tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/colors-48385/articles
Colors – The Conversation
2023-04-24T12:24:51Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/202952
2023-04-24T12:24:51Z
2023-04-24T12:24:51Z
Can rainbows form in a circle? Fun facts on the physics of rainbows
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521644/original/file-20230418-20-88ojk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C13%2C8959%2C5547&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The higher your vantage point, the more likely you’ll see more of the rainbow’s circle. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/double-rainbow-hangs-in-the-sky-above-buildings-and-the-news-photo/1405823752">Chen Hui/VCG via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/curious-kids-us-74795">Curious Kids</a> is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">curiouskidsus@theconversation.com</a>.</em></p>
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<p><strong>Can rainbows form in a circle? – Henry D., age 7, Cambridge, Massachusetts</strong></p>
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<p>The legend goes that there is a pot of gold hidden at the end of every rainbow. But is there really an “end” to a rainbow, and can we ever get to it?</p>
<p>Most us go through life seeing rainbows only as arches of color in the sky, but that’s only half of what is really a circle of color.</p>
<p>Normally, when you look at a rainbow, the Earth’s horizon in front of you hides the bottom half of the circle. But if you are standing on a mountain where you can see both above and below you, and the sun is behind you and it is misty or has just rained, chances are good that you will see more of the rainbow’s circle.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A rainbow in the mist below a waterfall in Iceland." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521643/original/file-20230418-23-n2b6wd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C52%2C5000%2C3270&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521643/original/file-20230418-23-n2b6wd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521643/original/file-20230418-23-n2b6wd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521643/original/file-20230418-23-n2b6wd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521643/original/file-20230418-23-n2b6wd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521643/original/file-20230418-23-n2b6wd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521643/original/file-20230418-23-n2b6wd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">How full this rainbow looks depends in part on how high up you’re standing while watching sunlight hit the waterfall’s mist.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/iceland-south-coast-skogarfoss-waterfall-rainbow-news-photo/452271798">Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>To see the full circle, however, you will have to be in an airplane, literally above the clouds. Or you could create your own rainbow. I am <a href="https://www.uml.edu/Honors/People/chowdhury-partha.aspx">a physicist</a>, and I’ll explain how to do that in a minute.</p>
<h2>How a rainbow forms</h2>
<p><a href="https://scijinks.gov/rainbow/">Rainbows form</a> when sunlight from behind you hits millions of tiny round water droplets in front of you and bounces back to your eyes.</p>
<p>As a sunbeam hits a droplet at an angle, it bends into the water and separates out into a spectrum of colors. Scientists <a href="https://global.canon/en/technology/s_labo/light/001/02.html">call the bending of light “refracting</a>.” The colors separate because each “color” of light <a href="https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/learn-about/weather/optical-effects/rainbows/colours-of-the-rainbow">travels with a different speed</a> in water, or, for that matter, any transparent material that light can travel through, like glass in a prism.</p>
<p>When the colors hit the back wall of the water droplet, the angle is now too shallow for them to bend out into the air, so they reflect back into the water droplet and return to its entrance wall. From there, the colors can bend out again into air and reach your eye.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/q73VNpFA-0Q?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The United Kingdom’s Meteorology Office explains how light refracts, or bends, in a water droplet or a prism.</span></figcaption>
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<p>As you look at these droplets, the different colors happen to bunch up at a slightly different angle, and each color forms the <a href="https://atoptics.co.uk/rainbows/primcone.htm">circular rim of a cone</a> with your eye at the tip of the cone. And, voila, you have your own personal rainbow.</p>
<p>The droplets that send the colors to your eye cannot send them to anyone else, so even though everyone near you sees the same rainbow at a distance, each person really sees their own slightly different rainbow. It’s all in the eye of the beholder.</p>
<p>For rainbows to form, the shape of the water droplets has to be very close to a sphere for all of them to bend and reflect the colors in harmony. This happens for very small droplets, such as a fine mist, or just after a rain shower when the air is just moist. As the droplets get larger, gravity distorts their shape and the rainbow vanishes.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An elephant in water closes its eyes while the photographer captures a rainbow across its trunk and forehead." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521647/original/file-20230418-764-w4nbr5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521647/original/file-20230418-764-w4nbr5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521647/original/file-20230418-764-w4nbr5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521647/original/file-20230418-764-w4nbr5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521647/original/file-20230418-764-w4nbr5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521647/original/file-20230418-764-w4nbr5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521647/original/file-20230418-764-w4nbr5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Even though it looks like this elephant is bathing in a rainbow, the elephant wouldn’t see it in the same way.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/an-elephant-is-pictured-under-a-rainbow-of-water-sprayed-to-news-photo/1242012110">Mads Claus Rasmussen / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP</a></span>
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<p>A rainbow is not physically present where it appears to be, similar to your image in a mirror. So, I’m sorry to say that you can never actually reach your rainbow. And, alas, nobody can ever find that pot of gold.</p>
<p>But you can <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIdE-pqYqbs">create your own rainbow</a>. </p>
<h2>How to create and see a circular rainbow</h2>
<p>One experiment you can try in summer is to turn on a sprinkler hose using the “mist” setting. Remember to have the sun behind you. If you create a fine mist screen in front of you and look at your shadow, you might see a rainbow. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A young boy plays in a fountain, with a rainbow overhead." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521649/original/file-20230418-20-u1rnce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521649/original/file-20230418-20-u1rnce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521649/original/file-20230418-20-u1rnce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521649/original/file-20230418-20-u1rnce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521649/original/file-20230418-20-u1rnce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521649/original/file-20230418-20-u1rnce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521649/original/file-20230418-20-u1rnce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">It might take some work, but you can see your own full-circle rainbows in the mist.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/young-boy-cools-off-under-a-rainbow-in-a-fountain-on-a-warm-news-photo/1266045824">Gary Hershorn/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>It is not difficult to see colors, but to see a full circle, you will need some patience and practice, just like scientists.</p>
<p>So next time you are on an airplane, grab the window seat. If you are flying a little above the cloud cover, keep a lookout for the small shadow of your plane on the clouds. That means the sun is behind you. </p>
<p>The clouds are tiny water droplets, so chances are you may see a small circle of color around the shadow of the airplane. This phenomenon is <a href="https://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/climate-weather/atmospheric/pilots-glory-rainbow-airplane-shadow.htm">nicknamed “pilot’s glory</a>,” because pilots who fly all the time and have a good view from the cockpit have a better chance of seeing it.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521423/original/file-20230417-28-hkye8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An airplane's shadow has a circular rainbow around it as it flies over mountains." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521423/original/file-20230417-28-hkye8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521423/original/file-20230417-28-hkye8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521423/original/file-20230417-28-hkye8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521423/original/file-20230417-28-hkye8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521423/original/file-20230417-28-hkye8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521423/original/file-20230417-28-hkye8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521423/original/file-20230417-28-hkye8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The circular rainbow you see around an airplane’s shadow is called ‘pilot’s glory.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/imatty35/6708114761/">Matthew Straubmuller/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>And if you really can’t wait to see what it looks like, there’s <a href="https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/rainbow/">always the internet</a>.</p>
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<p><em>Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com</a>. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.</em></p>
<p><em>And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202952/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Partha Chowdhury does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Each rainbow is personal – the rainbow you see isn’t exactly the same rainbow the next person sees. It’s all in the eye of the beholder.
Partha Chowdhury, Professor of Physics, UMass Lowell
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/151650
2021-02-05T13:06:37Z
2021-02-05T13:06:37Z
Do you see red like I see red?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382552/original/file-20210204-14-a5xafl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=752%2C783%2C6122%2C3968&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">It's disconcerting to think the way two people perceive the world might be totally different.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/man-and-woman-standing-in-a-gallery-space-with-royalty-free-image/839180292">Mads Perch/Stone via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Is the red I see the same as the red you see?</p>
<p>At first, the question seems confusing. Color is an inherent part of visual experience, as fundamental as gravity. So how could anyone see color differently than you do?</p>
<p>To dispense with the seemingly silly question, you can point to different objects and ask, “What color is that?” The initial consensus apparently settles the issue.</p>
<p>But then you might uncover troubling variability. A rug that some people call green, others call blue. A <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_dress">photo of a dress</a> that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2015.04.053">some people call blue and black, others say is white and gold</a>.</p>
<p>You’re confronted with an unsettling possibility. Even if we agree on the label, maybe your experience of red is different from mine and – shudder – could it correspond to my experience of green? How would we know?</p>
<p>Neuroscientists, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=LNgp00MAAAAJ">including</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=6I_zDKUAAAAJ">us</a>, have tackled <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/color-ontology-and-color-science">this age-old puzzle</a> and are starting to come up with some answers to these questions. One thing that is becoming clear is the reason individual differences in color are so disconcerting in the first place. </p>
<h2>Colors add meaning to what you see</h2>
<p>Scientists often explain why people have color vision in cold, analytic terms: Color is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-vision-091517-034231">for object recognition</a>. And this is certainly true, but it’s not the whole story.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1167/18.11.1">color statistics of objects</a> are not arbitrary. The parts of scenes that people choose to label (“ball,” “apple,” “tiger”) are not any random color: They are more likely to be warm colors (oranges, yellows, reds), and less likely to be cool colors (blues, greens). This is true even for artificial objects that could have been made any color.</p>
<p>These observations suggest that your brain can use color to help recognize objects, and might explain <a href="https://theconversation.com/languages-dont-all-have-the-same-number-of-terms-for-colors-scientists-have-a-new-theory-why-84117">universal color naming patterns across languages</a>. </p>
<p>But recognizing objects is not the only, or maybe even the main, job of color vision. In <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-10073-8">a recent study</a>, neuroscientists Maryam Hasantash and Rosa Lafer-Sousa showed participants real-world stimuli illuminated by low-pressure-sodium lights – the energy-efficient yellow lighting you’ve likely encountered in a parking garage.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382625/original/file-20210204-20-zdq64j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="people and fruit lit by yellow low sodium lights" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382625/original/file-20210204-20-zdq64j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382625/original/file-20210204-20-zdq64j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=911&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382625/original/file-20210204-20-zdq64j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=911&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382625/original/file-20210204-20-zdq64j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=911&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382625/original/file-20210204-20-zdq64j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1145&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382625/original/file-20210204-20-zdq64j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1145&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382625/original/file-20210204-20-zdq64j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1145&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The eye can’t properly encode color for scenes lit by monochromatic light.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rosa Lafer-Sousa</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<p>The yellow light prevents the eye’s retina from properly encoding color. The researchers reasoned that if they temporarily knocked out this ability in their volunteers, the impairment might point to the normal function of color information. </p>
<p>The volunteers could still recognize objects like strawberries and oranges bathed in the eerie yellow light, implying that color isn’t critical for recognizing objects. But the fruit looked unappetizing. </p>
<p>Volunteers could also recognize faces – but they looked green and sick. Researchers think that’s because your expectations about normal face coloring are violated. The green appearance is a kind of error signal telling you that something’s wrong. This phenomenon is an example of how <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1933-1592.2010.00481.x">your knowledge can affect your perception</a>. Sometimes what you know, or think you know, influences what you see. </p>
<p>This research builds up the idea that color isn’t so critical for telling you what stuff is but rather about its likely meaning. Color doesn’t tell you about the kind of fruit, but rather whether a piece of fruit is probably tasty. And for faces, color is literally a vital sign that helps us identify emotions like anger and embarrassment, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0889159116304986">as well as sickness</a>, as any parent knows. </p>
<p>It might be color’s importance for telling us about meaning, especially in social interactions, that makes variability in color experiences between people so disconcerting. </p>
<h2>Looking for objective, measurable colors</h2>
<p>Another reason variability in color experience is troubling has to do with the fact that we can’t easily measure colors.</p>
<p>Having an objective metric of experience gets us over the quandary of subjectivity. With shape, for instance, we can measure dimensions using a ruler. Disagreements about apparent size can be settled dispassionately.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382374/original/file-20210203-16-14psnr2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="spectral power distribution of various wavelengths of light" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382374/original/file-20210203-16-14psnr2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382374/original/file-20210203-16-14psnr2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382374/original/file-20210203-16-14psnr2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382374/original/file-20210203-16-14psnr2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382374/original/file-20210203-16-14psnr2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382374/original/file-20210203-16-14psnr2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382374/original/file-20210203-16-14psnr2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The spectral power distribution of a 25-watt incandescent lightbulb illustrates the wavelengths of light it emits.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spectral_power_distribution_of_a_25_W_incandescent_light_bulb.png">Thorseth/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With color, we can measure proportions of different wavelengths across the rainbow. But these “spectral power distributions” do not by themselves tell us the color, even though they are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X03000013">the physical basis for color</a>. A given distribution can appear different colors depending on context and assumptions about materials and lighting, as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1167/17.12.25">#thedress proved</a>.</p>
<p>Perhaps color is a <a href="https://aardvark.ucsd.edu/color/hatfield.html">“psychobiological” property</a> that emerges from the brain’s response to light. If so, could an objective basis for color be found not in the physics of the world but rather in the human brain’s response? </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382371/original/file-20210203-20-1agq2g7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="cross section of retina with different cell types" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382371/original/file-20210203-20-1agq2g7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382371/original/file-20210203-20-1agq2g7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382371/original/file-20210203-20-1agq2g7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382371/original/file-20210203-20-1agq2g7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382371/original/file-20210203-20-1agq2g7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382371/original/file-20210203-20-1agq2g7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382371/original/file-20210203-20-1agq2g7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cone cells in the eye’s retina encode messages about color vision.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/eye-anatomy-rod-cells-and-cone-cells-royalty-free-illustration/1091261988">ttsz/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To compute color, your brain engages <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-vision-091517-034202">an extensive network of circuits</a> in the cerebral cortex that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-vision-121219-081801">interpret the retinal signals</a>, taking into account <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1073858419882621">context and your expectations</a>. Can we measure the color of a stimulus by monitoring brain activity?</p>
<h2>Your brain response to red is similar to mine</h2>
<p>Our group used magnetoencephalography – MEG for short – to monitor the tiny magnetic fields created when nerve cells in the brain fire to communicate. We were able to classify the response to various colors using machine learning and then <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2020.10.062">decode from brain activity the colors</a> that participants saw.</p>
<p>So, yes, we can determine color by measuring what happens in the brain. Our results show that each color is associated with a distinct pattern of brain activity.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382764/original/file-20210205-13-17w8sz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Person seated in MEG machine looking at screen with color projection" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382764/original/file-20210205-13-17w8sz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382764/original/file-20210205-13-17w8sz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382764/original/file-20210205-13-17w8sz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382764/original/file-20210205-13-17w8sz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382764/original/file-20210205-13-17w8sz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382764/original/file-20210205-13-17w8sz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382764/original/file-20210205-13-17w8sz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Researchers measured volunteers’ brain responses with magnetoencephalography (MEG) to decode what colors they saw.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bevil Conway</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But are the patterns of brain response similar across people? This is a hard question to answer, because one needs a way of perfectly matching the anatomy of one brain to another, which is really tough to do. For now, we can sidestep the technical challenge by asking a related question. Does my relationship between red and orange resemble your relationship between red and orange? </p>
<p>The MEG experiment showed that two colors that are perceptually more similar, as assessed by how people label the colors, give rise to more similar patterns of brain activity. So your brain’s response to color will be fairly similar when you look at something light green and something dark green but quite different when looking at something yellow versus something brown. What’s more, these similarity relationships are preserved across people. </p>
<p>Physiological measurements are unlikely to ever resolve metaphysical questions such as “what is redness?” But the MEG results nonetheless provide some reassurance that color is a fact we can agree on.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/151650/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bevil R. Conway receives funding from the Intramural Research Program (IRP) of the National Eye Institute (NEI). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Danny Garside receives funding from the Intramural Research Program (IRP) of the National Eye Institute (NEI). </span></em></p>
Neuroscientists tackling the age-old question of whether perceptions of color hold from one person to the next are coming up with some interesting answers.
Bevil R. Conway, Senior Investigator at the National Eye Institute, Section on Perception, Cognition, and Action, National Institutes of Health
Danny Garside, Visiting Fellow in Sensation, Cognition & Action, National Institutes of Health
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/129547
2020-12-01T19:08:31Z
2020-12-01T19:08:31Z
Not all blackened landscapes are bad. We must learn to love the right kind
<p>The devastation wrought by last summer’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/dec/25/factcheck-why-australias-monster-2019-bushfires-are-unprecedented">unprecedented</a> bushfires created blackened landscapes across Australia. New life is sprouting, but with fires burning again <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-29/bushfires-burn-across-nsw-cold-change-hits-sydney/12931478">in New South Wales</a> and <a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/fraser-island-bushfire-closes-in-on-attractions-tourists-evacuated/2a8d8e82-06ef-42a4-86ea-b349ba05ab1f">Queensland</a> we have once more seen burnt land and smoke plumes.</p>
<p>The findings of the <a href="https://naturaldisaster.royalcommission.gov.au/">Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements</a> are a reminder that we need to change our approach to bushfire management. One way of doing so is by rethinking the notion of <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-19/australia-bushfires-how-heat-and-drought-created-a-tinderbox/11976134">a blackened landscape</a>, embracing the positive qualities of contained fires. </p>
<p>Learning to love blackened earth will not be easy. It involves a fundamental change in aesthetic values — thinking through prejudices often attached to the colours of black and white.</p>
<h2>‘Nice and clean’</h2>
<p>When we were conducting fieldwork with Phyllis Wiynjorroc, the senior traditional owner at Barunga, Northern Territory, in 2005 we came across some country that had been burnt off by traditional firing.</p>
<p>Phyllis commented that it was “nice and clean”. To her eyes, a blackened landscape is pristine and beautiful. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/our-land-is-burning-and-western-science-does-not-have-all-the-answers-100331">Our land is burning, and Western science does not have all the answers</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Such landscapes are valued in many parts of the world. A darkened land can be valued because it is rich in humus. <a href="https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9781402018398">Amazonian Dark Darths</a>, for instance, (also known as Indian black earth) are known for their fertility.</p>
<p>In sub-Saharan Africa, meanwhile, local people <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/food/the-plate/2016/06/africa-soil-farming-sustainable/">strategically enrich nutrient-poor soils</a> to produce highly productive African Dark Earth.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317574/original/file-20200227-24664-ulx0qi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317574/original/file-20200227-24664-ulx0qi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317574/original/file-20200227-24664-ulx0qi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317574/original/file-20200227-24664-ulx0qi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317574/original/file-20200227-24664-ulx0qi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317574/original/file-20200227-24664-ulx0qi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317574/original/file-20200227-24664-ulx0qi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Phyllis Wiynjorroc with her grandchildren Teagan and Joel at Barunga, Northern Territory.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Claire Smith</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As others have observed, <a href="https://theconversation.com/our-land-is-burning-and-western-science-does-not-have-all-the-answers-100331">Indigenous wisdom</a> could help prevent Australian bushfires. Aboriginal cultural burning is low-intensity. Fires burn in a <a href="https://www.dpaw.wa.gov.au/management/fire/fire-and-the-environment/41-traditional-aboriginal-burning">mosaic pattern</a> (like a chessboard), allowing animals to move between areas. Afterwards, the burnt hollows of trees provide homes for selected animal species and some plants <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5426625/">regenerate</a>.</p>
<p>Aboriginal people, anthropologists and archaeologists have called for a return to <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-09/indigenous-cultural-fire-burning-method-has-benefits-experts-say/11853096">cultural burning practices</a>. Authorities also conduct controlled burning, with <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-burn-legacy-why-the-science-on-hazard-reduction-is-contested-132083">debatable sucess</a>. We need more research on these aspects of Indigenous and Western science.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/strength-from-perpetual-grief-how-aboriginal-people-experience-the-bushfire-crisis-129448">Strength from perpetual grief: how Aboriginal people experience the bushfire crisis</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Concepts of colour</h2>
<p>We see colour not only through a cultural lens but also through our own embodiment.
A white-skinned tourist once told us that the landscape after a reduction burn looked black and dirty. She was so repulsed that she planned to make representations to politicians to ban such burns. This contrasts to the aesthetics of Aboriginal land management practices.</p>
<p>Non-Indigenous people typically connect the colour <a href="https://theconversation.com/this-map-shows-what-white-europeans-associate-with-race-and-it-makes-for-uncomfortable-reading-76661">black</a> with danger and bad things, while <a href="https://theconversation.com/are-you-racist-you-may-be-without-even-knowing-it-10826">white</a> is associated with purity and good things. This is obviously not the case for Aboriginal people. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/languages-dont-all-have-the-same-number-of-terms-for-colors-scientists-have-a-new-theory-why-84117">Languages don't all have the same number of terms for colors – scientists have a new theory why</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Many Indigenous people (including the Aboriginal author of this article) find phrases like “<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-has-australia-learned-from-black-saturday-111245">Black Saturday</a>” offensive. If the recent bushfire season had been dubbed “Australia’s White Devil”, it might have been similarly offensive to non-Indigenous people. </p>
<p>The challenge ahead will be to rethink our assumptions and create new, positive ways to think about the black colours of a burnt landscape. </p>
<h2>Aesthetics and identity</h2>
<p>An Australian identity for the 21st century will need to embrace new understandings of our landscapes. One artist who grappled with the aesthetics of <a href="https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/27859/">bushfire landscapes</a> was Fred Williams (1927-1982). His celebrated <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/williams-burnt-landscape-ii-bushfire-series-t12269">bushfire series</a> was prompted by a fire that stopped 100 metres short of his home in February 1968. This experience fundamentally altered Williams’ vision of the Australian landscape.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/319272/original/file-20200309-118890-1qyxvfd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/319272/original/file-20200309-118890-1qyxvfd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319272/original/file-20200309-118890-1qyxvfd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319272/original/file-20200309-118890-1qyxvfd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319272/original/file-20200309-118890-1qyxvfd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319272/original/file-20200309-118890-1qyxvfd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319272/original/file-20200309-118890-1qyxvfd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fred Williams.
