Blue: In Search of Nature’s Rarest Color

Kupferschmidt, a science journalist, takes a deep look at the color blue, which has fascinated humans for millennia. He meets a chemist in Oregon who has created the first new shade of blue in two centuries, then dives into the history of the human attraction to blue. It starts with ancient Egyptians, who buried their pharaohs with lapis lazuli stones and were the first to perfect the creation of blue shades in ceramics. Kupferschmidt also explains how the human eye perceives blue: the arrangement of atoms in a substance causes some light wavelengths to be absorbed. Most of the blue seen in nature, on birds and flowers, is reflected back to the eye after reds and yellows have been absorbed by the atoms in the object being seen. Kupferschmidt explains these phenomena in detail and examines the evolution of the color blue. He visits a Japanese company that is trying—unsuccessfully, so far—to breed a blue rose, and examines linguistics studies that account for variations in names for blue across cultures. Vivid photographs enhance the text.