Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Blue is a rare color. You may look up at the sky in protest, but if you submit your environment to closer scrutiny, you will soon realize that blue occurs very rarely among animals and plants. Since their beginnings, humans have been searching for uniquely blue stones and dyes to transform fabric, porcelain, or paintings. Blue has always had a fascinating quality, as is shown in the authors' quest for a blue flower or the magical blue of a bird's feather coat. Kai Kupferschmidt succumbed to this fascination as a child, and it has stayed with him ever since. His investigation into the mysteries of this color led him to Japan, a volcanic lake in Oregon, and on to the last few Spix's macaws in Brandenburg, Germany. Rocks, plants, animals, or the distant view of our planet from the depths of space, they all bear witness to an overwhelming beauty that is reflected in our language and the written word. And it all starts with light and our ability to see.
Synopsis
A globe-trotting quest to find blue in the natural world--and to understand our collective obsession with this bewitching color Blue is a rare color--natural blue, that is. From morpho butterflies in the rain forest to the blue jay flitting past your window, vanishingly few living things are blue--and most that appear so are doing sleight of hand with physics or complex chemistry. Flowers modify the red pigment anthocyanin to achieve their blue hue. Even the blue sky above us is a trick of the light.
Yet this hard-to-spot accent color in our surroundings looms large in our affections. Science journalist Kai Kupferschmidt has been fascinated by blue since childhood. His quest to find and understand his favorite color and its hallowed place in our culture takes him to a gene-splicing laboratory in Japan, a volcanic lake in Oregon, and to Brandenburg, Germany--home of the last Spix's macaws. From deep underground where blue minerals grow into crystals to miles away in space where satellites gaze down at our "blue marble" planet, wherever we do find blue, it always has a story to tell.
Synopsis
A globe-trotting quest to find blue in the natural world--and to understand our collective obsession with this captivating color Search human history and you'll quickly conclude that we've been enamored of blue at least since the pharaohs. So, it's startling to turn to the realms of nature and discover that "true" blue is truly rare. From the rain forest's morpho butterfly to the blue jay flitting past your window, few living things are blue--and most that appear so are performing sleight of hand with physics or chemistry. Cornflowers use the pigment found in red roses to achieve their blue hue. Even the blue sky above us is a trick of the light.
Science journalist Kai Kupferschmidt has been fascinated by blue since childhood. In Blue, his quest to understand the science and nature of his favorite color takes him from a biotech laboratory in Japan and a volcanic lake in Oregon to Brandenburg, Germany-- home of the last surviving blue-feathered Spix's macaws. Whether it's deep underground where blue crystals grow or miles overhead where astronauts gaze down at our "blue marble" planet, wherever we do find Earth's rarest color, it always has a story to tell.