After bushfire (1) 1968
gouache
57.0 x 76.6 cm (image and sheet)
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased through The Art Foundation of Victoria with the assistance of the H. J. Heinz II Charitable and Family Trust, Governor, and the Utah Foundation, Fellow, 1980 (AC9-1980)
© Estate of Fred Williams</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>His groundbreaking artistic response was a detailed and repeated focus on burnt land that helped reshape Australian perceptions of bushfire. As writer John Schauble <a href="http://www.proceedings.com.au/tassiefire/papers_pdf/thurs_schauble.pdf">has noted,</a> the series contains depictions of “the fire itself, the burnt landscape, those dealing with a single burning tree and the fern diptych”. </p>
<p>Williams, he has written, “examines not just the forest as a whole, but the minutiae of its rebirth, depicting individual plants as well as sweeping landscapes”.</p>
<p>Like Williams, we will have to alter our appreciation of what an Australian environment looks like. </p>
<h2>Where there is smoke …</h2>
<p>Rethinking our cultural appreciation of fire as we explore links between <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00173-7">bushfires and climate change</a>, will also require a reappraisal of <a href="https://theconversation.com/smoke-from-bushfires-poses-a-health-hazard-for-all-of-us-11493">smoke</a>. </p>
<p>As David Bowman states in <a href="https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=5pQZlbzJvTkC&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=info:YYfApoIykk0J:scholar.google.com&ots=Hi_AuNY9oF&sig=a-TPthFrgAAVB_Ig5y6St_Hv9iY&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false">Australian Rainforests: Islands of Green in a Land of Fire</a>, “Living in the bush means learning to live with fire”. The gum tree naturally drops leaves and small branches. It annually sheds bark. Throughout Australia, this provides the fuel that makes fires and smoke almost inevitable. </p>
<p>There are many kinds of smoke. There is the unwelcome smoke of last fire season, which <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/14/australian-bushfires-melbourne-covered-in-smoke-despite-cool-change.html">clouded Australian cities</a> and towns, <a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-bushfire-smoke-is-lapping-the-globe-and-the-law-is-too-lame-to-catch-it-130010">lapped the globe</a>, and was <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUWkET3IHxo">visible from space</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315571/original/file-20200215-10985-bjsarj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315571/original/file-20200215-10985-bjsarj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315571/original/file-20200215-10985-bjsarj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315571/original/file-20200215-10985-bjsarj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315571/original/file-20200215-10985-bjsarj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315571/original/file-20200215-10985-bjsarj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315571/original/file-20200215-10985-bjsarj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315571/original/file-20200215-10985-bjsarj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ngarrindjeri Elder, Major Sumner, conducting an Australian Aboriginal smoking ceremony, part of the repatriation of ancestral human remains from the United Kingdom. 19 May, 2009.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/86624586@N00/3545144681/in/photostream/">Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Then there is smoke from contained fires. Smoking ceremonies have been a part of Aboriginal cultural practices for centuries, if not millennia.
Ngarrindjeri Elder, <a href="https://www.ngarrindjeri-culture.org/major-sumner">Major Sumner</a>, uses <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-05-12/major-sumner-a-ngarrindjeri-elder-takes-part-in-a/1681466">smoke</a> as part of the ceremonies associated with the repatriation of human remains. Smoke may be used in Welcome to Country ceremonies and at the opening of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyAM9EbHRaQ">Aboriginal Studies Centres</a>. </p>
<p>On Phyllis Wiynjorroc’s lands, Aboriginal women use smoke from burning selected leaves to protect newborn babies. Research has shown that traditional smoking techniques can produce smoke with <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378874114003547?via%3Dihub">significant antimicrobial effects</a>. </p>
<h2>Noticing</h2>
<p>Monitoring when the landscape around us is blackened through the right kind of burning will help us become more aware of (and comfortable with) regular burning practices. We will also notice when such burning is needed.</p>
<p>How we interpret colour is <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=8WGADAAAQBAJ&pg=PA117&lpg=PA117&dq=negative+conceptualisations+of+the+colour+black&source=bl&ots=q_de3sg0Z5&sig=ACfU3U2H9BHvs7nKWuPJPRAM7JsInSdazg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwis6OS4zLXqAhU2xzgGHT4eBH8Q6AEwDHoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=negative%20conceptualisations%20of%20the%20colour%20black&f=false">culturally conditioned</a> and <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=mIrf1uUTNCYC&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=unconscious+connotations+of+the+color+black&ots=VUgujOvl1i&sig=evDQuXHC8X9kghXRWr7qkJlw44Y#v=onepage&q=unconscious%20connotations%20of%20the%20color%20black&f=false">often unconscious</a>. Negative connotations of the colour black have <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1966-07379-001">long been challenged</a>. </p>
<p>Clearly, there is more than one form of blackened landscape. But if we can learn to love the right kind, we might be able to limit our experience of the other.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/129547/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Pristine and beautiful or black and dirty? As bushfires become more frequent and we look to Indigenous fire control practices, it is time to reconsider our attitudes to burnt earth.
Claire Smith, Professor of Archaeology, College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Flinders University
Gary Jackson, Research Associate in Archaeology, Flinders University
Kellie Pollard, Research lecturer, Charles Darwin University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/146060
2020-09-16T11:20:45Z
2020-09-16T11:20:45Z
Why San Francisco felt like the set of a sci-fi flick
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358184/original/file-20200915-20-19fcg73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=642%2C0%2C2353%2C1419&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">On the morning of Sept. 9, San Franciscans woke up to a transformed cityscape.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Wildfires-Smoky-Skies/37b2b6fb5f384f4e8c1f48ac09f05171/36/0">AP Photo/Eric Risberg</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Sept. 9, many West Coast residents looked out their windows and witnessed a post-apocalyptic landscape: silhouetted cars, buildings and people bathed in an overpowering orange light that looked like a jacked-up sunset.</p>
<p>The scientific explanation for what people were seeing was pretty straightforward. On a clear day, the sky owes its blue color to smaller atmospheric particles scattering the relatively short wavelengths of blue light waves from the sun. An atmosphere filled with larger particles, like woodsmoke, scatters even more of the color spectrum, but not as uniformly, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/marshallshepherd/2020/09/10/the-science-behind-mysterious-orange-skies-in-california/#52bc361f6cab">leaving orangish-red colors for the eye to see</a>.</p>
<p>But most city dwellers weren’t seeing the science. Instead, the burnt orange world they were witnessing was eerily reminiscent of scenes from sci-fi films like “<a href="https://twitter.com/Klee_FilmReview/status/1303748616507531264">Blade Runner: 2049</a>” and “<a href="https://twitter.com/Prince_Kropotkn/status/1303761059887550464">Dune</a>.” </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1303748616507531264"}"></div></p>
<p>The uncanny images evoked sci-fi movies for a reason. Over the past decade, filmmakers have increasingly adopting a palette rich with hues of two colors, orange and teal, which complement one another in ways that can have a powerful effect on viewers.</p>
<h2>Writing color into the script</h2>
<p>When we dissect movies in my design classes, I remind my students that everything on the screen is there for a reason. Sound, light, wardrobe, people – and, yes, the colors.</p>
<p>Actor, writer and director Jon Fusco <a href="https://nofilmschool.com/2016/06/watch-psychology-color-film">has suggested</a> “writing color as an entire character in your script,” since colors can subtly change the way a scene can “resonate emotionally.”</p>
<p>Set and costume designers can influence color palettes by sticking to certain palettes. But art directors can also imbue scenes with certain hues via “color grading,” in which they use software to shift colors around in the frame.</p>
<p>In her short film “Color Psychology,” video editor Lilly Mtz-Seara <a href="https://vimeo.com/169046276">assembles a montage</a> from more than 50 films to show the emotional impact intentional color grading can lend to movies. She explains how different palettes are used to emphasize different sentiments, whether it’s pale pink to reflect innocence, red to capture passion or a sickly yellow to denote madness.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Frames from Lilly Mtz-Sear's 'Color Psychology' that highlight emotional effects of different palettes." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357774/original/file-20200913-16-yc0lvy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357774/original/file-20200913-16-yc0lvy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=256&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357774/original/file-20200913-16-yc0lvy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=256&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357774/original/file-20200913-16-yc0lvy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=256&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357774/original/file-20200913-16-yc0lvy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357774/original/file-20200913-16-yc0lvy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357774/original/file-20200913-16-yc0lvy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Different color palettes are used to evoke different emotional responses in viewers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://vimeo.com/169046276">LidiaSeara/Vimeo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The most powerful complement of them all</h2>
<p>So why orange and teal? </p>
<p>In the 17th century, Isaac Newton created his “<a href="http://web.mit.edu/22.51/www/Extras/color_theory/color.html">color wheel</a>.” The circle of colors represents the full visible light spectrum, and people who work in color will use it to assemble palettes, or color schemes.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.canva.com/learn/monochromatic-colors/">A monochromatic palette</a> involves tints from a single hue – <a href="https://www.schemecolor.com/monochromatic-blues-color-scheme.php">lighter and darker shades of blue</a>, for example. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tertiary_color">A tertiary palette</a> divides the wheel with three evenly spaced spokes: bright reds, greens and blues. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358219/original/file-20200915-14-46b5nb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The color wheel." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358219/original/file-20200915-14-46b5nb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358219/original/file-20200915-14-46b5nb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=792&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358219/original/file-20200915-14-46b5nb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=792&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358219/original/file-20200915-14-46b5nb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=792&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358219/original/file-20200915-14-46b5nb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=995&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358219/original/file-20200915-14-46b5nb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=995&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358219/original/file-20200915-14-46b5nb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=995&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A version of the color wheel created by Isaac Newton.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-color-circle-to-symbolize-the-human-mind-and-soul-life-news-photo/917742598?adppopup=true">Fine Art Images/Heritage Images via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Among the most striking combinations are two hues 180 degrees apart on the color wheel. Due to a phenomenon called “<a href="https://archive.bridgesmathart.org/2006/bridges2006-517.pdf">simultaneous contrast</a>,” the presence of a single color is intensified when paired with its complement. Green and purple complement one another, as do yellow and blue. But, according to German scientist, poet and philosopher <a href="http://www.openculture.com/2013/09/goethes-theory-of-colors-and-kandinsky.html">Johann Wolfgang von Goethe</a>, the strongest of the complementary pairings exist in the ranges of – you guessed it – orange and teal.</p>
<p>For movie makers, this color palette can be a powerful tool. Human skin matches a relatively narrow swath of the orange section of the color wheel, <a href="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7e/3b/2f/7e3b2fbcfa0baae19047f54d8f97dd40.jpg">from very light to very dark</a>. A filmmaker who wants to make a human within a scene “<a href="https://cdn.onebauer.media/one/empire-tmdb/films/76341/images/tbhdm8UJAb4ViCTsulYFL3lxMCd.jpg?quality=50&width=1800&ratio=16-9&resizeStyle=aspectfill&format=jpg">pop</a>” can easily do so by setting the “orange-ish” human against a teal background.</p>
<p>Filmmakers can also switch between the two depending on the emotional needs of the scene, with the oscillation adding drama. Orange evokes heat and creates tension while teal connotes its opposite, coolness and languid moodiness. For example, the orange and pink people in many of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGTkgB62754">the chase scenes</a> in “Mad Max: Fury Road” stand out against the complementary sky-blue background. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358257/original/file-20200915-16-102qfex.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358257/original/file-20200915-16-102qfex.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=249&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358257/original/file-20200915-16-102qfex.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=249&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358257/original/file-20200915-16-102qfex.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=249&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358257/original/file-20200915-16-102qfex.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358257/original/file-20200915-16-102qfex.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358257/original/file-20200915-16-102qfex.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The chase scene from ‘Mad Max: Fury Road.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Warner Bros. Pictures</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Oranges and teals are not the sole province of sci-fi movies. David Fincher’s thriller “Zodiac” <a href="https://youtu.be/tnFSymJ3Qgg">is tinged with blues</a>, while <a href="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTlhNmVkZGUtNjdjOC00YWY3LTljZWQtMTY1YWFhNGYwNDQwXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNjc1NTYyMjg@._V1_UY1200_CR85,0,630,1200_AL_.jpg">countless</a> <a href="https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/horrormovies/images/c/cf/1002004000000704.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20190314174712">horror</a> <a href="https://dyn1.heritagestatic.com/lf?set=path%5B6%2F7%2F2%2F0%2F6720372%5D&call=url%5Bfile%3Aproduct.chain%5D">movies</a> deploy a reddish-orange palette. There’s even been some backlash to orange and teal, with one filmmaker, Todd Miro, <a href="http://theabyssgazes.blogspot.com/2010/03/teal-and-orange-hollywood-please-stop.html">calling their overuse</a> “madness” and “a virus.”</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Nonetheless, given the frequency with which sci-fi films wish to subtly unsettle viewers, the palette continues to find frequent application in the genre.</p>
<p>As for West Coast residents unnerved by the murky air and bizarre landscapes, they’re probably wishing their lives felt a lot less like a movie.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/146060/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Johndan Johnson-Eilola does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The eerie San Francisco skyline evoked sci-fi movies for a reason. Filmmakers are increasingly using color grading to tinge their films with two hues, orange and teal, to unsettle viewers.
Johndan Johnson-Eilola, Professor of Communication and Media, Clarkson University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/140674
2020-07-06T12:15:45Z
2020-07-06T12:15:45Z
How did ‘white’ become a metaphor for all things good?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345627/original/file-20200704-33931-1l1sf8p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C19%2C1065%2C774&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'Jacob's Dream' by Salvador Rosa (c. 1665).</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://d3d00swyhr67nd.cloudfront.net/w1200h1200/collection/NTIV/HACH/NTIV_HACH_1166737-001.jpg">artuk.org</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Leer en <a href="https://theconversation.com/como-el-blanco-se-convirtio-en-una-metafora-de-las-cosas-buenas-143327">español</a></em></p>
<p>Shortly after George Floyd’s death, one of my friends texted me that Floyd wasn’t necessarily a bad person, but, pointing to his prior stints in prison, added that “he wasn’t lily-white either.”</p>
<p>Soon thereafter, I read an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/05/opinion/whites-anti-blackness-protests.html">article</a> in The New York Times written by Chad Sanders in which he noted his agent canceled a meeting with him because he was observing a “<a href="https://www.ajc.com/news/what-blackoutday-day-organized-for-black-people-avoid-online-store-shopping/AmL0SIsTds0VQCmI5lDEKK/">Blackout Day</a>” in recognition of the Black men and women who have been brutalized and killed. </p>
<p>In the first example, white represents purity and morality. In the other, black represents nothingness or absence – similar to the use of “black hole” as a metaphor. </p>
<p>These types of linguistic metaphors – pervasive in speech – <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=dSp9HLsAAAAJ&hl=en">have been a focus of my research</a>. </p>
<p>There are “brighter days ahead” after “dark times.” We want to be whitelisted and not blacklisted for jobs. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/computer-science/black-hat-hacker">Black hats</a> are the bad hackers and white hats the good ones. White lies make stretching the truth okay, while we don’t want to receive a black mark on our records. In picture books, good people, angels and Gods dress in white, but the villains, devils and the Grim Reaper dress in black. </p>
<p>Of course, there are exceptions: We prefer to be “in the black” versus “in the red” in financial statements. But for the most part, the delineation is remarkably consistent.</p>
<p>How do such linguistic metaphors get formed? And do they perpetuate racism? </p>
<h2>Processing a complicated world</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2025464">One theory</a>, proposed by cognitive linguists George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, is that metaphors are a cognitive tool allowing people to comprehend what they cannot see, taste, hear, smell or touch. They help people understand difficult, abstract concepts through simpler, more tangible, paradigms. </p>
<p>These metaphors get formed as people gain experience in the physical world. For instance, the abstract concept of power is connected to the concrete concept of height – perhaps because, as children, we saw adults as taller and more powerful. Then, as adults, we continue to implicitly <a href="http://www.igroup.org/schubert/papers/schubert_jpsp05.pdf">associate height with power</a>. It isn’t just tall buildings or tall people. In multiple studies, participants judged symbols representing people or groups to be more powerful if they simply appeared at a higher position on a page than other symbols. </p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p><a href="http://aradhnakrishna.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/emotion_up_down.pdf">My research</a> with fellow behavioral scientists Luca Cian and Norbert Schwarz found that vertical position also has an implicit association with emotionality and rationality. </p>
<p>If something is at the top of a page or a screen, we tend to perceive it as more rational, whereas if something is at the bottom, it appears more emotional. One reason may be that we metaphorically tend to connect the heart with emotion and the head with logic, and, in the physical world, our heads are actually higher than our hearts.</p>
<h2>Infusing color with meaning</h2>
<p>In a similar vein, fresh snow and clean water are white or transparent, whereas sullied water turns brown and then black. It is also bright and relatively safer during the day, but dark and more dangerous at night. While observing all of this, we start forming conceptual metaphors – or subconscious connections – between color and goodness. </p>
<p>Experiments have documented the existence of this relationship.</p>
<p>In <a href="http://journal.psych.ac.cn/xlxb/EN/10.3724/SP.J.1041.2014.01331">one paper</a>,
for example, psychologists Brian Meier, Michael Robinson and Gerald Clore showed that the color white is implicitly connected with morality, and the color black with immorality.</p>
<p>In another study, they <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0963-7214.2004.01502002.x">asked participants</a> to evaluate words as positive or negative. The words were shown in black or white font on a computer screen with a program measuring the speed of the classification. </p>
<p>Participants evaluated words with a positive meaning like “active,” “baby,” “clean” and “kiss” faster when they were shown in a white rather than black font. On the other hand, they classified words with a negative meaning – terms like “crooked,” “diseased,” “foolish” and “ugly” – faster when they appeared in black.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345331/original/file-20200702-111333-nklx87.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345331/original/file-20200702-111333-nklx87.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345331/original/file-20200702-111333-nklx87.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=272&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345331/original/file-20200702-111333-nklx87.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=272&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345331/original/file-20200702-111333-nklx87.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=272&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345331/original/file-20200702-111333-nklx87.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=342&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345331/original/file-20200702-111333-nklx87.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=342&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345331/original/file-20200702-111333-nklx87.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=342&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A sample of words used in the experiment by Meier, Robinson and Clore.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Aradhna Krishna</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These studies have been <a href="http://repository.essex.ac.uk/15666/1/Meier,%20Fetterman,%20%26%20Robinson,%202015.pdf">replicated</a>, and the same findings emerge, indicating that they’re not a fluke: The perceptual-conceptual links between color and goodness are ingrained in people.</p>
<h2>The race factor</h2>
<p>Could something as simple as the color-goodness relationship <a href="https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html">drive</a> racial prejudice? </p>
<p>In the color-goodness studies above, black and white colors were connected with good and bad. Implicit race bias tests, on the other hand, look for a connection between Black and white faces and goodness.</p>
<p>There is a subtle but important difference here. The implicit bias race test detects prejudice towards Black people. So besides skin color, it also picks up reactions to other differences in appearance – from hair to facial structure – along with any animosity one may have previously harbored. Still, the color-goodness association is clearly a factor in racial prejudice.</p>
<p>Can these conceptual metaphors – so ingrained in our everyday speech – be upended? What if we wrote that something was as pure as the blackest eyes; as rich as the darkest hair; or as sophisticated as a black dress? </p>
<p>What if Gods and heroes were dressed in black and villains in white? </p>
<p>What if, as Muhammad Ali <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-52988605/muhammad-ali-why-is-everything-white">pointed out</a> in a 1971 interview, we had vanilla devil’s food cake and dark-chocolate angel cake? </p>
<p>Metaphors aren’t ironclad. It’s possible to consciously change the way we write, draw, design costumes – and, yes, bake. Over time, perhaps this could gradually erode some of our implicit biases.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/140674/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aradhna Krishna does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
We want to be whitelisted and not blacklisted for jobs. White lies make stretching the truth okay, but you don’t want to receive a black mark on your record.
