We tear into this show with a dark scene from 1665. A young Isaac Newton, hoping to ride out the plague by heading to the country to puzzle over the deep mysteries of the universe, finds himself wondering about light. And vision. He wants to get to the bottom of where color comes from--is it a physical property in the outside world, or something created back inside your eyeball somewhere? James Gleick explains how Newton unlocked the mystery of the rainbow. And, as Victoria Finlay tells us, sucked the poetry out of the heavens.
Jonah Lehrer restores some of the lost magic by way of Goethe--who turned a simple observation into a deep thought: even though color starts in the physical world, it is finished in our minds.
Which, thanks to Mark Changizi, brings us to a very serious question: what do dogs see when they look at the rainbow? We humans see seven colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet (ROYGBiV!). But as Thomas Cronin and Jay Neitz--two guys who study vision--explain, that's just a sliver of the spectrum. Along the way, we get some help imagining the rainbow from a choir, and we meet this little sea creature, who with 16 color receptors, blows the rest of us earthlings out of the water:
Mantis shrimp, photo by ursanate/flickr-CC-BY-2.0
Read more:
James Gleick, Issac Newton
Victoria Finlay, Color: A Natural History of the Palette
Comments [16]
The choir cracks me up! Great episode!
Just re-listening to this for the third time...great episode. But as in previous listenings, Thomas Cronin's voice sounds very...odd throughout your discussion with him.
It's as if it had been electronically altered in some way. It's kinda hard to describe...the word "buzzy" comes to mind.
I'm curious if there were any problems with his voice recording that necessitated any kind of modification, or if he just has a voice that reacts very oddly when recorded and listened to with headphones.
Also, don't know what his problem with indigo is, I'm no scientist but ever since I was taught about the color spectrum, indigo has been ever-present!
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Isaac Newton was color blind.
When I take a prism and a piece of white paper into the sunlight,
I can make out sixteen different colors.
Indigo falls In between blurple and pue.
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Please tell me the name of the song at 5:33 of the colors podcast.
I got a chuckle out of the reference to Goethe as a "German Romantic Poet", this is like calling Leonardo Da Vinci an Italian Painter. Goethe did foundational work in both color theory and optics....probably a little more tie to your topic than was indicated.
I'd like to see your musical playlist. That version of "Blue Moon" near the end was haunting.
This show was fascinating. As a red/green color blind woman, I knew any sons I had would also be red/green color blind. What I did not know was that my son would grow up to be an artist. He has gravitated to sculpture, where color vision is less important, but the possibility that he might someday be able to have a medical procedure that would allow him to see color like everyone else is really exciting.
I second the vote for a mantis shrimp ringtone, it made me laugh so hard i would call my own cell phone to hear it.
The expression, "to rip a new one" is highly offensive.
I have finally figured out why my wife and I do not see eye to eye in regards to sorting laundry.
All my life I've wanted to see ultraviolet and infrared. Seriously, since age five at least. The thought of being able to get some sort off gene therapy to turn me into a polychromat gave me a shiver.
Can you release the mantis shrimp hallelujah as a ringtone?
You totally blew my mind with this episode, as always! Why don't you have a TV show already? I would love to have seen this onscreen.
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