What’s the mechanism behind translating a wave frequency to a color for a human?
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There are 3 different proteins in your eye called ‘photopsins’ which hold each hold much smaller molecule, retinal, in slightly different shapes. These proteins are present in the 3 different kinds of colour-perceiving cells, cone cells.
Due to some funky physics, different wavelengths (colours) of light will be absorbed more or less by a retinal molecule depending on how it is being held by the photopsin protein. When the retinal is hit with light that it absorbs well, it changes shape, leading to a change in the shape of the photopsin protein. The cell quickly recognises this and sends a signal down the line to say that some red light was absorbed, for example.
There’s a great video by Steve Mould if you’d like to know a little more in depth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvovtbLGaUw&ab_channel=SteveMould
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