Aradhna Krishna, Dwight F. Benton Professor of Marketing, University of Michigan
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/131438
2020-07-02T12:26:07Z
2020-07-02T12:26:07Z
Do dogs really see in just black and white?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343579/original/file-20200623-188900-3set3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=286%2C557%2C4464%2C3080&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Don't worry that your dog's world is visually drab.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/high-angle-view-of-dog-walking-on-colorful-striped-royalty-free-image/677142241">Kevin Short/EyeEm via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/curious-kids-us-74795">Curious Kids</a> is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">curiouskidsus@theconversation.com</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Do dogs really see in just black and white? – Oscar V., age 9, Somerville, Massachusetts</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>Dogs definitely see the world differently than people do, but it’s a myth that their view is <a href="https://www.hillspet.com/dog-care/resources/dog-myths">just black, white and grim shades of gray</a>. </p>
<p>While most people see a full spectrum of colors from red to violet, dogs lack some of the light receptors in their eyes that allow human beings to see certain colors, particularly in the red and green range. But canines can still see yellow and blue.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344613/original/file-20200629-155299-i6prbp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344613/original/file-20200629-155299-i6prbp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344613/original/file-20200629-155299-i6prbp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344613/original/file-20200629-155299-i6prbp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344613/original/file-20200629-155299-i6prbp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344613/original/file-20200629-155299-i6prbp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344613/original/file-20200629-155299-i6prbp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344613/original/file-20200629-155299-i6prbp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Different wavelengths of light register as different colors in an animal’s visual system. Top is the human view; bottom is a dog’s eye view.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://dog-vision.andraspeter.com/tool.php">Top: iStock/Getty Images Plus via Getty Images. Bottom: As processed by András Péter's Dog Vision Image Processing Tool</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What you see as red or orange, to a dog may just be another shade of tan. To my dog, Sparky, a bright orange ball lying in the green grass may look like a tan ball in another shade of tan grass. But his bright blue ball will look similar to both of us. <a href="https://dog-vision.andraspeter.com/tool.php">An online image processing tool</a> lets you see for yourself what a particular picture looks like to your pet.</p>
<p>Animals can’t use spoken language to describe what they see, but researchers easily trained dogs to touch a lit-up color disc with their nose to get a treat. Then they trained the dogs to touch a disc that was a different color than some others. When the well-trained dogs couldn’t figure out which disc to press, the scientists knew that they couldn’t see the differences in color. These experiments showed that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/s0952523800004430">dogs could see only yellow and blue</a>.</p>
<p>In the back of our eyeballs, human beings’ retinas contain three types of special cone-shaped cells that are responsible for all the colors we can see. When scientists used a technique called electroretinography to measure the way dogs’ eyes react to light, they found that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0952523800003291">canines have fewer kinds of these cone cells</a>. Compared to people’s three kinds, dogs only have two types of cone receptors.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344635/original/file-20200629-155334-1ktj47u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344635/original/file-20200629-155334-1ktj47u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344635/original/file-20200629-155334-1ktj47u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344635/original/file-20200629-155334-1ktj47u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344635/original/file-20200629-155334-1ktj47u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344635/original/file-20200629-155334-1ktj47u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344635/original/file-20200629-155334-1ktj47u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344635/original/file-20200629-155334-1ktj47u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Light travels to the back of the eyeball, where it registers with rod and cone cells that send visual signals on to the brain.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/eye-anatomy-rod-cells-and-cone-cells-royalty-free-illustration/1091261988">iStock/Getty Images Plus via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Not only can dogs see fewer colors than we do, they probably don’t see as clearly as we do either. Tests show that both the structure and function of the dog eye leads them to <a href="https://ucdavis.pure.elsevier.com/en/publications/vision-in-dogs">see things at a distance as more blurry</a>. While we think of perfect vision in humans as being 20/20, typical vision in dogs is probably closer to 20/75. This means that what a person with normal vision could see from 75 feet away, a dog would need to be just 20 feet away to see as clearly. Since dogs don’t read the newspaper, their visual acuity probably doesn’t interfere with their way of life.</p>
<p>There’s likely a lot of difference in visual ability between breeds. Over the years, breeders have selected sight-hunting dogs like greyhounds to have better vision than dogs like bulldogs.</p>
<p>But that’s not the end of the story. While people have a tough time seeing clearly in dim light, scientists believe dogs can probably see as well at dusk or dawn as they can in the bright middle of the day. This is because compared to humans’, dog retinas have a <a href="https://ucdavis.pure.elsevier.com/en/publications/vision-in-dogs">higher percentage and type of another kind of visual receptor</a>. Called rod cells because of their shape, they function better in low light than cone cells do.</p>
<p>Dogs also have a reflective tissue layer at the back of their eyes that <a href="https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-017-1404-7">helps them see in less light</a>. This mirror-like tapetum lucidum collects and concentrates the available light to help them see when it’s dark. The tapetum lucidum is what gives dogs and other mammals that glowing eye reflection when caught in your headlights at night or when you try to take a flash photo.</p>
<p>Dogs share their type of vision with many other animals, <a href="https://www.hillspet.com/cat-care/behavior-appearance/cat-vision">including cats</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0952523800003291">and foxes</a>. Scientists think it’s important for these hunters to be able to detect the motion of their nocturnal prey, and that’s why their vision <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/aug/03/did-t-rex-make-your-dog-colour-blind">evolved in this way</a>. As many mammals developed the ability to forage and hunt in twilight or dark conditions, they <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.devcel.2016.05.023">gave up the ability to see the variety of colors</a> that most birds, reptiles and primates have. People didn’t evolve to be active all night, so we kept the color vision and better visual acuity. </p>
<p>Before you feel sorry that dogs aren’t able to see all the colors of the rainbow, keep in mind that some of their other senses are much more developed than yours. They can <a href="https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/lifestyle/sounds-only-dogs-can-hear/">hear higher-pitched sounds from farther away</a>, and their <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/dogs-sense-of-smell/">noses are much more powerful</a>.</p>
<p>Even though Sparky might not be able to easily see that orange toy in the grass, he can certainly smell it and find it easily when he wants to. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com</a>. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.</em></p>
<p><em>And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/131438/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nancy Dreschel does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Your faithful friend’s view of the world is different than yours, but maybe not in the way you imagine.
Nancy Dreschel, Associate Teaching Professor of Small Animal Science, Penn State
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/135378
2020-04-03T18:01:11Z
2020-04-03T18:01:11Z
Blue dye from red beets – chemists devise a new pigment option
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/324753/original/file-20200401-23143-1032w4i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=233%2C170%2C1715%2C1386&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Through the wonders of chemistry, molecules can be rearranged to completely transform color.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Erick Leite Bastos</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>What’s your favorite color? If you answered blue, you’re in good company. <a href="https://today.yougov.com/topics/lifestyle/articles-reports/2015/05/12/why-blue-worlds-favorite-color">Blue outranks all other color preferences</a> worldwide by a large margin.</p>
<p>No matter how much people enjoy looking at it, blue is a difficult color to harness from nature. As a chemist who <a href="https://www.bastoslab.com/">studies the modification of natural products</a> to solve technological problems, I realized there was a need for a safe, nontoxic, cost-effective blue dye. So my Ph.D. student, Barbara Freitas-Dörr, and I devised a <a href="https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/14/eaaz0421">method to convert the pigments of red beets into a blue compound</a> that can be used in a wide range of applications. We call it BeetBlue.</p>
<h2>Natural sources of blue</h2>
<p>Blue is strongly associated with nature, largely because it is reflected in the sky and on bodies of water. But compared to other colors, blue pigments are not commonly found in living organisms.</p>
<p>The feathers of many birds are blue, not because they produce a pigment, but because the microscopic structure of their <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structural_coloration">feathers is able to filter light</a>. This physical phenomenon is very interesting but difficult to adopt for common applications.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/324747/original/file-20200401-23130-yhy2og.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/324747/original/file-20200401-23130-yhy2og.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/324747/original/file-20200401-23130-yhy2og.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324747/original/file-20200401-23130-yhy2og.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324747/original/file-20200401-23130-yhy2og.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324747/original/file-20200401-23130-yhy2og.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324747/original/file-20200401-23130-yhy2og.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324747/original/file-20200401-23130-yhy2og.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The <em>Lactarius indigo</em> mushroom is one of Mother Nature’s rare examples of blue.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:2013-08-06_Lactarius_indigo_(Schwein.)_Fr_359786.jpg">Alan Rockerfeller/Mushroom Observer</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Plants seldom produce blue hues. When they do, their pigments rarely remain stable after extraction. The same is true for blue mushrooms like the indigo milky cap and other species that develop a blue stain when disturbed. </p>
<h2>Turning red into blue</h2>
<p>You might wonder how something red can be turned into something blue. One approach is to change the way its molecules absorb and reflect light.</p>
<p>The white light coming from your lamp contains a rainbow of colors, even though you cannot see them – without the use of a prism, that is. The surface of your red chair looks red because, at the molecular level, it is absorbing all the colors except red, which is reflected and eventually reaches your eyes.</p>
<p>The color of your chair would change from red to blue if you modified the molecular structure of its dye, making it reflect blue light instead of red. The secret is in the number of carbon atoms in the dye and how they are connected to each other. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/325053/original/file-20200402-74889-mrhg0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/325053/original/file-20200402-74889-mrhg0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/325053/original/file-20200402-74889-mrhg0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=148&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325053/original/file-20200402-74889-mrhg0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=148&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325053/original/file-20200402-74889-mrhg0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=148&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325053/original/file-20200402-74889-mrhg0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=185&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325053/original/file-20200402-74889-mrhg0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=185&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325053/original/file-20200402-74889-mrhg0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=185&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">By changing the structure of molecular compounds, you can alter color.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Erick Leite Bastos</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Beets produce chemical compounds called betalains, which are natural pigments and antioxidants. The chemical structure of betalains can be modified to produce almost any hue. We realized that if we increased the number of alternating single-double bonds in betalain molecules, we could change their color from orange or magenta to blue.</p>
<p>Making blue dye with adequate intensity and light-fastness is difficult because it must absorb yellow and orange light efficiently. Solving this problem required lots of molecular tweaking.</p>
<p>My lab has been working with betalains for over 10 years to understand their function in nature and their unique chemical features, so it took only one experiment to produce BeetBlue. (It took more than two years to optimize the process, though.) </p>
<p>We broke apart the betalain molecules using alkaline water with a pH of 11. Then we mixed the resulting compound, called betalamic acid, with a commercial chemical compound called 2,4-dimethylpyrrole in an open vessel at room temperature. BeetBlue is formed almost instantly. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FUS95BYqJ24?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">BeetBlue is created in a beaker at room temperature.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Because we changed the characteristic carbon-nitrogen chemical bond of betalains into a carbon-carbon bond, BeetBlue is a new class of pseudo-natural dyes we call quasibetalains.</p>
<h2>Color your life blue</h2>
<p>The chemical synthesis of BeetBlue is fast and very simple. In fact, it is so simple that anyone can do it if all the chemicals are available.</p>
<p>BeetBlue dissolves easily in water and other solvents, maintains its color in acidic and neutral solutions, and may provide an alternative to expensive blue colorants that often <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_inorganic_pigments#Blue_pigments">contain toxic metals</a>, which limit the scope of their applications. </p>
<p>Live zebrafish embryos as well as cultured human cells were not affected by BeetBlue. Although more experiments are necessary to make sure it is safe for human consumption, maybe you can dye your hair, customize your clothes or color your food in the future using a dye made from beets.</p>
<p>This work shows the importance of basic science for the development of technological applications. We did not patent BeetBlue. We want people to use it freely and understand, by interacting with nature in a different and sustainable way, the future can be bright. </p>
<p>[<em>Insight, in your inbox each day.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=insight">You can get it with The Conversation’s email newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/135378/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Erick Leite Bastos receives funding from the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), and the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES).</span></em></p>
A simple chemical reaction turns the red pigment of beets into a new, nontoxic blue dye.
Erick Leite Bastos, Associate Professor of Chemistry, Universidade de São Paulo (USP)
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/132763
2020-03-03T19:05:31Z
2020-03-03T19:05:31Z
‘Freshly cut grass – or bile-infused Exorcist vomit?’: how crime books embraced lurid green
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317955/original/file-20200302-57566-1bhi4c9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=260%2C182%2C1473%2C2407&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">University of Sydney Library</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Green is a colour that evokes nature, fecundity, sustainability. </p>
<p>At the traffic lights it signals go; on a boat, starboard. </p>
<p>It’s a soft celadon glaze; an intense Van Eyck wedding dress; frothy, aromatic matcha tea; aurora borealis; a meditative praying mantis. It’s jungle camouflage, Joyce’s snotgreen sea, green mould and Martians. </p>
<p>If green had a smell, would it be freshly cut grass – or bile-infused Exorcist vomit? </p>
<p>Green, like all colours, has innumerable meanings and cultural associations. My interest in green stems from the books I curated in <a href="https://news.library.sydney.edu.au/lurid/">Lurid: Crime Paperbacks and Pulp Fiction</a>. </p>
<p>My favourite books in Lurid are the green Penguin crime series from the 1960s. Penguin was founded by <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/company/blogs/celebrating-sir-allen-lanes-life-and-legacy/">Allen Lane</a> in 1935 and revolutionised publishing through a focus on well-designed, pocket-sized and affordable high-quality literature, as distinct from mere pulp. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-complex-contradictory-pleasures-of-pulp-fiction-96206">Friday essay: the complex, contradictory pleasures of pulp fiction</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The covers were standardised yet stylish and instantly recognisable: two horizontal bands of colour separated by a central white band featuring the author’s name and title in Gill Sans font. Initially designed by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2003/feb/04/guardianobituaries.books">Edward Young</a>, the aesthetic was strengthened in 1947 by German typographer Jan Tschichold’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/gallery/2008/dec/05/design">Penguin Composition Rules</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317957/original/file-20200302-38898-gy2rbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317957/original/file-20200302-38898-gy2rbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=988&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317957/original/file-20200302-38898-gy2rbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=988&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317957/original/file-20200302-38898-gy2rbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=988&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317957/original/file-20200302-38898-gy2rbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1242&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317957/original/file-20200302-38898-gy2rbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1242&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317957/original/file-20200302-38898-gy2rbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1242&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
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<p>The cheerful Penguin logo, also designed by Young, was the only pictorial element on these early covers. In Jeremy Lewis’s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1446935.Penguin_Special">Penguin Special</a>, he writes Penguin eschewed the lurid picture jackets – “breastsellers” – adopted in the US in favour of English restraint and text-only designs. </p>
<p>The books were colour-coded by subject: the now classic orange for fiction, dark blue for biographies, red for drama. Of the <a href="https://www.penguin.com/penguin80/original-10/">first ten</a> Penguin books published, two were crime and colour-coded green. </p>
<p>Since curating the Lurid exhibition, I’ve been wondering: why green? Why not blood-spatter red or noir black? </p>
<h2>The affect of green</h2>
<p>As a visual artist as well as a visual criminologist, I have a great interest in colour and its affective qualities. </p>
<p>The initial green used on Penguin crime covers was a slightly earthy green, not unlike <a href="http://www.webexhibits.org/pigments/indiv/overview/greenearth.html">terre verte</a>. This is a soft green pigment traditionally used as a cool element when mixing flesh tones in a <a href="http://facweb.cs.depaul.edu/sgrais/color_palettes.htm">limited palette</a> of flake white, yellow ochre, Venetian red and ivory black, depending on the subject’s skin tones. </p>
<p>Terre verte is often used as a <a href="https://study.com/academy/lesson/grisaille-painting-definition-technique.html">grisaille</a> or underpainting in figurative works and portraiture. But there are so many other irresistible greens in oil painting: cobalt, emerald, viridian, phthalo, cadmium, sap, olive, chromium. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317959/original/file-20200302-38880-16o74o3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317959/original/file-20200302-38880-16o74o3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=990&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317959/original/file-20200302-38880-16o74o3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=990&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317959/original/file-20200302-38880-16o74o3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=990&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317959/original/file-20200302-38880-16o74o3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1244&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317959/original/file-20200302-38880-16o74o3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1244&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317959/original/file-20200302-38880-16o74o3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1244&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p>The original earthen green hue of Penguin crime was brightened in the 1960s when Italian art director Germano Facetti <a href="https://designmuseum.org/penguin-books#">challenged</a> the traditional Penguin design rules and hired Polish graphic designer Romek Marber to revitalise the book covers. </p>
<p>The “Marber Grid” and pictorial covers placed the typography and Penguin logo in the top third of the cover and allowed two-thirds of the layout for striking modernist illustration and graphic design.</p>
<p>The covers of Dorothy L. Sayers’ <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/116971.Busman_s_Honeymoon">Busman’s Honeymoon</a> and <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40776219-lord-peter-views-the-body">Lord Peter Views the Body</a> show the distinctive and recurrent white stick figure Marber applied only to her books. </p>
<p>The Busman’s Honeymoon, in particular, shows Marber at his best. The geometric design evokes a staircase with a corpse – the <a href="http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/the-case-of-romek-marber">identifying device</a> of the white cut-out – at the bottom. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317983/original/file-20200302-18295-1j702ix.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317983/original/file-20200302-18295-1j702ix.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=965&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317983/original/file-20200302-18295-1j702ix.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=965&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317983/original/file-20200302-18295-1j702ix.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=965&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317983/original/file-20200302-18295-1j702ix.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1213&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317983/original/file-20200302-18295-1j702ix.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1213&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317983/original/file-20200302-18295-1j702ix.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1213&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317962/original/file-20200302-38880-1psmh9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317962/original/file-20200302-38880-1psmh9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=997&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317962/original/file-20200302-38880-1psmh9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=997&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317962/original/file-20200302-38880-1psmh9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=997&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317962/original/file-20200302-38880-1psmh9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1252&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317962/original/file-20200302-38880-1psmh9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1252&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317962/original/file-20200302-38880-1psmh9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1252&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption"></span>
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<p>Marber’s <a href="http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/penguin-crime-text-in-full">last</a> Penguin crime cover design was for Ellery Queen’s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/786952.The_Scarlet_Letters">The Scarlet Letters</a> in 1965. With the letters X and Y that, in the novel, a dying man traces in his own blood, the design introduces trickles of red, photography and a solid black background.</p>
<p>Looking at these book covers today, there is power in the simplicity of these designs with their limited colour palette, elements of photomontage, collage, drawing and geometric pattern, and use of sans serif font. </p>
<p>And, of course, there is the bright green. </p>
<p>The Penguin crime series is not the only one to feature green. Launched by Collins in the 1930s, the <a href="https://paperbackrevolution.wordpress.com/white-circle/">White Circle Crime Club</a> used a bold graphic design featuring two menacing figures and variations on a restricted palette of green, black and white. </p>
<p>This green branding was an intentional strategy to <a href="https://paperbackrevolution.wordpress.com/2016/02/21/the-crime-club-goes-paperback/">compete directly</a> with the green Penguins. </p>
<h2>Green to kill</h2>
<p>Why green? Perhaps the answer lies in green’s association with toxicity. </p>
<p>The 18th century’s <a href="https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/05/02/scheeles-green-the-color-of-fake-foliage-and-death/">Scheele’s green</a>, derived from arsenic, was vivid and alluring. The 19th century’s emerald green was highly desirable, and used extensively in clothing and wallpaper, including that of <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/news030609-11">William Morris</a>. Unfortunately, it was horribly poisonous: arsenic fumes from Emerald Green wallpaper <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/victorian-wallpaper-got-its-gaudy-colors-poison-180962709/">killed</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-we-discovered-three-poisonous-books-in-our-university-library-98358">How we discovered three poisonous books in our university library</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Green, then, is deadly. Green radioluminescent paint shone brightly on watches and caused <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/the-forgotten-factory-girls-killed-by-radioactive-poisoning/">radium poisoning</a>; green chlorine gas was first used as a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2016/sep/16/chlorine-the-gas-of-war-crimes">chemical weapon</a> in the first world war. </p>
<p>The green of absinthe’s <em>la fée verte</em>, the green fairy, is intoxicating, once thought to be <a href="https://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/edible-innovations/absinthe.htm">hallucinogenic</a>, and an ingredient in Ernest Hemingway’s <a href="http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20140109-absinthe-a-literary-muse">Death in the Afternoon</a> cocktail. </p>
<p>With these lethal associations the green of crime fiction starts to make sense.</p>
<p>Sometimes, you can judge a book by its cover.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132763/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carolyn McKay does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Green is lethal: the colour of radioluminescent paint, arsenic and chlorine gas. It is also the colour of crime fiction paperbacks.
