology. 1. Ian Freestone at the Institute of Archaeology at University College London, who studied the Lycurgus cup, thinks not. There were only 8 people in Noah’s Ark. It is made up of small amount of nanosized (20-70 nm) gold (40 ppm Au) and silver (330 ppm Ag) alloy in the silicate glass [79]. When a continuous wave laser source is used, heat generated in the lattice of the gold nanostructures is continuously dissipated into the surrounding environment, resulting in an increase in temperature of the adjacent medium by tens of degrees. Localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) is consequently an optical phenomenon that causes a collective oscillation of free conduction band electrons and subsequent light absorption due to the interactions between the incident photons and the conduction band electrons of the noble nanoparticle. J.-C., haut de 16,5 cm. Metallic compounds (which we now know were cobalt oxide) from mines in Bohemia were added during the fusion process to achieve the deep blues so widely admired in the glass at Chartres Cathedral. As a consequence, a form of plasmonic excitation (an oscillation of the free electrons at the surface of a metal particle at a certain frequency) can occur. In contrast, nanoparticles are produced in large quantities by the combustion of fossil fuels. Christian Soldiers in the Ancient Roman Army, Destruction of Jerusalem, c. 586 BC—Eyewitness Account, Assassination of Julius Caesar—Ancient Accounts, Claudia Acte—Nero’s Mistress, Secret Christian, Emperor Tiberius & The Resurrection Of Jesus, Pliny’s Letter To Trajan About Christians, Ancient Technology—The Antikythera Mechanism, The Lycurgus Cup—Nanotechnology in Ancient Rome, Monte Testaccio—Ancient Rome’s Garbage Dump, Metal Detector Find—Roman Coins & Lost Emperor of Britain, “Stirring of Water” in the Pool of Bethesda. The spectacularly dichroic Lycurgus cup (Figure 3.1) is a still earlier example, probably dating back to fourth century Rome.1 The artisans responsible for these works were not aware that they were using gold nanoparticles to produce the ruby glass but this is exactly what they were doing by adding a small amount of chemically treated gold to the glass. Au NRs display two absorption peaks, one correlated with the short transversal axis at around 520 nm and the other one with the longer longitudinal axis situated between 640 and 1000 nm depending on the aspect rate (length/width) of the nanostructures (Fig. This cup looks green in reflected light, but appears red when light is shone through it.