Professor Nicholas Roberts

Summary

My research is focused on investigating optical mechanisms that underlie sensory abilities such as polarization vision and the evolution of the bio-optics of signaling and photoreception.

My work adopts a broad intra- and inter-disciplinary approach, using a combination of physics based techniques (microspectrophotometry, laser tweezing, optical modelling and X-ray scattering) and behavioural studies (operant conditioning and novel optomotor techniques). Ultimately, I want to understand how visual information helps guide aspects of animal behaviour.

Biography

I gained my first degree, an MPhys in Physics and Astrophysics, in 1999 at the University of Manchester. I stayed on in Manchester and completed a PhD in the Liquid Crystal Physics Group with Prof Helen Gleeson in 2003. The focus of my work was on optical studies of model biological liquid crystal systems relating to vertebrate photoreceptors. During my PhD, I conducted much of my biological research at University of Victoria, BC, Canada. After a year as a post-doc back in Manchester, I was awarded a Leverhulme Trust Early Career fellowship to conduct research on vertebrate polarization vision. In 2006, I was awarded an EPSRC Life Science Interface fellowship to work on optical design in vertebrate and invertebrate visual systems, splitting my time between the new Photon Science Institute at Manchester and Queens University in Canada. In Oct 2009, I started a 5 year BBSRC David Philips Fellowship based in the Ecology of Vision Group here at Bristol.

Activities / Findings

• Polarization vision.
• Vision in the deep sea – how photoreceptors work under pressure.
• The physiological optics of rods and cones.
• Animals that manipulate polarized light.
• The evolution of silver reflectors.
• The evolution of polarization signals.
• Optics of oil droplets.

Keywords

• polarisation vision
• bio-optics
• neuroethology

Methodologies

• behavioural techniques
• microspectrophotometry
• laser tweezing
• optical modelling
• X-ray scattering

Expertise

I am primarily interested the detection of light and colour in nature. My research is focused on investigating optical mechanisms that underlie sensory abilities such as polarization vision and the evolution of the bio-optics of signaling and photoreception. My work adopts a broad intra- and inter-disciplinary approach, using a combination of physics based techniques (microspectrophotometry, laser tweezing, optical modelling and X-ray scattering) and behavioural studies (operant conditioning and novel optomotor techniques). Ultimately, I want to understand how visual information helps guide aspects of animal behaviour.

Memberships

Organisations

School of Biological Sciences

Other sites

• Biology
• Neuroscience

Links

• Group Website
•   home page

Recent publications

• Marshall, NJ, Powell, SB, Cronin, TW, Caldwell, RL, Johnsen, S, Gruev, V, Chiou, TH, Roberts, NW & How, MJ, 2019, ‘Polarisation signals: A new currency for communication’. Journal of Experimental Biology, vol 222.
• Feller, KD, Wilby, D, Jacucci, G, Vignolini, S, Mantell, J, Wardill, TJ, Cronin, TW & Roberts, NW, 2019, ‘Long-Wavelength Reflecting Filters Found in the Larval Retinas of One Mantis Shrimp Family (Nannosquillidae)’. Current Biology, vol 29., pp. 3101-3108
• Kam, JH, Weinrich, TW, Shinhmar, H, Powner, MB, Roberts, NW, Aboelnour, A & Jeffery, G, 2019, ‘Fundamental differences in patterns of retinal ageing between primates and mice’. Scientific Reports, vol 9.
• Daly, I, How, M, Partridge, J & Roberts, N, 2019, ‘Gaze stabilization in mantis shrimp in response to angled stimuli’. Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology, vol 205., pp. 515-527
• Smithers, S, Roberts, N & How, M, 2019, ‘Parallel processing of polarization and intensity information in fiddler crab vision’. Science Advances, vol 5.
• Temple, S, Roberts, NW & Misson, GP, 2019, ‘Haidinger’s brushes elicited at varying degrees of polarization rapidly and easily assesses total macular pigmentation’. Journal of the Optical Society of America A, vol 36., pp. B123-B131
• Foster, JJ, Temple, SE, How, MJ, Daly, IM, Sharkey, CR, Wilby, D & Roberts, NW, 2018, ‘Polarisation vision: overcoming challenges of working with a property of light we barely see’. Naturwissenschaften, vol 105.
• Fleming, JF, Kristensen, RM, Sørensen, MV, Park, TYS, Arakawa, K, Blaxter, M, Rebecchi, L, Guidetti, R, Williams, TA, Roberts, NW, Vinther, J & Pisani, D, 2018, ‘Molecular palaeontology illuminates the evolution of ecdysozoan vision’. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, vol 285.
• Tibbs, A, Daly, I, Roberts, N & Bull, D, 2018, ‘Denoising imaging polarimetry by adapted BM3D method’. Journal of the Optical Society of America A, vol 35., pp. 690-701
• Daly, IM, How, MJ & Roberts, NW, 2018, ‘Correction: Complex gaze stabilization in mantis shrimp (Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2018) 285 (20180594) DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2018.0594)’. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, vol 285.

View complete publications list in the University of Bristol publications system

Networks & contacts

• Prof Thomas Cronin (UMBC)
• Prof Justin Marshall (Uni Queensland)
• Prof Joe Corbo (WUSTL)
• Prof Almut Kelber (Lund)