Carolyn McKay, Senior Lecturer – Criminal Law, Procedure, Digital Criminology, University of Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/119612
2019-07-17T17:26:46Z
2019-07-17T17:26:46Z
Pink passion: rosé on the rise as millennials dictate new wine codes
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281803/original/file-20190628-94696-mx79vy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C34%2C3255%2C2087&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rosé has become one of the millenials' favorite drinks in just a few years. Why?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/02rhSkQndPw">Vincenzo Landino/Unsplash</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281747/original/file-20190628-94684-107j6ra.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281747/original/file-20190628-94684-107j6ra.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281747/original/file-20190628-94684-107j6ra.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281747/original/file-20190628-94684-107j6ra.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281747/original/file-20190628-94684-107j6ra.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=731&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281747/original/file-20190628-94684-107j6ra.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=731&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281747/original/file-20190628-94684-107j6ra.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=731&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Save water, drink rosé.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://i.etsystatic.com/11598941/r/il/e55cce/1637508089/il_570xN.1637508089_zl8q.jpg">Etsy</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Every July in New York City, thousands of partygoers gather on the lawns of Randall’s Island Park for a huge <a href="https://pinknic.com/about/">“Pinknic”</a>. A regular event since 2016, the two-day festival brings together foodies, musicians, chefs and more, all dedicated to celebrating the summer with a fresh glass of rosé wine in hand. “Save water, drink rosé”, banners read, and the participants do. This year it kicks off on Friday, July 19.</p>
<p>Not just a New York phenomenon, rosé has found admirers across the United States, and it’s official: The second Saturday in June is <a href="https://nationaldaycalendar.com/national-rose-day-second-saturday-in-june/">National Rosé Day</a>. Once an afternoon afterthought, rosé has become a red-white-and-blue favorite: In just a few years, Americans have become the <a href="https://www.franceagrimer.fr/content/download/50475/484847/file/SYN-VIN-2016-observatoire%20vins%20ros%C3%A9s.pdf">second-largest consumers of rosé</a> in the world – after the French.</p>
<p>In 2017 alone, rosé sales in the United States <a href="https://www.beveragedaily.com/Article/2017/06/21/Rose-outpaces-overall-wine-category-for-summer-Nielsen">jumped 53%</a> and the trend continues, partly driven by millennials.</p>
<p>One power couple that was way ahead of the curve was Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. While they’ve since divorced, in 2011 the two rosé lovers found common cause and bought the <a href="https://avis-vin.lefigaro.fr/magazine-vin/o109675-le-vin-de-brad-pitt-et-dangelina-jolie-sacre-meilleur-rose-du-monde">Domaine Miraval</a> in France’s Var region. They continue to jointly own the chateau and vineyard, which produces 2 million bottles of rosé a year, and it’s anything but plonk. At a June 2019 charity auction in Nice, a magnum of Muse de Miraval was snapped up for <a href="https://www.nicematin.com/vie-locale/cette-bouteille-de-rose-varoise-devient-la-plus-chere-du-monde-391179">2,600 euros</a> (2,960 dollars), a record.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281687/original/file-20190627-76709-11o28ez.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281687/original/file-20190627-76709-11o28ez.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281687/original/file-20190627-76709-11o28ez.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281687/original/file-20190627-76709-11o28ez.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281687/original/file-20190627-76709-11o28ez.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281687/original/file-20190627-76709-11o28ez.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281687/original/file-20190627-76709-11o28ez.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The rosé wine of Chateau de Miraval, owned by Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt (photo 2015).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ch%C3%A2teau_Miraval_01.JPG?uselang=fr">Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Once dismissed, now cherished</h2>
<p>How can this global success be explained, and what does the sudden passion for rosé reveal?</p>
<p>Once upon a time, rosé wine was regarded as second-rate, and not even worthy of the <a href="https://www.provencewinezine.com/is-rose-a-serious-wine-some-thoughts-on-the-subject/">interest of oenologists</a>. Even as late as the 1980s, it still wasn’t considered a “serious” wine. This is a consequence of its modest origins, and a series of cultural contributions and transitions.</p>
<p>In antiquity, the Phoenicians brought techniques for making a light-bodied wine to Marseilles. Under the Roman Empire, it was known as <em>vinum clarum</em> (clear wine) in Latin, and spread to Bordeaux, then as now a major wine-growing region. After the <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/18/day-1152eleanor-aquitaine-marries-henry-ii/">1152 marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine to Henry Plantagenet</a>, the Duke of Normandy and future King Henry II, Bordeaux wine began to flow north to England. Initially called <em>clairet</em>, it became known as <a href="https://vinepair.com/wine-blog/british-paradox-invention-modern-wine/">claret</a> and scored its first international success, becoming the most consumed wine in Britain until the 19th century. But while rosé was certainly popular, the pedigree wasn’t there – it was a drinking wine above all.</p>
<p>Another reason that rosé may have had a hard time getting respect is that it never received the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imprimatur">monastic imprimatur</a>, authorization given by the Catholic Church, nor were they ever “consecrated” to serve as sacramental wine. They’re therefore absent from the liturgy and the Eucharist. Indeed, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1990/04/11/garden/sacramental-wine-lowest-profile-of-all.html">sacramental wine is traditionally red</a>, by analogy with the blood of Christ. The Church saw <em>vinum clarum</em> as a profane wine, and its consumption was not imbued with Christian symbolism, nor attached to any table ceremony.</p>
<p>Rosé thus became a popular beverage, almost pagan, and acquired values in opposition to those of red and white wine, which were associated with the nobility and clergy. In the 17th century, when Louis Le Nain painted <a href="http://cartelfr.louvre.fr/cartelfr/visite?srv=car_not_frame&idNotice=14543"><em>Peasant Meal</em></a> (1642), the characters in the painting conspicuously drank a glass of “clear wine” or rosé.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281688/original/file-20190627-76730-mosgf2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281688/original/file-20190627-76730-mosgf2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281688/original/file-20190627-76730-mosgf2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281688/original/file-20190627-76730-mosgf2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281688/original/file-20190627-76730-mosgf2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281688/original/file-20190627-76730-mosgf2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281688/original/file-20190627-76730-mosgf2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"><em>Peasant Meal</em>, Louis Le Nain (1642). A glass of rosé wine is at the center of the image.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Le_Nain_-_Repas_de_paysans_%281642%29.jpg">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The “codes” of rosé wine</h2>
<p>How rosé wine is perceived and enjoyed today is, in a sense, a direct result of this long and ever so slightly disreputable history. Rosé celebrates youth, the present, the joy of the moment. Despite the high prices that some bottles can fetch, it’s anything but snobbish. Rosé is free from tradition and can be enjoyed cool or cold, with or without ice. By comparison, red wine is traditionally decanted and allowed to breath and warm up slowly to room temperature (unless you’re <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/diane-keaton-launches-red-wine-best-served-over-ice-saying-its-not-fancy-but-neither-am-i-a6687976.html">Diane Keaton</a>, of course).</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284566/original/file-20190717-147284-kr01vu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284566/original/file-20190717-147284-kr01vu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=185&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284566/original/file-20190717-147284-kr01vu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=185&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284566/original/file-20190717-147284-kr01vu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=185&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284566/original/file-20190717-147284-kr01vu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=232&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284566/original/file-20190717-147284-kr01vu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=232&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284566/original/file-20190717-147284-kr01vu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=232&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The codes of rosé and red wine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Because rosé breaks free from the traditional codes of French wine, it delights millennials all over the world. Rosé can be enjoyed during meals or not, at home or outside, at a picnic or in a café. It can be mixed into cocktails, with or without alcohol. It has jumped out of the traditional glass bottle and can be packaged in all forms – even a soda can. Hello Kitty, the Japanese pop-culture icon, has teamed up with an Italian winery to create a sparkling rosé, Château Kitty.</p>
<p>If rosé were software, it would be open source. Each person or each culture can appropriate and transform it in his or her own way.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281689/original/file-20190627-76743-9w0ixc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281689/original/file-20190627-76743-9w0ixc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=269&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281689/original/file-20190627-76743-9w0ixc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=269&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281689/original/file-20190627-76743-9w0ixc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=269&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281689/original/file-20190627-76743-9w0ixc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281689/original/file-20190627-76743-9w0ixc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281689/original/file-20190627-76743-9w0ixc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hello Kitty wine, produced by Chateau Berthenon in France.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.chateauberthenon.com/en/page.php?page=12#alcool">Chateau Berthenon</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>More than a color, pink is an emotion</h2>
<p>The success of rosé wine owes much to its <a href="https://avis-vin.lefigaro.fr/connaitre-deguster/o8572-la-couleur-du-rose-du-rose-leger-au-rouge-clair">light rosy tone</a>. In French, the term for pink is <em>rose</em>, which refers to both a color and the flower – the Latin <em>rosa</em>. The use of the word <em>rose</em> to designate a color is recent: the dictionary of the Académie Française ignored it completely until its <a href="http://www.seuil.com/ouvrage/rouge-histoire-d-une-couleur-michel-pastoureau/9782021180336">1835 edition</a>.</p>
<p>In French, the color now referred to as <em>rose</em> was once known as <em>incarnat</em>, from the Latin word for flesh. It’s the color of health, fresh cheeks blushing under the effect of emotion. It referred to a range of tones on the spectrum between pink and reddish-orange.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281690/original/file-20190627-76713-10d8ae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281690/original/file-20190627-76713-10d8ae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281690/original/file-20190627-76713-10d8ae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=796&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281690/original/file-20190627-76713-10d8ae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=796&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281690/original/file-20190627-76713-10d8ae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=796&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281690/original/file-20190627-76713-10d8ae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1000&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281690/original/file-20190627-76713-10d8ae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1000&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281690/original/file-20190627-76713-10d8ae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1000&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The portrait of Madame de Pompadour, by François Boucher (1759), is a majestic celebration of the color rose.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_de_Madame_de_Pompadour#/media/Fichier:Fran%C3%A7ois_Boucher_017.jpg">François Boucher</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In paintings of the late Middle Ages, the color pink is associated with specific themes – the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fountain_of_Youth_(Cranach)">fountain of life or of youth</a> and of paradise. In the 18th century, it came to refer to the sensitive, the inner, to the “feeling of self” and to the body. Intimate emotions, the happiness of being and a certain form of naturalness were painted in pink.</p>
<p>The 1759 portrait of Madame de Pompadour by François Boucher is one of the most beautiful examples, richly embodying all of these themes.</p>
<h2>Surfing the pink wave</h2>
<p>The pink we see today has taken up these historical meanings and aligned them with the values of the millennials: It embodies spontaneity, freshness, insouciance, individual freedom. It signals the importance of emotions, well-being and health. This is made explicit by one of the terms for rosé, <em>blush wine</em> – to become red/pink with emotion.</p>
<p>Today rosé wine is surfing on this wave of pink. Nothing escapes it: food, fashion, design, cosmetics, even politics. Rosé wine, “ruby chocolate”, pink salt from the Himalayas…</p>
<p>In October 2016, the site Fashionista featured an article titled: <a href="https://fashionista.com/2016/10/spring-2017-pink-trend">“61 reasons why you will probably, definitely wear pink next spring”</a>. They were right on the money, as Gucci, Balenciaga and Calvin Klein all dedicated their spring-summer 2017 collections to the color.</p>
<h2>Welcome to millennial pink</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281745/original/file-20190628-94684-1lzec77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281745/original/file-20190628-94684-1lzec77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=657&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281745/original/file-20190628-94684-1lzec77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=657&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281745/original/file-20190628-94684-1lzec77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=657&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281745/original/file-20190628-94684-1lzec77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=826&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281745/original/file-20190628-94684-1lzec77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=826&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281745/original/file-20190628-94684-1lzec77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=826&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Women proudly wear pussyhats on a flight to demonstrate in Washington, DC (2017).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Women%27s_March#/media/File:2017.01.20_Alaska_Air_Flight_6_in_Pink_LAX-DCA_00049_(31620242283).jpg">Ted Eytan/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There’s even a new pink, <em>millennial pink</em> – neither male nor female, it’s gender fluid. It’s also an affirmative, self-assertive color, as embodied during the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/21/us/womens-march.html">2017 Women’s March protests</a> that took place across the United States in response to the election of Donald Trump.</p>
<p>American artist and singer <a href="https://www.jmonae.com/">Janelle Monáe</a>, muse of millennials, sees pink as a source of life, the origin of the world and its future. The video and lyrics of her song “Pynk”, from the album <em>Dirty Computer</em> (2018), express the sensitivity of our time on the themes of incarnate pink: paradise, emotion, interiority…</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Pink like the paradise found<br>
Pink when you’re blushing inside, baby<br>
Pink is the truth you can’t hide, maybe… <br>
… Pink like the skin that’s under, baby</p>
</blockquote>
<p>When the album was released, a cocktail called “Pynk” was created in Los Angeles. The recipe: rosé, Aperol, gin and grapefruit juice – a perfect way to celebrate summer.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PaYvlVR_BEc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Janelle Monáe, “Pynk” (2018).</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p><em>This article was translated from the original French by <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/leighton-kille-173484/">Leighton Walter Kille</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119612/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard C. Delerins ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>
The millennials have boosted rosé consumption: in the United States alone, 65% of them declare themselves “rosé drinkers”. How can this overall success be explained?
Richard C. Delerins, Anthropologue, Co-directeur du Food 2.0 LAB Paris, chercheur associé au CNRS (ISCC), ESSEC
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/111576
2019-02-15T11:49:46Z
2019-02-15T11:49:46Z
How white became the color of suffrage
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368140/original/file-20201108-15-1ga6r7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C95%2C4705%2C3151&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Kamala Harris wore white for a reason during her victory speech. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/APTOPIXElection2020Biden/c783793f9c234a7897b5bb52b228f02e/photo?Query=kamala%20AND%20harris&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=4540&currentItemNo=7">AP Photo/Andrew Harnik</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/11/07/kamala-harris-victory-speech-transcript/">During her victory speech</a>, Kamala Harris, the first woman to be elected vice president of the United States, paid tribute to women activists not only in her words, but also in her appearance. </p>
<p>Harris’ decision to wear a white pantsuit was a nod to suffragists and to women politicians like <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/30/fashion/hillary-clinton-democratic-national-convention.html">Hillary Clinton</a> and former vice presidential candidate <a href="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2016/07/30/style/30OTRc/30OTRc-jumbo.jpg">Geraldine Ferraro</a>. Meanwhile, Harris’ white silk shirt with a pussy bow was a nuanced reference to the women protests that erupted four years ago. </p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_Zhsg9oAAAAJ&hl=en">As a historian who writes about fashion and politics</a>, I like these types of sartorial gestures. They show the relevancy and power of fashion statements in our political system. Harris, like the suffragists and political leaders that came before her, is using her clothes to control their image and spark a conversation. </p>
<p>However, today’s strong association between the color white and the suffragists isn’t fully accurate. It’s based more on the black-and-white photographs that circulated in the media, which obscured two colors that were just as important to the suffragists. </p>
<h2>Using color to convince</h2>
<p>For most of the 19th century, suffragists didn’t incorporate visuals in their movement. It was only during the early 20th century that suffragists started to realize that, as Glenda Tinnin, one of the organizers of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, <a href="https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:53708534$54i">argued</a>, “An idea that is driven home to the mind through the eye, produces a more striking and lasting impression than any that goes through the ear.” </p>
<p>Becoming aware of the way visuals could shift public opinion, suffragists began to incorporate media and publicity tactics into their campaign, using all kinds of spectacles to popularize their cause. Color played a crucial role in these efforts, especially during public demonstrations such as pageants and parades.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258875/original/file-20190213-181612-6rwf5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258875/original/file-20190213-181612-6rwf5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258875/original/file-20190213-181612-6rwf5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=833&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258875/original/file-20190213-181612-6rwf5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=833&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258875/original/file-20190213-181612-6rwf5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=833&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258875/original/file-20190213-181612-6rwf5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1046&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258875/original/file-20190213-181612-6rwf5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1046&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258875/original/file-20190213-181612-6rwf5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1046&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Suffragist Alice Paul dons a white dress and raises a glass shortly after the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.loc.gov/resource/ds.00180/">Library of Congress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Part of their goal was to convey that they were not devilish Amazons set to destroy gender hierarchies, as some of their critics <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924069224834;view=1up;seq=522">claimed</a>. Rather, suffragists sought to present an image of themselves as beautiful and skilled women who would bring civility to politics and cleanse the system of corruption. </p>
<p>Suffragists deployed white to convey these messages, but they also turned to a much more diverse palette. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://loc.gov/pictures/resource/ppmsca.02946/">1913 Washington, D.C. parade</a> was the first national event that put the cause of the suffragists on front pages of newspapers around the country. Organizers used an intricate color scheme to create an impression of harmony and order. Marchers were divided by professions, countries and states, and each group adopted a distinct color. Social workers wore dark blue, educators and students wore green, writers wore white and purple, and artists wore pale rose. </p>
<p>Being the media-savvy women that they were, suffragists realized that it wasn’t enough to create an appealing impression of themselves. They also needed to come up with a recognizable brand. Inspired by the British suffragettes and their campaign colors – purple, white and green – the National Woman’s Party also adopted a set of three colors: <a href="http://www.crusadeforthevote.org/imagery-and-propaganda/stdi5c3o81lzqb5lrlku7butgioh93">purple, white and golden yellow</a>. </p>
<p>They replaced green with yellow to pay tribute to Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who used the <a href="http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_507974">sunflower</a> – Kansas’s state flower – when they campaigned for a failed statewide suffrage referendum in 1867.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258877/original/file-20190213-181631-1ysnvmz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258877/original/file-20190213-181631-1ysnvmz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258877/original/file-20190213-181631-1ysnvmz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258877/original/file-20190213-181631-1ysnvmz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258877/original/file-20190213-181631-1ysnvmz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258877/original/file-20190213-181631-1ysnvmz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258877/original/file-20190213-181631-1ysnvmz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258877/original/file-20190213-181631-1ysnvmz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The sunflower was first used during an 1867 campaign for a Kansas state suffrage referendum that failed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_507974">Library of Congress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Crafting a contrast</h2>
<p>These American <a href="http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_509474">suffrage colors</a> – purple, white and yellow – stood for loyalty, purity and hope, respectively. And while all three of them were used during parades, it was the brightness of the white that left the biggest impression. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.loc.gov/item/2014700130/">In images of suffragists</a> marching in formation, their bright clothing contrasts sharply with the crowds of men in dark-colored suits who line the sidewalks. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258876/original/file-20190213-181619-8qsr72.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258876/original/file-20190213-181619-8qsr72.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258876/original/file-20190213-181619-8qsr72.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258876/original/file-20190213-181619-8qsr72.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258876/original/file-20190213-181619-8qsr72.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258876/original/file-20190213-181619-8qsr72.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258876/original/file-20190213-181619-8qsr72.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258876/original/file-20190213-181619-8qsr72.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">During parades, the white garments of the marchers contrasted sharply with the onlookers lining the sidewalk.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.loc.gov/item/2014700130/">Library of Congress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This visual contrast – between women and men, bright and dark, order and disorder – conveyed hope and possibility: How might women improve politics if they get the right to vote? </p>
<p>White dresses were also easier and cheaper to attain than colored ones. A poorer or middle-class woman could show her support for suffrage by wearing an ordinary white dress and adding a purple or yellow accessory. The association of white with the idea of sexual and moral purity was also a useful way for suffragists to refute negative stereotypes that portrayed them as <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b000776582;view=1up;seq=436">masculine</a> or sexually deviant. </p>
<p>Black suffragists, in particular, capitalized on the association of white with moral purity. By wearing white, black suffragists showed they, too, were honorable women – a position they were long deprived of in public discourse.</p>
<p>Beyond the struggle for the vote, black women would deploy white. During the 1917 <a href="https://www.loc.gov/item/95517074/">silent parade</a> to protest lynching and racial discrimination, they wore white.</p>
<p>As much as white made a powerful statement, it was the combination of the colors – and the qualities that each represented – that reflect the true scope and symbolism of the suffrage movement.</p>
<p>The next time a female politician wants to use fashion to celebrate the legacy of the suffrage movement, it might be a good idea to not just emphasize their moral purity, but to also bring attention to their loyalty to the cause and, more importantly, their hope. </p>
<p>White is a great gesture. But it can be even better if there’s a dash of purple and yellow.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an article originally published on Feb. 19, 2019.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111576/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Einav Rabinovitch-Fox does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Being the media-savvy women that they were, suffragists realized they needed to come up with a meaningful, recognizable brand.
