Portrait of Madame Gely by Frederick Carl Frieseke (1907).
Public Domain Review
From Madame de Pompadour to punks and pussy protest hats, pink has always been the colour of choice for those who dare to make a statement.
Shutterstock
We wanted to understand the ways in which predatory animals eavesdrop on the sexual ‘conversations’ of their prey.
James Joyce was particular about the shade of blue that would grace the cover of Ulysses.
Wikimedia
An ode to his hero Homer? The act of a man losing his sight? What is the story behind the famous Ulysses blue.
Shutterstock/C_Atta
An astronomer’s guide to all the colours of the sky.
Hoverfly (Eristalis tenax ) feeding on marigold.
Fir0002/Flagstaffotos
Plants use their flower colours for ‘brand recognition’ among insects - but also work together to attract more pollinators.
Shutterstock
Through a bee’s eyes, blue flowers are more common than you’d think — and they could be used to monitor environmental health.
Light from our setting sun reflecting off storm clouds can give off a some vivid shades of pinks, purples and oranges.
Jake Clark
It’s all to do with the light from the Sun and a blanket of air wrapped around Earth called the ‘atmosphere’.
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Pink blood, green blood, or no blood at all – when it comes to what’s inside a worm’s body, the answer is more complicated – and fascinating – than you’d think.
A Furcifer pardalis (panther chameleon) sleeps in a tree in Madagascar.
Mark D. Scherz
All chameleons are able to change colour at least a little bit, but some species can do it much more than others.
Shutterstock
Viruses exist in a realm where there is no light and colour has no meaning. In their COVID-19 depictions, designers, illustrators and communicators make some highly creative and evocative decisions.
The Orange Problem, 2019, Acrylic on panel, 72 x 72 cm. © Robert Pepperell 2019.
The author
When we look at art we may not all see the same thing. It all depends on what happens in our brains.
FJAH/Shutterstock
Scientists have discovered how the wise old barn owl is so good at catching rodents.
Experimentally heated quartzite at different stages of heating.
Bentsen and Wurz, 2019, Journal of Field Archaeology
Researchers can more easily compare heated rocks from different studies and areas.
We don’t all see the same.
Shutterstock.
What colours we see depends not just on how things are in the world around us, but also on what happens in our eyes and our brains.
In the wild, when crabs and prawns are freely moving on the ocean floor, their shells usually have a dull colour.
Cindy Zhi NY-BD-CC
When crustaceans are cooked, some chemicals in their shells react with heat and change colour.
Pexels
How our life experiences change the way we perceive colours.
Claude Monet, France, 1840-1926, La pie (The magpie), 1868-1869, oil on canvas, 121.4 x 164.1 cm.
Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France, ©photo Musée d'Orsay / rmn
Claude Monet painted The Magpie in winter 1868, turning his interest in colour on the blank canvass of snow.
Esref Armagan.
Turkish painter Esref Armagan uses colour and perspective that he has never seen.
Green screen technology has become a common feature of film and TV production.
Vancouver Film School/Flickr
From Superman to Jurassic Park, green screen technology is what makes the jaw-dropping effects you see in blockbuster movies possible. But how does it work?
Cate Watkinson, Colour Columns. © Chris Davis
An unlikely combination of artists, medieval historians, philosophers and scientists have converged to create an exhibition of glass artworks.