A technique called portable X-ray fluorescence has helped Egyptologists identify changes and adjustments to details of tomb decoration that are invisible to the human eye.
We wanted to find out which biological phenomena are crucial for pattern formation and which are just incidental. These sorts of questions can be answered with mathematical modelling.
Did you recently hear news that Earth’s oldest pigments were hot pink? That’s not quite right. When they were in living bacteria a billion years ago, they were performing photosynthesis – and green.
Less-toxic hair dye would be a great invention. But discounting the risks that come with nanoparticles could undermine other efforts to protect human health and environmental from their effects.
Hokusai’s Great Wave is the enduring image of Japanese art. Less well known is the story of its primary pigment - Prussian blue - which was created in a lab accident in Berlin and sparked ‘blue fever’ in Europe.
A US study into whether a new drug can give us a tan without going into the sun generated headlines around the world. Here’s what the study really says.
Children living with albinism are very vulnerable to attack, kidnapping, mutilation and murder. In Tanzania, fear is keeping many children away from school and costing them an education.
One of nature’s most spectacular events occurs every autumn, when the leaves of hardwood trees burst into brilliant color before falling to the ground. These autumnal displays in the eastern United States…