Einav Rabinovitch-Fox, Visiting Assistant Professor, Case Western Reserve University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/109368
2019-01-17T11:39:50Z
2019-01-17T11:39:50Z
Want better tips? Go for gold
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253954/original/file-20190115-152992-1ike1f5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Researchers studied whether subtly being exposed to different colors could change tipping behavior.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/leather-credit-card-folder-customer-billing-438243961?src=gAzvG8jCKLrx3D78NA8y0Q-1-33">Anutr Yossundara/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Although tipping is generally thought to be a voluntary payment meant to express gratitude to a service worker, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1053535704001027">the history of tipping</a> suggests that it originated as a way for people to flaunt their wealth.</p>
<p>But what if diners could be made to feel wealthy? Would they leave bigger tips? And could simple exposure to a color do the trick?</p>
<p>My colleagues and I recently completed <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11747-016-0508-3">a study</a> that explored how the color gold could affect tipping.</p>
<h2>Coloring consumer behavior</h2>
<p>Many studies have documented how colors influence consumer behavior. </p>
<p><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/mar.4220090502">For example</a>, customers who shop in a store that’s decorated with blue, cool colors are more likely to linger longer, buy something and spend more than shoppers who frequent a store with red, warm-colored decor. <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/record/1984-10983-001">Some researchers</a> theorize that this happens because cooler colors make shoppers feel more relaxed and pleasant. Warmer colors, on the other hand, are more stimulating and arousing.</p>
<p>In a clothing store, these stimulating colors might hurt store sales because they could make customers feel rushed. But in a fast food restaurant – a business that wants customers in and out – stimulating colors like red, yellow and orange might hasten table turnover and increase customer traffic. There’s probably a reason <a href="https://www.nrn.com/sites/nrn.com/files/styles/article_featured_standard/public/uploads/2016/06/mcdsignlogopromo_1.jpg?itok=kh3mWjxw">McDonald’s</a>, <a href="https://c8.alamy.com/comp/DKXTW6/wendys-restaurant-sign-florida-usa-DKXTW6.jpg">Wendy’s</a>, <a href="https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/stltoday.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/0/fa/0faec5cc-2316-5e24-93a4-266c3927b10c/53b48476e7093.image.jpg?resize=400%2C266">Burger King</a>, <a href="https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/0b/ef/33/00/outside-sign.jpg">In-N-Out Burger</a>, <a href="https://2yvxip346v4g11b8zt1rvr1m-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Sonice-Drive-In-Sign.jpg">Sonic</a> and <a href="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/84/228744053_00e3a77d3a.jpg">Carl’s Jr.</a> all use similar red and yellow color schemes.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254175/original/file-20190116-163265-c8umt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254175/original/file-20190116-163265-c8umt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254175/original/file-20190116-163265-c8umt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254175/original/file-20190116-163265-c8umt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254175/original/file-20190116-163265-c8umt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254175/original/file-20190116-163265-c8umt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254175/original/file-20190116-163265-c8umt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fast food restaurants often use a red and yellow color scheme.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/adamwilson/5121992564">Adam Wilson/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A handful of studies have also looked at whether colors could influence the size of waitstaff tips. They found that the size of tips can be influenced by the color of the waitstaff’s <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1053535712000327">hair</a>, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1096348013504001?casa_token=vv5_F0hS_wYAAAAA%3AJe4NXe5Seo21fW23_g7panOi8rl5Pjj3HNfwAcDF2dfBUmYIlpVDiIlc726dMWHUJ9j2gEx3Ssn8">clothing</a> and even <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278431912000497">lipstick</a> (go for red, not pink).</p>
<h2>A golden rule for waitstaff?</h2>
<p><a href="https://academic.oup.com/jcr/article-abstract/20/3/478/1839014">Studies</a> have shown that tipping is more prevalent in countries where achievement or status is highly valued. And despite conventional wisdom that the amount of the tip is determined by the quality of service, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1053535700000627">several studies</a> have shown that there’s a weak relationship between the tip amount and the servers’ efforts. Instead, <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jcr/article-abstract/20/3/478/1839014">a couple of studies</a> have found that the tipper’s socioeconomic status or mood has a meaningful relationship to tip size.</p>
<p><a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11747-016-0508-3">In our study</a>, we gave diners their bill in either a gold folder or a black folder. When we compared the tip amounts, we found that customers who received their bills in the gold folder left, on average, 21.5 percent tips, whereas those who received the black folder left 18.9 percent tips. </p>
<p>Most bill folders are black. What if people simply tipped more because a gold folder was something novel? So we tested the impact of an orange-colored bill folder, only to find that this didn’t lead to bigger tips. </p>
<p>The effect of gold goes beyond the bill folder. We created a mock restaurant and found that customers who were seated at tables with gold tablecloths left larger tips than those who were seated at tables with white tablecloths. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253947/original/file-20190115-152971-l380in.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253947/original/file-20190115-152971-l380in.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253947/original/file-20190115-152971-l380in.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253947/original/file-20190115-152971-l380in.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253947/original/file-20190115-152971-l380in.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253947/original/file-20190115-152971-l380in.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253947/original/file-20190115-152971-l380in.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Feeling high status yet?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/place-setting-posh-restaurant-65937544?src=TkspjMxXrMPf09lKy2JpQA-1-40">Kondor83/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Why might this be the case? The color gold has long signified something special, precious and superior. It can subtly connote status, which is why companies will use gold when marketing their rewards programs – think Starbucks’ and American Express’ Gold Card. </p>
<p>It seems that mere exposure to the color makes customers feel like they’re in a restaurant that caters to high-status people. And when people feel like they’re wealthier, they tend to be more inclined to flaunt their wealth.</p>
<p>Of course, no amount of gold decor can make up for a messed-up order.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/109368/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Na Young Lee received financial support for her research in this article from Marketing and Supply Chain Management Department at the University of Tennessee - Knoxville. </span></em></p>
Studies show a weak relationship between tip amounts and quality of service. But the color gold seems to have a way of making diners feel wealthier – and more generous.
Na Young Lee, Assistant Professor of Marketing, University of Dayton
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/102696
2018-09-27T10:36:23Z
2018-09-27T10:36:23Z
Can pink really pacify?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237973/original/file-20180925-149964-1v012nm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some believe the color pink can calm unruly inmates. Others say it's a form of humiliation.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/handcuffs-isolated-on-pink-background-1129668629?src=JX5As_A_PZp9Y7WhXT5PAA-1-33">Mohd KhairilX/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://home.design.iastate.edu/FACULTY/jenirish.php">As an interior designer</a>, I’ve long been interested in how different colors can affect our mood and behavior. </p>
<p>For example, if you’ve recently been to a fast food restaurant, you might notice that there’s a lot of red – <a href="https://cdinduluth.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/d1fe1-burger-king_image-2.jpg?w=648">red chairs</a> and <a href="http://a57.foxnews.com/images.foxnews.com/content/fox-news/food-drink/2017/06/15/wendys-in-epic-ongoing-sign-war-with-rival-across-street/_jcr_content/par/featured_image/media-0.img.jpg/876/493/1497468826427.jpg?ve=1&tl=1">red signs</a>, <a href="https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g56133-d3366459-Reviews-In_N_Out_Burger-Lancaster_Texas.html">red trays</a> and <a href="https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRb4u6BZWeacsYFQJ6vwt0CH-xH5FKJkvN9vZE92wl4qtB4FId5dQ">red cups</a>. </p>
<p>When, on the other hand, was the last time you ate in a blue restaurant?</p>
<p><a href="https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/00251740610673332">There’s a reason for this</a>: Red, it turns out, has been shown to stimulate the appetite. Blue, on the other hand, has been shown to be an appetite suppressant. </p>
<p>But when it comes to interior design, the color pink has been particularly controversial. </p>
<p>After some psychologists were able to show that certain shades of pink reduced aggression, it was famously used in prison cells to limit aggression in inmates. Yet pink toes a shaky line. Is it a benign means of subtle manipulation? A tool to humiliate? An outgrowth of gender stereotyping? Or some combination of the three? </p>
<h2>Pink is for girls?</h2>
<p>When most people read that some are using pink to reduce aggression, they probably think, “of course.”</p>
<p>After all, from birth pink is appropriated to pretty little baby girls and blue is assigned to bouncing baby boys. In human psychology, we have come to connect the color to femininity and its corresponding <a href="https://www.joinonelove.org/learn/gender-stereotypes-impact-behavior/">gender stereotypes</a>: weakness, shyness and tranquility.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237979/original/file-20180925-149973-ikvkaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237979/original/file-20180925-149973-ikvkaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237979/original/file-20180925-149973-ikvkaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237979/original/file-20180925-149973-ikvkaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237979/original/file-20180925-149973-ikvkaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237979/original/file-20180925-149973-ikvkaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=948&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237979/original/file-20180925-149973-ikvkaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=948&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237979/original/file-20180925-149973-ikvkaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=948&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Painter John Vanderbank’s 1694 portrait of a boy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2007/CKS/2007_CKS_07414_0115_000().jpg">Christie's</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But according to architectural historian Annmarie Adams, <a href="http://www.fkw-journal.de/index.php/fkw/article/download/1192/1189">pink didn’t always automatically signal femininity</a>. Pink became the default color for all things girly only after World War II. Before then, it was common for girls to wear blue, while mothers would often dress their boys in pink. </p>
<p>Adams traces the switch back to Nazi Germany. Just as the Nazis forced Jewish people to wear a yellow badge to identify themselves, they forced gay men to wear a pink badge. Ever since then, pink has been thought of as a non-masculine color reserved for girls. </p>
<h2>Prisons go pink</h2>
<p>Once pink started to embody femininity, some wondered if it could be used to “tame” aggressive male behavior.</p>
<p>Beginning in the 1980s, a handful of prison wardens painted holding cells in prisons and jails pink. The hope was that the color would have a calming effect on the male prisoners.</p>
<p>The wardens were inspired by the results from a series of studies conducted by research scientist Alexander Schauss. Schauss had concocted a pink paint color that he claimed could reduce the physical strength and aggressive tendencies of male inmates. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.orthomolecular.org/library/jom/1979/pdf/1979-v08n04-p218.pdf">In his study</a>, Schauss had subjects stare at a large square of pink paper with their arms outstretched. Then he tried to force their arms back down. He demonstrated he could easily do this as the color had weakened them. When he repeated the same experiment with a square of blue paper, their normal strength had returned. </p>
<p>Schauss named the color “Baker-Miller Pink” after two of his co-experimenters, naval officers Gene Baker and Ron Miller. Baker and Miller were so impressed with Schauss’ findings that they went ahead and painted the holding cells at their naval base this shade of pink. They raved about the results and how it had pacified inmates. </p>
<p>As word got around about the benefits of pink décor, psychiatric units and other holding areas were painted Baker-Miller Pink. Custodians reported quieter inmates and <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Alexander_Schauss/publication/236843504_The_Physiological_Effect_of_Color_on_the_Suppression_of_Human_Aggression_Research_on_Baker-Miller_Pink/links/00b7d51abd323be1ac000000.pdf">less physical and verbal abuse</a>. </p>
<h2>The Swiss go for a ‘cooler’ pink</h2>
<p>All this seems like a simple, cost-effective solution to calm inmates. </p>
<p>However, a few years later, Schauss decided to repeat the experiments – only to find that Baker-Miller Pink didn’t have a <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/6a2b/118b229937d5b310dcf5a1762f8b332f732d.pdf">calming effect on inmates</a> after all.</p>
<p>In fact, after conducting a test in an actual pink cell, he noticed no difference in inmates’ behavior. He was even concerned that the color could make them more violent. It should be noted Baker-Miller Pink is not a pale, gentle, pastel pink. Instead, it’s a bright, hot pink.</p>
<p>Some 30 years later, psychologist Oliver Genschow and his colleagues repeated Schauss’ experiments. They carried out a rigorous experiment to see if Baker-Miller Pink reduced aggressive behavior in prison inmates in a detention center cell. Like Schauss’ later work, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279745276_Does_Baker-Miller_pink_reduce_aggression_in_prison_detention_cells_A_critical_empirical_examination">they found no evidence</a> that the color reduced aggressiveness. </p>
<p>That might have been the end of the discussion on the benefit of pink cells. But in 2011, a Swiss psychologist named Daniela Späth wrote about her own experiments with a different shade of pink paint. </p>
<p>She called her shade “<a href="http://www.colormotion.ch/download/cool-down-pink/wissenschaftlicher-Kurzbericht-Cool-Down-Pink.pdf">Cool Down Pink</a>,” and she applied it <a href="http://www.bradstonerpainting.com/images/blog/cool-down-pink-prison.jpeg">to cell walls</a> in 10 prisons across Switzerland. </p>
<p>Over the course of her four-year study, prison guards reported less aggressive behavior in prisoners who were placed in the pink cells. Späth also found that the inmates seemed to be able to relax more quickly in the pink cells. Späth suggests that Cool Down Pink could have a variety of applications beyond prisons – in airport security areas, schools and psychiatric units.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/switzerland/10302627/Pink-prisons-in-Switzerland-to-calm-inmates.html">One British newspaper</a> reported that prison guards were happy with the effects of Cool Down Pink, but prisoners were less so. The newspaper interviewed a Swiss prison reformer who said it was degrading to be held in a room that looked like “a little girl’s bedroom.”</p>
<h2>Benign manipulation or outright humiliation?</h2>
<p>Herein lies the crux of the controversy. Opponents of <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/08/29/professors-robots-protest-u-iowas-pink-locker-room">the practice say</a> that the implication that the color – with its feminine associations – will somehow reduce aggression is, in and of itself, sexist and discriminatory. Gender studies scholar Dominique Grisard <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781317072768/chapters/10.4324%2F9781315603193-11">has argued</a> that the pink prison walls – regardless of whether they pacify – are ultimately designed to humiliate male prisoners.</p>
<p>Famously, in the 1980s, the University of Iowa football team painted the visitors’ locker room at Kinnick Stadium pink. A 2005 refurbishment added pink lockers and even <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/08/29/professors-robots-protest-u-iowas-pink-locker-room">pink urinals</a>. </p>
<p>The reasoning behind using the pink shade, officially named “<a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/U-of-Iowa-Should-Decide-On/32849">Dusty Rose</a>,” was much the same as that of the prison wardens: The coach, Hayden Fry, believed it would curtail the aggression of the opposing players and allow the home team to gain a competitive edge. </p>
<p>Yet like the prisons, this could be having the unintended, opposite effect. Some opposing players have <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/08/29/professors-robots-protest-u-iowas-pink-locker-room">reported</a> being more fired up by the perceived insult of the pink locker rooms.</p>
<p>And so the debate about the power of pink rages on. </p>
<p>That hasn’t stopped some from trying to deploy pink to achieve tranquility in their homes. In 2017, model Kendall Jenner painted her living room Baker-Miller Pink – and raved about how it made her feel <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2017/jan/10/this-colour-might-change-your-life-kendall-jenner-and-baker-miller-pink">much calmer</a>. </p>
<p>Who knows how many of her <a href="https://twitter.com/kendalljenner">army of fans</a> have followed her advice. For my part – although I love pink – I shudder at the thought of a hot pink living room, no matter how powerful its calming effects.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102696/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julie Irish does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Famously feminized by the Nazis – and later used in prison cells to limit aggression in inmates – the color pink toes a shaky line between social psychology and gender stereotyping.
Julie Irish, Assistant Professor of Interior Design, Iowa State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/102070
2018-09-17T10:50:55Z
2018-09-17T10:50:55Z
How the zebrafish got its stripes
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234456/original/file-20180831-195298-yicqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Zebrafish are known for their black and gold stripes.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nichd/20092260041">NICHD/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Stripes are common in our lives. It’s a pretty basic pattern, and easy to take for granted. </p>
<p>As an applied mathematician who studies how patterns form in nature, though, I am wowed by the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.ctdb.2015.12.012">striped patterns the zebrafish wears</a> across its body and fins. </p>
<p>Take a closer look at zebrafish’s black and gold stripes, and you’ll see <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/pcmr.12328">different-colored pigment cells</a>, tens of thousands of them. I like to envision these cells as people walking around in a crowded room: Just like us, the cells <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1755-148X.2008.00504.x">move</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0808622106">interact</a> with their neighbors. Stripes appear because the cells very carefully <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2014.11.013">instruct and signal each other on how to behave</a>. They even “shake hands” in some sense <a href="https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.099804">by reaching</a> toward distant cells.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235432/original/file-20180907-90571-4u471q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235432/original/file-20180907-90571-4u471q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235432/original/file-20180907-90571-4u471q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=249&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235432/original/file-20180907-90571-4u471q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=249&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235432/original/file-20180907-90571-4u471q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=249&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235432/original/file-20180907-90571-4u471q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235432/original/file-20180907-90571-4u471q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235432/original/file-20180907-90571-4u471q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Look closer at zebrafish’s striped bodysuit and you’ll find the tiny pigment cells that make up its patterns.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Zebrafish_(26436913602).jpg">Images adapted by Alexandria Volkening from Oregon State University/Wikimedia and from Development 2013 (doi:10.1242/dev.096719)</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>From a mathematical perspective, zebrafish stripes fall into the field of self-organization, a phenomenon in which individuals interact to produce some pattern much bigger than any individual, without external direction. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rsfs.2012.0025">Bird flocks and schooling fish</a> are also examples of self-organization in nature. No one is on a megaphone calling out directions so that birds flock or pigment cells produce fish stripes, yet remarkably, they both <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-organization">organize themselves</a> to create patterns.</p>
<p>Until recently, the research community thought only <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0607790104">two types of cells</a> were involved in zebrafish stripes: black and gold stripes, so black and gold cells. However, <a href="http://eb.mpg.de/emeriti/research-group-colour-pattern-formation/">experiments showed</a> that a third type of pigment cell – <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/ncb2955">blue and silver iridophores</a> – is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1003561">critical to pattern formation</a>. Remove it from the skin, and zebrafish have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.096719">spots</a>! </p>
<p>So how do thousands of different-colored cells on a growing zebrafish work together to consistently form stripes? To help answer this question, I developed a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-05629-z">mathematical model</a> in collaboration with applied mathematics professor <a href="http://www.dam.brown.edu/people/sandsted/">Bjorn Sandstede</a>. In our model, pigment cells are colored dots following prescribed rules and equations for how they move around, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0808622106">interact</a> and change their color. Cells with different colors behave in different ways. There are lots of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tig.2014.11.005">questions about zebrafish</a>, so we decided to focus on the newcomers to the scene: those pesky blue and silver cells.</p>
<p>Math offers a different perspective from typical biological experiments on fish. Biologists can watch how cells behave, but it’s trickier to deduce the signals behind their behavior. Using mathematical models, we can test lots of different possible cell interactions and suggest which ones are actually able to explain the behaviors biologists observe. Biologists can then test our predictions on real fish.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235305/original/file-20180906-190659-1g1euj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235305/original/file-20180906-190659-1g1euj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235305/original/file-20180906-190659-1g1euj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=215&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235305/original/file-20180906-190659-1g1euj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=215&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235305/original/file-20180906-190659-1g1euj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=215&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235305/original/file-20180906-190659-1g1euj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=270&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235305/original/file-20180906-190659-1g1euj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=270&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235305/original/file-20180906-190659-1g1euj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=270&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It takes more than black and gold cells to create black and gold stripes. When a mutation causes zebrafish to lose their blue and silver pigment cells, spots form across the body.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://doi.org/10.1242/dev.096719">Development (2013)</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our model suggests there are multiple signals at work that instruct silver and blue cells on the fish skin. All these signals are redundant. A few cues are all the instruction a cell may need in a perfect world, but the world isn’t perfect. For example, we think that nearby black cells signal iridophores to change their density and color. But if there are not any black cells around to transmit that signal, distant gold cells can fill in and provide the same instructions.</p>
<p>You can think of these redundant signals like a bunch of different alarm clocks. If you have an important meeting in the morning, you may set an alarm clock, put a notification on your phone and ask for a wake-up call. All that redundancy means that you will probably get a bunch of cues to wake up. But on the off chance that your phone dies or the front desk forgets to call, it also means you’ll still get to your meeting on time. The redundancy ensures the desired result, even if one signal fails.</p>
<p>The same idea may be at work in zebrafish. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-05629-z">Our model</a> suggests that different-colored cells are constantly instructing each other. This ensures that blue and silver iridophores are pummeled with directions from all sides on how to behave. Because there are multiple signals, occasional failures don’t disrupt patterns too much. The result: reliable stripes.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TpKmqUkdVYI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Our mathematical model simulates how different-colored cells interact to produce zebrafish stripes.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Why is this important? Zebrafish genes are surprisingly <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nature12111">similar to human genes</a>. By understanding how pigment cells interact in normal and mutated zebrafish, researchers may be able to start to link genes to their function.</p>
<p>The story of how zebrafish patterns form isn’t finished yet. For now, though, the next time you see a striped fish, consider pausing a moment to recognize all the work pigment cells put into creating that pattern. Those dependable stripes are pretty darn amazing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102070/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexandria Volkening was funded by the Mathematical Biosciences Institute and the National Science Foundation for this study under grants DMS-1148284, DGE-0228243, and DMS-1440386.</span></em></p>
Zebrafish are known for their black and gold stripes, but researchers are still figuring out how pigment cells interact to form these patterns.
Alexandria Volkening, Postdoctoral Fellow in Applied Mathematics, The Ohio State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/102375
2018-09-14T10:34:44Z
2018-09-14T10:34:44Z
Delacroix at the Met: A retrospective that evokes today’s turmoil
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236247/original/file-20180913-177935-lwivej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Eugène Delacroix's 'Self-Portrait in a Green Vest' (1837).</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/Eug%C3%A8ne_Delacroix_-_Self-Portrait_-_WGA6192.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>I’m an art historian and professor who studies and teaches French Romantic art. So when I was in France this past summer, I made sure to see <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/in-paris-a-major-delacroix-exhibition-that-continues-to-explore-his-genius/2018/04/12/0d754b62-3d6c-11e8-8d53-eba0ed2371cc_story.html?utm_term=.831a1d2be02d">the Louvre’s retrospective exhibition</a> of French Romantic painter Eugène Delacroix. </p>
<p>In the galleries, I listened in on the other viewers discussing his paintings. Yes, they talked about their beauty and vibrant colors. But they also spoke of the images they depicted – scenes of tyranny and political upheaval, of resistance, chaos and refugees. They may just as well have been speaking of our present moment. </p>
<p>Now the Delacroix <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2018/delacroix">exhibition</a> is coming to the United States. It opens Sept. 17, at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and will run through Jan. 6, 2019. </p>
<p>The exhibition will have a special resonance for those trying to make sense of the uncertainties and challenges we face today.</p>
<p>If you only know Delacroix from his iconic 1830 work “<a href="https://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/july-28-liberty-leading-people">Liberty Leading the People</a>” – in which a symbolic woman representing liberty celebrates the three glorious days of the Revolution of 1830 – you might think he was a political revolutionary. He was not.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235848/original/file-20180911-144455-ktyybr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235848/original/file-20180911-144455-ktyybr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235848/original/file-20180911-144455-ktyybr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235848/original/file-20180911-144455-ktyybr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235848/original/file-20180911-144455-ktyybr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235848/original/file-20180911-144455-ktyybr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235848/original/file-20180911-144455-ktyybr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Eugène Delacroix’s ‘Liberty Leading the People’ (1830).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Eug%C3%A8ne_Delacroix_-_La_libert%C3%A9_guidant_le_peuple.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Instead, the artist was a conservative man facing what he called “<a href="http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/14/evenements/delacroix.asp">the century of unbelievable things</a>.” During his lifetime, he experienced war, two revolutions on his doorstep and encounters with Islamic cultures that challenged and entranced him. The exhibition shows us a man trying to comprehend what is happening to his world.</p>
<h2>A star is born</h2>
<p>Born in 1798, <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/14143.html">Delacroix</a> was a privileged child of the Napoleonic age. As a young student, he honed his skills by drawing in schoolbooks and sketchbooks. </p>
<p>But by the time Delacroix was 16 years old, both of his parents had died, and the family’s money dried up. Delacroix, realizing he would have to rely on his painting to make a living, enrolled in the prestigious Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris while also studying in the studio of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T035432">Pierre Guerin</a>, where he befriended influential painter <a href="https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.1334.html">Theodore Gericault</a>. </p>
<p>He was considered an early leader of the new <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/roma/hd_roma.htm">Romantic style</a>, an approach to painting that expressed passions through dramatic colors and loose, fluid brushstrokes. </p>
<p>While today he’s known as “the great Romantic,” Delacroix rejected that title. Instead, he styled himself as a painter who continued the glorious <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3333655?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">Classic tradition of French art</a>; in his work, he often depicted Classical and historical subjects that were the bedrock of that approach.</p>
<p>He made his debut in the Paris Salon exhibition with the dramatic 1822 work “<a href="https://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/barque-dante">Barque of Dante</a>,” an image of Dante and Virgil crossing into Hell that earned him widespread praise. </p>
<p>But Delacroix’s paintings of the <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300045321/french-images-greek-war-independence-1821-1830">Greek War of Independence</a> – an early 1820s conflict between the Greeks and their Ottoman occupiers – catapulted him to fame. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235850/original/file-20180911-144488-brjwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235850/original/file-20180911-144488-brjwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235850/original/file-20180911-144488-brjwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235850/original/file-20180911-144488-brjwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235850/original/file-20180911-144488-brjwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235850/original/file-20180911-144488-brjwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235850/original/file-20180911-144488-brjwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235850/original/file-20180911-144488-brjwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In ‘Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi,’ Delacroix uses a pale female figure to symbolize Greece.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greece_on_the_Ruins_of_Missolonghi#/media/File:Eug%C3%A8ne_Ferdinand_Victor_Delacroix_017.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Delacroix, like many in his circle, supported the Greeks in their struggle against the oppressive Ottoman Empire. While “<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/66/Eug%C3%A8ne_Delacroix_-_Le_Massacre_de_Scio.jpg/300px-Eug%C3%A8ne_Delacroix_-_Le_Massacre_de_Scio.jpg">The Massacre at Chios</a>” (1824), dedicated to the brutal deaths of the Greeks on that island, will remain at the Louvre, the celebrated “Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi” (1826), an image of tragic defeat, travels to the New York exhibition. Delacroix began the painting shortly after the citizens of Missolonghi attempted to liberate their city only to be massacred by the Ottoman Turks in 1825.</p>
<p>In “Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi,” Delacroix embodied Greece as a single allegorical figure. Pale-skinned and clothed in traditional garments of white and blue – with her body lowered on one knee upon the fallen marble blocks – she recalls the Virgin Mary. Shrouded in darkness behind her, there’s a Turk – dark-skinned, turbaned and dressed in menacing hues of red. </p>
<p>At this point in his life, Delacroix had never traveled to the Ottoman Empire or anywhere else in the Islamic world; he only knew of it from the stories, objects and images he encountered in Paris. People in his circle wrote about the Oriental world of the Turks and North Africa as “the other,” at best, and barbaric at worst. In the painter’s hands, the Islamic world is cast as the infidel, while Christian Greece is represented with the imagery of the Virgin. It is a classic clash of West and East, liberty and oppression. </p>
<p>In Europe and America today, these old conflicts are playing out again with similar language and imagery being deployed. This binary relationship runs so deep in Western culture that it seems like a permanent fixture of our politics. </p>
<h2>An artist broadens his horizon</h2>
<p>In Delacroix’s art that simple binary never quite applied. Instead of seeing a border between the two worlds, it was as if he wanted to slip between them time and again. Though he was on the side of the Greeks two centuries ago, he was also fascinated by the glamour and violence he associated with the Islamic world. </p>
<p>In 1832, Delacroix, who seldom traveled, embarked for North Africa as part of a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1552652?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">diplomatic mission to Algeria and Morocco</a>. The voyage came about purely by chance when the ambassador, Count Charles de Mornay, sought a diverting traveling companion and artist to accompany him on the mission. Delacroix left within a month of receiving the invitation for the voyage. </p>
<p>The lure of the exotic Islamic world that Delacroix only knew through paintings and drawings was too much to resist. It changed the man and his art.</p>
<p>Little prepared him for North Africa and the beauty he found there. To Delacroix, all was soft and liquid in the light. </p>
<p>“I am dizzy,” he wrote his friend <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1552652?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">Pierret</a>. “I am like a man who is dreaming.” </p>
<p>The artist’s small sketchbooks from North Africa, which will be featured in the Met exhibition, offer an intimate glimpse of the scenes and people that captivated him. He would return to these subjects repeatedly throughout his career.</p>
<p>A star of the New York exhibition, “The Women of Algiers in Their Apartment” (1834), brings viewers into Delacroix’s North African world. Years later, the journalist Phillipe Burty reported in his magazine article “Eugene Delacroix a Algers” that Delacroix had received permission to enter the private women’s quarter of an Algerian home with the help of an Algerian acquaintance. Even male family members needed permission to enter the “harem,” so Delacroix’s access would have been an extraordinary event. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235878/original/file-20180911-144461-1oy1zci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235878/original/file-20180911-144461-1oy1zci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235878/original/file-20180911-144461-1oy1zci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235878/original/file-20180911-144461-1oy1zci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235878/original/file-20180911-144461-1oy1zci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235878/original/file-20180911-144461-1oy1zci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=594&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235878/original/file-20180911-144461-1oy1zci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=594&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235878/original/file-20180911-144461-1oy1zci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=594&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Delacroix returned from his trip to North Africa inspired. He would go on to paint ‘The Women of Algiers in Their Apartment’ (1834).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gandalfsgallery/9892248346">Gandalf's Gallery</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The story may or may not be true, especially since Delacroix painted the piece in his Paris studio. Working from sketches, memory and Parisian models wearing the clothing he brought back from Algeria, Delacroix created what art historian <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/01/obituaries/linda-nochlin-groundbreaking-feminist-art-historian-is-dead-at-86.html">Linda Nochlin</a> once called an “<a href="http://blogs.getty.edu/iris/rethinking-orientalism-again/">imaginary Orient</a>” – a world that may meld truth with fiction, but reveals much about its author. </p>
<p>Like many of us, Delacroix didn’t spend every moment obsessed with politics and conflict. He lived a rich life, and the exhibition shows the full scope of his work. <a href="http://www.19thc-artworldwide.org/autumn12/obrien-reviews-eugene-delacroix-journal-by-hannoosh">His famous journal</a> reveals a man about town, who immersed himself in literature and life. From the 1830s, the Met exhibition brings us paintings as varied as “<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ad/Young_tiger_playing_with_its_mother.jpg">Young Tiger Playing with Its Mother</a>” (1830) and “<a href="https://imgcs.artprintimages.com/img/print/print/eugene-delacroix-medee-furieuse-or-medea-kills-her-children-1838_a-l-2590501-8880731.jpg?w=550&h=550">Medea About to Kill Her Children</a>” (1838). </p>
<p>During the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Revolutions-of-1848">Revolution of 1848</a>, instead of creating a new “Liberty Leading the People,” the moderate Delacroix produced the vibrant “Basket of Flowers” (1848–49). </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236252/original/file-20180913-177935-1sgy3tu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236252/original/file-20180913-177935-1sgy3tu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236252/original/file-20180913-177935-1sgy3tu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236252/original/file-20180913-177935-1sgy3tu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236252/original/file-20180913-177935-1sgy3tu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236252/original/file-20180913-177935-1sgy3tu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236252/original/file-20180913-177935-1sgy3tu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236252/original/file-20180913-177935-1sgy3tu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Eugene Delacroix’s ‘Basket of Flowers’ (1848-49).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WLA_metmuseum_Basket_of_Flowers_by_Eugene_Delacroix.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In focusing on natural beauty, it would seem as though the political warfare roiling the streets of Paris was the last thing on Delacroix’s mind.</p>
<p>Delcroix’s most famous paintings, like “Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi” and “Liberty Leading the People,” arose out of the turmoil of the 19th century and evoke the uncertainties of our present day. </p>
<p>But “Basket of Flowers” may also say something important about finding beauty and equilibrium in the midst of chaos.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102375/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Claire Black McCoy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Through his art and his travels, 19th-century French Romantic painter Eugène Delacroix sought to understand the chaos of an era he called ‘the century of unbelievable things.’
Claire Black McCoy, Professor of Art History, Columbus State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/100564
2018-08-14T10:32:39Z
2018-08-14T10:32:39Z
From slag to swag: The story of Earl Tupper’s fantastic plastics
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231724/original/file-20180813-2891-ba9goj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A postcard from the 1950s advertises a variety Tupperware products.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/thomashawk/24781416158/">Thomas Hawk</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When “American Horror Story,” the Museum of Modern Art and “Napoleon Dynamite” pay homage to an invention, you know it’s made a cultural impact in a big way.</p>
<p>Tupperware has a staying power that most plastic products don’t. So far, it has evaded the anti-plastics movement, and it seems to survive most kitchen clean-outs. Its annual sales <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/tup/financials">exceed US$2 billion</a>. </p>
<p>I’ve taught the story of Tupperware products in a course on the American 1950s. I’m also teaching it in the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqURhLnn9yA&feature=youtu.be">polymers</a> unit of an <a href="https://www.mrs.org/impact-of-materials-on-society">interdisciplinary course</a> in materials science engineering. </p>
<p>Tupperware products’ ability to bridge the humanities and STEM fields speaks to their cultural and utilitarian value – evidence of how a compelling, innovative design can have mass appeal.</p>
<h2>Polyethylene – ‘Material of the Future’</h2>
<p>Our relationships with plastics can be as richly diverse as the shapes and colors these malleable materials can assume. </p>
<p>Technically speaking, plastics are pliable, ductile and flexible synthetic materials that are easily shaped through heat and other applications of force. The word “plastic” also has an aesthetic meaning: A plastic actor is more versatile before the camera, and a medium such as stone can become plastic in an artist’s hands.</p>
<p>Literary and cultural critic Roland Barthes saw modern plastics as a form of alchemy – a way to transmute matter in seemingly infinite ways. </p>
<p>“More than a substance,” <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/the-uses-of-mythologies">he wrote in “Mythologies,”</a> “plastic is the very idea of its infinite transformation.” </p>
<p>Barthes imagined polystyrene, polyvinyl and polyethylene as Greek shepherds in a world of gods and monsters – magical materials alive with possibility. </p>
<p>Earl Tupper, inventor of Tupperware products, saw such promise in polyethylene – the plastic he used to craft his inventions – that he called it “Poly-T: Material of the Future,” as Alison J. Clarke notes in her book “<a href="https://www.smithsonianbooks.com/store/history/tupperware-promise-plastic-1950s-america/">Tupperware: The Promise of Plastic in 1950s America</a>.” </p>
<p>After failing at his first business as a tree surgeon, Tupper decided to try his hand at plastics production. In 1937, he got a gig as a sample maker at a Dupont-affiliated plastics factory. </p>
<p>At the time, DuPont employed amateur sample makers to further research and development. They could even take scrap materials home with them to work on new prototypes – a mutually beneficial arrangement, Clarke points out. </p>
<p>So when working with injection molding machines at the factory failed to yield the plastic Tupper envisioned, he turned to his home kitchen and tried the stovetop.</p>
<h2>It’s all about the lid</h2>
<p>The polyethylene that Tupper brought home from the factory was an industrial waste product – opaque, greasy, clumpy black slag. It was hardly the stuff that marketing dreams are made of. Tupper sought to overcome such material limitations by producing a plastic more durable than molded transparent <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=styrene&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjI0uXx1-DcAhWqct8KHWeIBscQ_AUICigB&biw=1440&bih=673">styrene</a>; he wanted to create something that could flex without cracking or snapping.</p>
<p>He and his son boiled the scrap samples at home, eventually finding the right balance of pressure and temperature so the polyethylene flowed into the desired shapes and thickness. Tupper also fashioned a system for dyeing his containers in pastel colors. </p>
<p>Eventually, Tupper was able to create what author Bob Kealing <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Tupperware_Unsealed.html?id=7rkTAQAAIAAJ">referred to</a> as “a polished, waxy, upscale plastic.”</p>
<p>But he still needed the right lid – something that could both preserve food and prevent spills.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231750/original/file-20180813-2894-azzsmx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231750/original/file-20180813-2894-azzsmx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231750/original/file-20180813-2894-azzsmx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231750/original/file-20180813-2894-azzsmx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231750/original/file-20180813-2894-azzsmx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231750/original/file-20180813-2894-azzsmx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231750/original/file-20180813-2894-azzsmx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Earl Tupper got the idea for his famous lid from paint cans.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/giuntinijonathan/4457615235/">Giuntini Jonathan</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Inspired by paint cans, Tupper fashioned a flexible polyethylene lid that, when snapped onto the container, created an airtight seal. As Kealing points out, this worked much better than tin foil or a shower cap – materials many American women had relied on to cover their leftovers. </p>
<p>In 1947, <a href="https://patents.google.com/patent/US2487400?oq=Tupper+nonsnap+1949">Tupper patented</a> the nonsnap lid for his first plastic container. </p>
<p>Legendary saleswoman <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/tupperware-wise/">Brownie Wise</a> – the first woman to appear on the cover of Business Week – would demonstrate how to “burp” the container by lifting part of the patented lid before sealing it. Her direct sales acumen made Tupper’s product come alive. At her iconic “Tupperware parties,” she would toss liquid-filled <a href="https://i.pinimg.com/736x/df/64/39/df6439845a60f0c2b42bb16083bb171b--tupperware-shop-perfect-wedding-gifts.jpg">Wonder Bowls</a> across American living rooms, astonishing housewives with the airtight seal that prevented spills.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-Mm_z5xwwbs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A 1958 ad markets Tupperware parties and showcases the air-tight seal.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>From pantry shelf to gallery shelf</h2>
<p>In the 1972 film “<a href="http://www.eamesoffice.com/the-work/design-q-a/">Design Q&A</a>,” designer Ray Eames insists that design is fundamentally “a plan for arranging elements to accomplish a particular purpose,” although superior designs “may later be judged as art.” </p>
<p>Today, Tupper’s <a href="https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/earl-s-tupper-pitcher-and-creamer-1946">polyethylene pitcher and creamer</a> reside in the Museum of Modern Art, along with his tumblers, bowls and ingenious popsicle molds, called “Ice Tups.” Curators have included Tupperware products in exhibitions on mid-century design and most recently in the 2011 exhibit “<a href="https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/957?locale=en">What was Good Design? MoMA’s Message, 1944-1956</a>.”</p>
<p>As Clarke explains, Tupper’s products embodied modernism’s “ideal of a tasteful, restrained and mass-produced artifact, free of inauthentic decoration and gratuitous ornament.” </p>
<p>With their clean lines and elegant curves, they fused form and function. The plastic used in Tupperware products is top-shelf – aesthetically pleasing, meaningful and durable. </p>
<p>In today’s Tupperware products, we also see a refined design. Take the Eco Water Bottle. Its sleek curves – together with its softly translucent pink, blue and turquoise variations – conjure glass. The concave center looks pretty and fits the hand.</p>
<h2>Tales from Tupper’s wares</h2>
<p>Tupperware products continue to play a role in our cultural conscious. A friend who lent me her Ice Tups told me that she’ll always associate it with early memories of her mother. </p>
<p>In one “Seinfeld” episode, Kramer frantically tries to recover his Tupperware container that he’d loaned to someone, while Jimmy of “American Horror Story” <a href="http://americanhorrorstory.wikia.com/wiki/Tupperware_Party_Massacre">causes mayhem at a Tupperware Party</a>. Meanwhile, the synthwave band <a href="https://twrp.bandcamp.com/">Tupper Ware Remix Party</a> spins 80s-inspired dance tracks. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PfIJILHnpPU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Can you relate to Kramer?</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Non-biodegradable plastic like Tupperware containers will be part of Earth’s future for centuries. <a href="http://www.plasticfreejuly.org/">The Plastics Free July initiative</a> has advocated against single-use plastics, like bags and straws. Luckily, Tupperware products are reusable, and the stories we tell about them will continue to reinvent our relationships with a material we won’t – and can’t – let go of.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100564/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marsha Bryant does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
You know you’ve hit it big when your designs find their way into millions of kitchens – and the Museum of Modern Art.
Marsha Bryant, Professor of English & Distinguished Teaching Scholar, University of Florida
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/97064
2018-06-01T10:40:45Z
2018-06-01T10:40:45Z
Blood in your veins is not blue – here’s why it’s always red
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221065/original/file-20180530-120514-1u71tcq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=477%2C72%2C5457%2C3737&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Is it always the same?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/lab-assistant-testing-blood-samples-hospital-1099719305">Elnur/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Whenever you see blood outside your body, it looks red. Why?</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220819/original/file-20180529-80650-rav3a8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220819/original/file-20180529-80650-rav3a8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220819/original/file-20180529-80650-rav3a8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220819/original/file-20180529-80650-rav3a8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220819/original/file-20180529-80650-rav3a8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220819/original/file-20180529-80650-rav3a8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=606&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220819/original/file-20180529-80650-rav3a8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=606&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220819/original/file-20180529-80650-rav3a8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=606&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Heme is the part of the hemoglobin molecule that latches onto oxygen and then releases it to tissues around the body.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Heme2.jpg">Waikwanlai</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Human blood is red because of the protein hemoglobin, which contains a red-colored compound called heme that’s crucial for carrying oxygen through your bloodstream. <a href="https://store.macmillanlearning.com/us/product/Biochemistry-A-Short-Course/p/1464126135">Heme contains an iron atom which binds to oxygen</a>; it’s this molecule that transports oxygen from your lungs to other parts of the body.</p>
<p>Chemicals appear particular colors to our eyes based on the wavelengths of light they reflect. Hemoglobin bound to oxygen absorbs blue-green light, which means that it <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2011.07.027">reflects red-orange light</a> into our eyes, appearing red. That’s why blood turns bright cherry red when oxygen binds to its iron. Without oxygen connected, blood is a <a href="https://www.acs.org/content/dam/acsorg/education/resources/highschool/chemmatters/issues/best-of-chemmatters/sample-lesson-plan-the-many-colors-of-blood.pdf">darker red color</a>. </p>
<p>Carbon monoxide, a potentially deadly gas, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1281520/pdf/0940270.pdf">can also bind to heme</a>, with a bond around 200 times stronger than that of oxygen. With carbon monoxide in place, oxygen can’t bind to hemoglobin, which can lead to death. Because the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1383/medc.31.10.41.27810">carbon monoxide doesn’t let go of the heme</a>, your blood stays cherry red, sometimes making a victim of carbon monoxide poisoning appear rosy-cheeked even in death.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220822/original/file-20180529-80658-1hpl23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220822/original/file-20180529-80658-1hpl23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220822/original/file-20180529-80658-1hpl23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220822/original/file-20180529-80658-1hpl23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220822/original/file-20180529-80658-1hpl23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220822/original/file-20180529-80658-1hpl23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220822/original/file-20180529-80658-1hpl23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220822/original/file-20180529-80658-1hpl23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People with pale skin may think their blood is blue inside the body.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/eltpics/12522139305/">eltpics</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Sometimes blood can look <a href="https://doi.org/10.1364/AO.35.001151">blue through our skin</a>. Maybe you’ve heard that blood is blue in our veins because when headed back to the lungs, it lacks oxygen. But this is wrong; human blood is never blue. The bluish color of veins is only an optical illusion. Blue light does not penetrate as far into tissue as red light. If the blood vessel is sufficiently deep, your eyes see more blue than red reflected light due to the blood’s partial absorption of red wavelengths.</p>
<p>But blue blood does exist elsewhere in the animal world. It’s common in animals such as squid and horseshoe crabs, whose blood relies on a chemical called hemocyanin, which <a href="https://www.acs.org/content/dam/acsorg/education/resources/highschool/chemmatters/issues/best-of-chemmatters/sample-lesson-plan-the-many-colors-of-blood.pdf">contains a copper atom</a>, to carry oxygen. Green, clear and even purple blood are <a href="https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/03/150312-blood-antarctica-octopus-animals-science-colors/">seen in other animals</a>. Each of these different blood types uses a different molecule to carry oxygen rather than the hemoglobin we use. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221066/original/file-20180530-120493-1kkxnr2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221066/original/file-20180530-120493-1kkxnr2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221066/original/file-20180530-120493-1kkxnr2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221066/original/file-20180530-120493-1kkxnr2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221066/original/file-20180530-120493-1kkxnr2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221066/original/file-20180530-120493-1kkxnr2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221066/original/file-20180530-120493-1kkxnr2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221066/original/file-20180530-120493-1kkxnr2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Horseshoe crabs’ blue blood has become an important raw material for the pharmaceutical industry.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-Domestic-News-Virginia-United-/12f7334962e5da11af9f0014c2589dfb/3/0">AP Photo/Steve Helber</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite exceptions, the majority of blood from animals is red. But that doesn’t mean it’s exactly the same as what courses through our veins. There are many variations of hemoglobin present in different species, which allows scientists to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2017.11.033">distinguish blood samples</a> from various animals.</p>
<p>[<em>Science, politics, religion or just plain interesting articles:</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-checkoutweekly">Check out The Conversation’s weekly newsletters</a>.]</p>
<p>Over time, spilled blood that starts out red turns darker and darker as it dries and its hemoglobin breaks down into a compound called methemoglobin. As time passes, dried blood continues to change, growing even darker thanks to another compound called hemichrome. This continual chemical and color change <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forc.2017.05.002">allows forensic scientists to determine the time</a> a blood drop was left at a crime scene.</p>
<p><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/lednevlab/">In our lab</a>, we’re developing methods that look at the ratio of the different compounds that hemoglobin breaks down into. Then using computer modeling we can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-016-9486-z">estimate the time since the blood was deposited</a> to help investigators determine if a blood stain is relevant to a crime. If the blood is a year old, it might not be important to a crime committed yesterday.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97064/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Your blood is red;
it’s never blue.
Because of hemoglobin;
and the view through tissue.
Marisia Fikiet, Ph.D. Student in Chemistry, University at Albany, State University of New York
Igor Lednev, Professor of Chemistry, University at Albany, State University of New York
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/93541
2018-03-22T10:40:12Z
2018-03-22T10:40:12Z
Red state, blue state: How colors took sides in politics
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211431/original/file-20180321-165587-e2fw3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">For decades, each party simply used a combination of red, white and blue. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/american-flag-divided-110448218?src=G5Mxq7mVR9jMZtOyP3X-9A-1-20">palbrigo/shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When Americans hear some pundits projecting a “<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/wall-street-predicting-2020-election-democrat-blue-wave-biden/">blue wave</a>,” they understand that this is a prediction of a big Democratic victory. Blue of course symbolizes the Democratic party, while red represents the GOP. </p>
<p>This might seem like a long-standing tradition, but it isn’t. </p>
<p>While writing my book “<a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300171877/color">On Color</a>,” I was surprised to discover that this is a recent convention, not some practice with roots dating back to the birth of the two-party system.</p>
<p>Of course, there has always been color-coding in individual political campaigns. But for years, both major parties used the full panoply of American red, white and blue for their own self-identification. </p>
<p>With the spread of color television <a href="http://www.buffalohistory.org/Explore/Exhibits/virtual_exhibits/wheels_of_power/educ_materials/television_handout.pdf">in the late 1960s</a>, color-coded electoral maps were incorporated into election coverage, but neither red nor blue had been assigned a permanent side. </p>
<p>In Cold War America, networks couldn’t consistently identify one party as “red” – the color of communists and, in particular, the Soviet Union – without being accused of bias. (The color’s connotation was objectionable enough that Cincinnati’s professional baseball team <a href="http://www.espn.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/56756/tbt-when-the-reds-became-redlegs">officially changed its nickname</a> from the Reds to the Redlegs between 1953 and 1959.)</p>
<p>So depending on the election or the network, red and blue were variously assigned to Democrats and Republicans. On election night in 1980, when it became clear that Ronald Reagan was going to defeat Jimmy Carter, a television anchor pointed to the color-coded studio map showing the emerging Republican victory and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/08/weekinreview/ideas-trends-one-state-two-state-red-state-blue-state.html">said</a> it was starting to look like “a suburban swimming pool.” </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PsDe-8cOSYY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">An ocean of blue – for Reagan.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As more states went for Reagan, his campaign workers gleefully began to refer to the increasingly blue map as “Lake Reagan.” Later in the evening, with all the states decided, the electoral map registering the magnitude of Reagan’s triumph had become, in the words of another TV commentator, an “ocean of blue.” </p>
<p>But after the 2000 presidential election, no Republican victory of whatever size would ever again be described using the color blue. That year, the networks had chosen red to represent states won by the Republicans and blue to represent states won by the Democrats. However, by the end of Election Night, neither George W. Bush nor Al Gore had a definitive electoral majority to turn the country red or blue. </p>
<p>All eyes were on Florida, where the result was too close to call. </p>
<p>For the next 36 days, the country anxiously followed the television coverage of recounts and court challenges. Only on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6357hHt3rQ">Dec. 12</a>, when the U.S. Supreme Court suspended the recount, did Florida officially become a “red state” – and Bush was elected the 43rd president of the United States. </p>
<p>Night after night of television coverage had fixed our political colors in the national imagination: red for Republicans and blue for Democrats. What was once discretionary and variable became a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Red-State-Blue-Rich-Poor/dp/0691143935">permanent</a> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Red-State-Survival-America/dp/1595589724">feature</a> of the country’s political imagery to signal the country’s ideological divide.</p>
<p>This unintended color-coding of American politics reversed the political associations of red and blue that exist almost everywhere else in the world.</p>
<p>In the United Kingdom, for example, the Conservative party color is <a href="https://assets.lbc.co.uk/2016/29/conservatives-logo---lbc-1468834487-editorial-long-form-0.jpg">blue</a>, while <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xJoWzPZGjY">the unofficial anthem</a> of the <a href="https://s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/centaur-wp/designweek/prod/content/uploads/2015/05/labour-logo-1002x203.gif">Labour Party</a> begins “The people’s flag is deepest red.” </p>
<p>In various nations, red faces off against blue, replaying social and political divides that first assumed their ideological outlines and their primary colors in the French Revolution.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211254/original/file-20180320-80630-1vmoigg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211254/original/file-20180320-80630-1vmoigg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211254/original/file-20180320-80630-1vmoigg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=758&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211254/original/file-20180320-80630-1vmoigg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=758&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211254/original/file-20180320-80630-1vmoigg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=758&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211254/original/file-20180320-80630-1vmoigg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=953&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211254/original/file-20180320-80630-1vmoigg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=953&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211254/original/file-20180320-80630-1vmoigg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=953&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Le Bonnet Rouge’ (‘The Red Hat’) was the name of an anti-government French magazine in the early 20th century.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Le_Bonnet_Rouge_c._1914.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/phrygian-cap-bonnet-rouge-1221893">The bonnet rouge</a> – the soft red cap worn by the French revolutionaries – symbolized their fervor and their solidarity. It was also a defiant appropriation of the red color worn by the government’s supporters. But it would come to be solely the color of the French left, and after the revolution at the end of the 18th century, red remained their color. When the radicals briefly controlled Paris in 1848 and again in 1871, they <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10861/10861-h/10861-h.htm">raised their red flag</a> over the Hôtel de Ville.</p>
<p>The assertive red flag would become still more visible in the 20th century as the triumphal emblem of post-revolutionary Russia and of Communist China, which, along with the large Red armies and the Little Red Book, fueled the Red Scare in the United States.</p>
<p>Now, in America, red has become the color of conservatism. An accident of media history, the current colors are evidence of the randomness and instability of political color codes – though it’s unlikely Donald Trump will be selling blue “Make America Great Again” baseball caps any time soon.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93541/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Scott Kastan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
While it might seem like a longstanding tradition, it’s a relatively recent phenomenon in the U.S.
David Scott Kastan, George M. Bodman Professor of English, Yale University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/89689
2018-01-09T16:01:26Z
2018-01-09T16:01:26Z
Super-black feathers can absorb virtually every photon of light that hits them
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201228/original/file-20180108-142334-1h044en.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C54%2C925%2C708&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Super-black feathers on these guys are like looking into a dark cave.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sdnatasha/4514108926">Natasha Baucas</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>What do birds and aerospace engineers have in common? Both have invented incredibly dark, “super-black” surfaces that absorb almost every last bit of light that strikes them. </p>
<p>Of course scientists worked intentionally to devise these materials. It’s evolution that brought this amazing trait about in birds. My co-lead author <a href="http://vertebrates.si.edu/birds/birds_staff_pages/TeresaFeo_staffpage.html">Teresa Feo</a>, our colleagues <a href="http://www.graphics.cornell.edu/%7Etodd/pcg/Home.html">Todd A. Harvey</a> and <a href="https://prumlab.yale.edu/">Rick Prum</a> and I <a href="http://nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/s41467-017-02088-w">investigated the super-black feathers</a> in some of the most outlandish animals on earth: <a href="http://www.birdsofparadiseproject.org/">the Birds of Paradise</a>.</p>
<p>These are resplendent birds native to Papua New Guinea and surrounding areas. Males are brilliantly colored, with complicated mating dances. Females, who are drab and brown in comparison, carefully inspect the ornaments and dances of males before choosing their mate.</p>
<p>We wanted to know more about these birds’ super-black plumage and how it works. What mechanism do these feathers employ to be so effective at absorbing light?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201237/original/file-20180108-83581-d443ug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201237/original/file-20180108-83581-d443ug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201237/original/file-20180108-83581-d443ug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201237/original/file-20180108-83581-d443ug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201237/original/file-20180108-83581-d443ug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201237/original/file-20180108-83581-d443ug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201237/original/file-20180108-83581-d443ug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201237/original/file-20180108-83581-d443ug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A male Superb Bird of Paradise displays his super-black and brilliant blue plumage to an onlooking female.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ed Scholes</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Fanciest feathers, under the microscope</h2>
<p>The Birds of Paradise have evolved many remarkable traits, but none are more mysterious than the males’ velvety black plumage.</p>
<p>This black is so dark that your eyes cannot focus on its surface; it looks like a cave, or a fuzzy black hole in space. Using optical measurements, we found that these feather patches <a href="http://nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/s41467-017-02088-w">absorb up to 99.95 percent of directly incident light</a>. That’s comparable to human-made very black materials such as solar panels, the lining of space telescopes, and even the “blackest black” material: <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/15/world/vantablack-blackest-black-material/index.html">Vantablack</a>, which absorbs 99.96 percent of light.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201235/original/file-20180108-83567-ish8tm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201235/original/file-20180108-83567-ish8tm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201235/original/file-20180108-83567-ish8tm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=298&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201235/original/file-20180108-83567-ish8tm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=298&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201235/original/file-20180108-83567-ish8tm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=298&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201235/original/file-20180108-83567-ish8tm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201235/original/file-20180108-83567-ish8tm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201235/original/file-20180108-83567-ish8tm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">On the left, a normal black feather from a Lesser Melampitta. On the right, a super-black feather from the Paradise Riflebird.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dakota McCoy</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Normal feathers are flat, and look like fractals; when you zoom in using a microscope, each branch of the feather looks like a tiny, flat feather. Under a powerful scanning electron microscope, we were surprised to see that the super-black feathers look like miniature coral reefs, bottle brushes or trees with tightly packed leaves.</p>
<p>These tiny, specially shaped bits stick up to form a jagged, complex surface; together they act as microscopic light traps. When light rays strike these surface microstructures, they repeatedly scatter around the shapes and are absorbed, rather than being reflected back to an observer. It’s an iterative process: Each time a scattering event occurs, a portion of the light is absorbed until it’s almost completely absorbed.</p>
<p>Human-made super-black materials such as “<a href="https://www.pv-tech.org/guest-blog/black-silicon-theres-more-than-meets-the-eye">black silicon</a>” also rely on what materials scientists call structural absorption. Like the super-black feathers, their microscopic “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4719108">light traps</a>” are due to a rough surface that scatters light repeatedly, but the actual surface shapes they use are different. Rather than the feathers’ bottle brush shapes, human engineers designed regularly spaced microscopic cones and pits. With almost no exposed flat surface, these structurally black materials are the opposite of a mirror.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201236/original/file-20180108-83556-1i5x62g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201236/original/file-20180108-83556-1i5x62g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201236/original/file-20180108-83556-1i5x62g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=301&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201236/original/file-20180108-83556-1i5x62g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=301&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201236/original/file-20180108-83556-1i5x62g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=301&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201236/original/file-20180108-83556-1i5x62g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201236/original/file-20180108-83556-1i5x62g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201236/original/file-20180108-83556-1i5x62g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Due to its unusual microstructure, the feather from the Paradise Riflebird (on the right) still appears super-black when coated with gold, as compared to a regular black feather (on the left).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dakota McCoy</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Birds of Paradise’s super-black feathers are so good at absorbing light that even when we coated them in gold, a shiny metal, they still looked black. That’s because it’s not the inside of the feather making the color via pigment or ordered nanostructures; instead, just as with human-made <a href="https://doi.org/10.1039/C4EE01152J">black silicon</a>, the super black comes from the physical surface structure. Evolution and human ingenuity arrived at the same solution.</p>
<h2>Advantages of super-black feathers</h2>
<p>But why do these birds have such incredibly dark black patches? What selective advantage caused this trait to evolve? It’s tempting to think that super black somehow helps with camouflage, to keep predators away. In fact, some <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/srep01846">snakes have super-black scales</a> that mimic shadows between leaves, helping them blend into the forest floor. The snake example illustrates evolution by natural selection – “survival of the fittest.”</p>
<p>But other factors can also influence evolution’s course, including random chance or sexual selection. As my colleague Rick Prum points out in his new book “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/224257/the-evolution-of-beauty-by-richard-o-prum/9780385537216/">The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin’s Forgotten Theory of Mate Choice Shapes the Animal World – and Us</a>,” mate choice is a powerful force driving evolution. In Birds of Paradise, super-black feathers help male birds look more beautiful to a female’s eye.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UYbn9R11Rrs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A Superb Bird of Paradise displays his best plumage to potential mate.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To understand how, it helps to look at Bird of Paradise mating dances. Males vigorously display their super-black patches to females, making sure that females can’t get a view from the side. This is because these feathers are highly directional, and they look darkest from straight ahead. </p>
<p>And super-black patches always sit around or next to brilliant color patches. A super-black, anti-reflective frame makes nearby colors appear brighter, almost glow. In other words, super black is an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checker_shadow_illusion">evolved optical illusion</a> that relies on the way animal eyes and brains adjust our perceptions based on ambient light.</p>
<p>In the high-stakes game of choosing a mate, a single feather that isn’t quite blue enough <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/224257/the-evolution-of-beauty-by-richard-o-prum/9780385537216/">could be enough to turn off</a> a female Bird of Paradise. Clearly, female Birds of Paradise prefer males with super-black plumage. As females <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/evo.13196">pick the most impressive males to mate with</a>, those dazzling feather genes are passed on to future generations while the genes of less splendid males, overlooked by females, are not. Sexual selection drove evolution toward super-black plumage.</p>
<p>Evolution is not an orderly, coherent process; evolutionary arms races can produce great innovation. Perhaps these super-black feathers with their unique microscopic structure could eventually inspire better solar panels, or new textiles; super-black butterfly wings <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s11671-015-1052-7">already have</a>. Evolution has had millions of years to tinker; we still have much to learn from its solutions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/89689/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This research was
funded by the W. R. Coe Fund of Yale University, by a Sigma XI student research
fellowship to D.E.M., and by a Mind, Brain, and Behavior Graduate Student Award
to D.E.M. D.E.M. was supported by the Department of Defense (DoD) through the
National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship (NDSEG)
Program. Tomography data collections at the Advanced Photon Source beamline 2-
BM, Argonne National Laboratory were supported by the U.S. Department of
Energy Office of Science (Proposal ID 41887). T.J.F. was supported by a NSF
Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology (#1523857). Richard Pfisterer of Photon
Engineering graciously licensed FRED to T.A.H. for this research. This work was
performed in part at the Harvard University Center for Nanoscale Systems (CNS), a
member of the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure Network
(NNCI), which is supported by the National Science Foundation under NSF ECCS
award no. 1541959.</span></em></p>
Male Birds of Paradise have patches of super-black plumage that absorb 99.95 percent of light. New research identified their feathers’ microscopic structures that make them look so very dark.
Dakota McCoy, PhD Student in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/84117
2017-09-18T19:01:01Z
2017-09-18T19:01:01Z
Languages don’t all have the same number of terms for colors – scientists have a new theory why
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/186445/original/file-20170918-8245-fvelv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Everyone sees them all, but we don't all give them the same distinct names.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/bright-abstract-background-jumble-rainbow-colored-665771356">lazyllama/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>People with standard vision <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1073858408331369">can see millions of distinct colors</a>. But human language categorizes these into a small set of words. In an industrialized culture, most people get by with 11 color words: black, white, red, green, yellow, blue, brown, orange, pink, purple and gray. That’s what we have in American English.</p>
<p>Maybe if you’re an artist or an interior designer, you know specific meanings for as many as 50 or 100 different words for colors – like turquoise, amber, indigo or taupe. But this is still a tiny fraction of the colors that we can distinguish.</p>
<p>Interestingly, the ways that languages categorize color vary widely. Nonindustrialized cultures typically have far fewer words for colors than industrialized cultures. So while English has 11 words that everyone knows, the Papua-New Guinean language Berinmo has only five, and the Bolivian Amazonian language Tsimane’ has only three words that everyone knows, corresponding to black, white and red.</p>
<p>The goal of our project was to <a href="http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1619666114">understand why cultures vary so much</a> in their color word usage.</p>
<h2>Is it about which colors stand out the most?</h2>
<p>The most widely accepted explanation for the differences goes back to two linguists, <a href="https://web.stanford.edu/group/cslipublications/cslipublications/site/1575861623.shtml">Brent Berlin and Paul Kay</a>. In their early work in the 1960s, they gathered color-naming data from 20 languages. They observed some commonalities among sets of color terms across languages: If a language had only two terms, they were always black and white; if there was a third, it was red; the fourth and fifth were always green and yellow (in either order); the sixth was blue; the seventh was brown; and so on.</p>
<p>Based on this order, Berlin and Kay argued that certain colors were more salient. They suggested that cultures start by naming the most salient colors, bringing in new terms one at a time, in order. So black and white are the most salient, then red, and so on.</p>
<p>While this approach seemed promising, there are several problems with this innate vision-based theory.</p>
<p>Berlin, Kay and their colleagues went on to gather <a href="http://www1.icsi.berkeley.edu/wcs/">a much larger data set</a>, from 110 nonindustrialized languages. Their original generalization isn’t as clear in this larger data set: there are many exceptions, which Kay and his colleagues have tried to explain in a more complicated vision-based theory.</p>
<p>What’s more, this nativist theory doesn’t address why industrialization, which introduced reliable, stable and standardized colors on a large scale, causes more color words to be introduced. The visual systems of people across cultures are the same: in this model, industrialization should make no difference on color categorization, which was clearly not the case.</p>
<h2>How do you describe this color?</h2>
<p>Our <a href="http://tedlab.mit.edu/">research</a> <a href="https://irp.nih.gov/pi/bevil-conway">groups</a> therefore explored a completely different idea: Perhaps color words are developed for efficient communication. Consider the task of simply naming a color chip from some set of colors. In our study, we used 80 color chips, <a href="http://munsell.com/">selected from Munsell colors</a> to be evenly spaced across the color grid. Each pair of neighboring colors is the same distance apart in terms of how different they appear. The speaker’s task is to simply label the color with a word (“red,” “blue” and so on).</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/186280/original/file-20170917-25673-migist.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/186280/original/file-20170917-25673-migist.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/186280/original/file-20170917-25673-migist.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=252&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186280/original/file-20170917-25673-migist.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=252&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186280/original/file-20170917-25673-migist.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=252&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186280/original/file-20170917-25673-migist.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186280/original/file-20170917-25673-migist.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186280/original/file-20170917-25673-migist.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Participants had to communicate one of the 80 color chip choices from across the color grid.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Richard Futrell and Edward Gibson</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To evaluate the communication-based idea, we need to think of color-naming in simple communication terms, which can be formalized by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_theory">information theory</a>. Suppose the color I select at random is N4. I choose a word to label the color that I picked. Maybe the word I choose is “blue.” If I had picked A3, I would have never said “blue.” And if I had picked M3, maybe I would have said “blue,” maybe “green” or something else.</p>
<p>Now in this thought experiment, you as a listener are trying to guess which physical color I meant. You can choose a whole set of color chips that you think corresponds to my color “blue.” Maybe you pick a set of 12 color chips corresponding to all those in columns M, N and O. I say yes, because my chip is in fact one of those. Then you split your set in half and guess again.</p>
<p>The number of guesses it takes the ideal listener to zero in on my color chip based on the color word I used is a simple score for the chip. We can calculate this score – the number of guesses or “bits” – using some simple math from the way in which many people label the colors in a simple color-labeling task. Using these scores, we can now rank the colors across the grid, in any language. </p>
<p>In English, it turns out that people can convey the warm colors – reds, oranges and yellows – more efficiently (with fewer guesses) than the cool colors – blues and greens. You can see this in the color grid: There are fewer competitors for what might be labeled “red,” “orange” or “yellow” than there are colors that would be labeled “blue” or “green.” This is true in spite of the fact that the grid itself is perceptually more or less uniform: The colors were selected to completely cover the most saturated colors of the Munsell color space, and each pair of neighboring colors looks equally close, no matter where they are on the grid.</p>
<p>We found that this generalization is true in every language in the entire World Color Survey (110 languages) and in three more that we did detailed experiments on: English, Spanish and Tsimane’.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/186385/original/file-20170918-8258-oz7qnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/186385/original/file-20170918-8258-oz7qnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/186385/original/file-20170918-8258-oz7qnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=686&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186385/original/file-20170918-8258-oz7qnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=686&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186385/original/file-20170918-8258-oz7qnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=686&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186385/original/file-20170918-8258-oz7qnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=862&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186385/original/file-20170918-8258-oz7qnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=862&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186385/original/file-20170918-8258-oz7qnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=862&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Each row orders the color chips for one language: Colors farther left are easier to communicate, those farther to the right are harder to communicate.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Richard Futrell</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It’s clear in a visual representation, where each row is an ordering of the color chips for a particular language. The left-to-right ordering is from easiest to communicate (fewest guesses needed to get the right color) to hardest to communicate.</p>
<p>The diagram shows that all languages have roughly the same order, with the warm colors on the left (easy to communicate) and the cool ones on the right (harder to communicate). This generalization occurs in spite of the fact that languages near the bottom of the figure have few terms that people use consistently, while languages near the top (like English and Spanish) have many terms that most people use consistently.</p>
<h2>We name the colors of things we want to talk about</h2>
<p>In addition to discovering this remarkable universal across languages, we also wanted to find out what causes it. Recall that our idea is that maybe we introduce words into a language when there is something that we want to talk about. So perhaps this effect arises because objects – the things we want to talk about – tend to be warm-colored.</p>
<p>We evaluated this hypothesis in a database of 20,000 photographs of objects that people at Microsoft had decided contained objects, as distinct from backgrounds. (<a href="https://doi.org/10.1109/TPAMI.2010.70">This data set</a> is available to train and test computer vision systems that are trying to learn to identify objects.) Our colleagues then determined the specific boundaries of the object in each image and where the background was. </p>
<p>We mapped the colors in the images onto our set of 80 colors across the color space. It turned out that indeed objects are more likely to be warm-colored, while backgrounds are cool-colored. If an image’s pixel fell within an object, it was more likely to correspond to a color that was easier to communicate. Objects’ colors tended to fall further to the left on our ranked ordering of communicative efficiency.</p>
<p>When you think about it, this doesn’t seem so surprising after all. Backgrounds are sky, water, grass, trees: all cool-colored. The objects that we want to talk about are warm-colored: people, animals, berries, fruits and so on.</p>
<p>Our hypothesis also easily explains why more color terms come into a language with industrialization. With increases in technology come improved ways of purifying pigments and making new ones, as well as new color displays. So we can make objects that differ based only on color – for instance, the new iPhone comes in <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/photos-iphone-7-2016-9">“rose gold” and “gold”</a> – which makes color-naming even more useful.</p>
<p>So contrary to the earlier nativist visual salience hypothesis, the communication hypothesis helped identify a true cross-linguistic universal – warm colors are easier to communicate than cool ones – and it easily explains the cross-cultural differences in color terms. It also explains why color words often come into a language not as color words but as object or substance labels. For instance, “orange” comes from the fruit; “red” comes from Sanskrit for blood. In short, we label things that we want to talk about.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84117/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ted Gibson receives funding from the linguistics program at the National Science Foundation, Award 1534318.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bevil Conway receives funding from the Intramural Research Program of the National Eye Institute.</span></em></p>
People across the globe all see millions of distinct colors. But the terms we use to describe them vary across cultures. New cognitive science research suggests it’s about what we want to communicate.
Ted Gibson, Professor of Cognitive Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Bevil R. Conway, Investigator at the National Eye Institute's Sensation, Cognition, Action Unit, National Institutes of Health
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/68641
2016-11-16T13:26:50Z
2016-11-16T13:26:50Z
Red, yellow, pink and green: How the world’s languages name the rainbow
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146234/original/image-20161116-13506-10ayrig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=307%2C71%2C3877%2C2628&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">How many colors in your language's rainbow?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-130215719.html">Eye image via www.shutterstock.com.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is striking that English color words come from many sources. Some of the more exotic ones, like “vermilion” and “chartreuse,” were borrowed from French, and are named after the color of a particular item (a type of mercury and a liquor, respectively). But even our words “black” and “white” didn’t originate as color terms. “Black” comes from a word meaning “burnt,” and “white” comes from a word meaning “shining.” </p>
<p>Color words vary a lot across the world. Most languages have between two and 11 basic color words. English, for example, has the full set of 11 basic colors: black, white, red, green, yellow, blue, pink, gray, brown, orange and purple. In a 1999 survey by linguists <a href="http://www1.icsi.berkeley.edu/%7Ekay/">Paul Kay</a> and <a href="http://terralingua.org/">Luisa Maffi</a>, languages were <a href="http://wals.info/feature/133A#2/22.3/153.7">roughly equally distributed</a> between the basic color categories that they tracked.</p>
<p>In languages with fewer terms than this – such as the Alaskan language Yup'ik with its five terms – the range of a word expands. For example, for languages without a separate word for “orange,” hues that we’d call “orange” in English might be named by the same color that English speakers would call “red” or “yellow.” We can think of these terms as a system that together cover the visible spectrum, but where individual terms are centered on various parts of that spectrum.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146097/original/image-20161115-31138-1hotkg5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146097/original/image-20161115-31138-1hotkg5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146097/original/image-20161115-31138-1hotkg5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146097/original/image-20161115-31138-1hotkg5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146097/original/image-20161115-31138-1hotkg5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146097/original/image-20161115-31138-1hotkg5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146097/original/image-20161115-31138-1hotkg5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146097/original/image-20161115-31138-1hotkg5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Illustration of a color system with 20 hues.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MunsellColorWheel.svg">Thenoizz</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Does that mean that speakers of languages with fewer words for colors see less color? No, just as English speakers can see the difference between the “blue” of the sky and the “blue” of an M&M. Moreover, if language words limited our perception of color, words wouldn’t be able to change; speakers would not be able to add new distinctions. </p>
<p>My colleague <a href="http://hannahhaynie.com/">Hannah Haynie</a> and <a href="http://campuspress.yale.edu/clairebowern">I</a> were interested in how color terms might change over time, and in particular, in how color terms might change as a system. That is, do the words change independently, or does change in one word trigger a change in others? <a href="http://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1613666113">In our research, recently published in the journal PNAS</a>, we used a computer modeling technique more common in biology than linguistics to investigate typical patterns and rates of color term change. Contrary to previous assumptions, what we found suggests that color words aren’t unique in how they evolve in language.</p>
<h2>Questioning common conceptions on colors</h2>
<p>Previous work (such as by anthropological linguists <a href="http://www.ucpress.edu/op.php?isbn=9780520076358">Brent Berlin and Paul Kay</a>) has suggested that the order in which new color terms are added to a language is largely fixed. Speakers begin with two terms – one covering “black” and dark hues, the other covering “white” and light hues. There are plenty of languages with only two color terms, but in all cases, one of the color terms is centered on “black” and the other on “white.”</p>
<p>When a language has three terms, the third is one is almost always centered on hues that English speakers would call “red.” There are no languages with three color terms where the named colors are centered on black, white and light green, for example. If a language has four color terms, they will be black, white, red and either yellow or green. In the next stage, both yellow and green are present, while the next color terms to be added are blue and brown (in that order). Cognitive scientists and linguists such as <a href="http://lclab.berkeley.edu/papers/tics2-published.pdf">Terry Regier</a> have argued that these particular parts of the color spectrum are most noticeable for people.</p>
<p>Berlin and Kay also hypothesized that language speakers don’t lose color terms. For example, once a language has a distinction between “red-like” hues (such as blood) and “yellow-like” ones (such as bananas), they wouldn’t collapse the distinction and go back to calling them all by the same color name again.</p>
<p>This would make color words quite different from other areas of language change, where words come and go. For example, words can <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/01105-6">change their meaning</a> when they are used metaphorically, but over time the metaphoric meaning becomes basic. They can broaden or narrow their meanings; for example, English “starve” used to mean “die” (generally), not “die of hunger,” as it primarily means now. “Starve” has also acquired metaphorical meanings.</p>
<p>That there’s something unique about the stability of color concepts is an assumption we wanted to investigate. We were also interested in patterns of color naming and where color terms come from. And we wanted to look at the rates of change – that is, if color terms are added, do speakers tend to add lots of them? Or are the additions more independent, with color terms added one at a time?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146236/original/image-20161116-13506-15zf4h7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146236/original/image-20161116-13506-15zf4h7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146236/original/image-20161116-13506-15zf4h7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146236/original/image-20161116-13506-15zf4h7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146236/original/image-20161116-13506-15zf4h7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146236/original/image-20161116-13506-15zf4h7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146236/original/image-20161116-13506-15zf4h7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146236/original/image-20161116-13506-15zf4h7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Everyone sees them all, but languages divide them into different color terms.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=300363659&src=lb-29877982">Colors image via www.shutterstock.com.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Modeling how a language tree grew</h2>
<p>We tested these ideas using color words in Australian Aboriginal languages. We worked with Australian languages (rather than European or other languages) for several reasons. Color demarcations vary in Indo-European, but the number of colors in each language is pretty similar; the ranges differ but the number of colors don’t vary very much. Russian has two terms that cover the hues that English speakers call “blue,” but Indo-European languages have many terms.</p>
<p>In contrast, Australian languages are a lot more variable, ranging from systems like Darkinyung’s, with just two terms (<em>mining</em> for “black” and <em>barag</em> for “white”), to languages like Kaytetye, where there are at least eight colors, or Bidyara with six. That variation gave us more points of data. Also, there are simply a lot of languages in Australia: Of the more than 400 spoken at the time of European settlement, we had color data for 189 languages of the Pama-Nyungan family, from the <a href="http://pamanyungan.net/chirila">Chirila</a> <a href="https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/handle/10125/24685/bowern.pdf">database</a> of Australian languages.</p>
<p>In order to answer these questions, we used techniques originally developed in biology. Phylogenetic methods use computers to study the remote past. In brief, we use probability theory, combined with a family tree of languages, to make a model of what the history of the color words might have been.</p>
<p>First, we construct a tree that shows how languages are related to one another. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pama_nyungan">contemporary Pama-Nyungan languages</a> are all descended from a single ancestor language. Over 6,000 years, Proto-Pama-Nyungan split into different dialects, and those dialects turned into different languages: about 300 of them at the time of the European settlement of Australia. Linguists usually show those splits on a family tree diagram. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/145959/original/image-20161115-30749-1mlxf6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/145959/original/image-20161115-30749-1mlxf6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/145959/original/image-20161115-30749-1mlxf6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=842&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145959/original/image-20161115-30749-1mlxf6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=842&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145959/original/image-20161115-30749-1mlxf6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=842&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145959/original/image-20161115-30749-1mlxf6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1059&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145959/original/image-20161115-30749-1mlxf6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1059&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145959/original/image-20161115-30749-1mlxf6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1059&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Family tree of Australian languages with their color terms and reconstructions of color systems for major subgroups.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Haynie and Bowern (2016): Figure 3</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Then, we build a model for that tree of how different features (in this case, color terms) are gained or lost, and how quickly those features might change. This is a complicated problem; we estimate likely reconstructions, evaluate that model for how well it fits our hypotheses, tweak the model parameters a bit to produce a different set of results, score that model, and so on. We repeat this many times (millions of times, usually) and then take a random sample of our estimates. This method is due originally to evolutionary biologists <a href="http://www.evolution.reading.ac.uk/">Mark Pagel and Andrew Meade</a>.</p>
<p>Estimates that are very consistent (like reconstructing terms for “black,” “white” and “red”) are highly likely to be good reconstructions. Other forms were consistently reconstructed as absent (for instance, “blue” from many parts of the tree). A third set of forms were more variable, such as “yellow” and “green” in some parts of the tree; in that case, we have some evidence they were present, but it’s unclear. </p>
<p>Our results supported some of the previous findings, but questioned others. In general, our findings backed up Berlin and Kay’s ideas about the sequential adding of terms, in the order they proposed. For the most part, our color data showed that Australian languages also show the patterns of color term naming that have been proposed elsewhere in the world; if there are three named colors, they will be black, white and red (not, for example, black, white and purple). But we show that it is most likely that Australian languages have lost color terms, as well as gained them. This contradicts 40 years of assumptions of how color terms change – and makes color words look a lot more like other words. </p>
<p>We also looked at where the color words themselves came from. Some were old in the family, and seemed to go back as color terms. Others relate to the environment (like <em>tyimpa</em> for “black” in Yandruwandha, which is related to a word which means “ashes” in other languages) or to other color words (compare Yolŋu <em>miku</em> for “red,” which also sometimes means simply “colored”). So Australian languages show similar sources of color terms to languages elsewhere in the world: color words change when people draw analogies with items in their environment.</p>
<p>Our research shows the potential for using language change to study areas of science that have previously been more closely examined by fields such as psychology. Psychologists and psycholinguists have described how constraints from our vision systems lead to particular areas of the color spectrum being named. We show that these constraints apply to color loss as well as gain. Just as it’s a lot easier to see a chameleon when it moves, language change makes it possible to see how words are working.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/68641/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Claire Bowern receives funding from the National Science Foundation and the Australian Research Council. She is Vice-President of the Endangered Language Fund. </span></em></p>
New research investigates how people sequentially add new color terms to languages over time – and the results hold surprises about assumptions linguists have made for 40 years.
Claire Bowern, Associate Professor of Linguistics, Yale University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/52251
2016-01-08T11:19:06Z
2016-01-08T11:19:06Z
What Pantone’s colors of 2016 mean for the future of design
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/107593/original/image-20160107-13983-1rih18g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Shades of pink and blue: for the first time, Pantone has chosen a blending of two colors. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-349930397/stock-photo-mountains-landscape-at-sunrise-cloudy-sky-in-pastel-colors-for-your-design-serenity-and-rose.html?src=ObCZthvk9wCL7nx6OWjJAg-1-1">'Landscape' via www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Pantone, the global authority on color standards for the design industries, recently announced its colors of the year for 2016: <a href="https://www.pantone.com/color-of-the-year-2016">Rose Quartz and Serenity</a>, which are muted shades of pink and blue, respectively. </p>
<p>It’s the first time Pantone has chosen <a href="http://www.pantone.com/color-of-the-year-2016?from=hpSlider">the blending of two shades</a> instead of one (past choices include <a href="http://www.pantone.com/images/pages/20758/wallpaper/Marsala_wallpaper_Pantone_Color_of_the_Year_2015-2048x1536.jpg">Marsala</a>, <a href="http://kenisahome.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/pantone-color-of-the-year-radiant-orchid-main.jpg">Radiant Orchid</a> and <a href="http://kenisahome.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/pantone-color-of-the-year-radiant-orchid-main.jpg">Emerald</a>). According to the company, by breaking from tradition, <a href="http://www.pantone.com/pages/fcr/?season=spring&year=2016&pid=11">it hopes to</a> “transcend cultural and gender norms.” </p>
<p>In its choice, Pantone seems to be suggesting doing away with the practice of associating colors with gender – something that’s actually a relatively recent phenomenon, and can restrict the colors designers use. For decades, pink has been associated with girls and blue with boys. Could Pantone’s decision to focus on gender influence the designs of everything, from clothing to house paints?</p>
<h2>Why am I Mr. Pink?</h2>
<p>There is nothing intrinsically female about the color pink, nor is there anything intrinsically male about the color blue. Rather, popular culture – and buckets of advertising dollars – have largely dictated how we perceive the color-gender relationship. </p>
<p>In Quentin Tarantino’s <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105236/">Reservoir Dogs</a> (1992), five strangers chosen to commit the perfect crime sit together, presumably meeting for the first time. Each is given a colorful alias to conceal his true identity, leading to some complaints from Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi), who’s perturbed about the name’s effeminate connotations (“Why am <em>I</em> Mr. Pink?”). </p>
<p>A century ago, viewers would have been confused by Mr. Pink’s reaction. At various points in history, these gender-color connections have actually had <em>opposite</em> roles. The color pink, which is a shade of red (the color of blood and wartime), has <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/08/pink-wasnt-always-girly/278535/">historically been a masculine color</a>. Blue, a color that is <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/24/magazine/24princess.t.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all">associated with the Virgin Mary</a>, was historically considered feminine – and still is in many parts of the world. </p>
<p>The color order that we’ve become accustomed to wasn’t established until the 1940s, when gender-specific clothing began being dictated by manufacturers and retailers. Eventually, boys and girls required different clothes, different toys – even different interior designs in their rooms and nurseries. Popular products like Barbie (primarily marketed to young females) would end up playing a role in shaping our color stereotypes. (In fact, Barbie has her own Pantone color: <a href="http://www.designboom.com/art/pantone-pink-barbie/">Barbie Pink</a>!)</p>
<p>With the arrival of the women’s liberation movement in the 1960s, fashion shifted away from gender-specific clothing as girls embraced more masculine styles. A decade later, fashion moved toward a more neutral palette. There was even a two-year stretch in the 1970s <a href="http://brooks.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/22/pink-and-blue/?_r=0">when <em>no</em> pink clothing appeared in the Sears, Roebuck and Co. catalogue</a>. Many argued that little girls should be dressed more like boys to encourage them to be more assertive.</p>
<p>In the 1980s, we witnessed a shift toward gender-specific color purchases, especially for children. With the advent of prenatal testing (along with more discretionary income), families could now plan farther in advance – and spend significant amounts on products – in preparation for the expected baby girl or boy. <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/when-did-girls-start-wearing-pink-1370097/">Even disposable diapers were sold in pink and blue</a>. </p>
<h2>Colors in a gender-blurring world</h2>
<p>Today we’re more connected than ever – and <a href="https://today.yougov.com/news/2014/04/08/truth-advertising-50-dont-trust-what-they-see-read/">more skeptical about the advertising we’re exposed to</a>. Consumers have become increasingly sensitive to the methods used to reinforce these social conventions in order to bolster profits. </p>
<p>We’re also in the midst of a movement to narrow the gender divide, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/20/fashion/in-fashion-gender-lines-are-blurring.html">particularly in fashion</a>. The burgeoning trend of genderless fashion is being dictated by a new generation of individuals who accept styles without the traditional boundaries of previous generations. They recognize that their role as a consumer is not just about the product, but rather about being a part of a larger movement.</p>
<p>The combination of Serenity and Rose Quartz was featured on the runways for both men and women and highlighted in the <a href="https://www.pantone.com/pages/fcr/?season=Spring&year=2016">Pantone Fashion Color Report Spring 2016</a>. This will inevitably bleed into other areas of design, from interiors to product design. When conveying meaning and purpose to consumers, products and packages may abandon the use of traditional gender-color associations. As an alternative, designers could employ colors associated with emotions and lifestyles in order to to entice and connect. </p>
<p>As we’ve seen, the color-gender link isn’t concrete. The boundaries built by generations before us could soon be knocked down. With this year’s selection, Pantone is among a select few wielding a hammer. <a href="http://www.pantone.com/color-of-the-year-2016?from=hpSlider">By recognizing</a> the cultural and “societal movements towards gender equality and fluidity,” Pantone is paving the way for future generations to be less concerned about being typecast or judged for embracing unexpected and unique colors. </p>
<p>And perhaps being called Mr. Pink won’t be so insulting after all.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/52251/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ryan Russell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The global color authority seems intent on obliterating the confines of gender-color associations.
Ryan Russell, Associate Professor of Graphic Design, Penn State
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.