Why Is Blue So Rare In Nature?

Duh, except for the sky… and the ocean…
↓↓↓ More info and sources below ↓↓↓

Among living things, the color blue is oddly rare. Blue rocks, blue sky, blue water, sure. But blue animals? They are few and far between. And the ones that do make blue? They make it in some very strange and special ways compared to other colors. In this video, we'll look at some very cool butterflies to help us learn how living things make blue, and why this beautiful hue is so rare in nature.

SPECIAL THANKS:
Smithsonian Institution - National Museum of Natural History
Bob Robbins, Ph.D. - Curator of Lepidoptera
Juan Pablo Hurtado Padilla - Microscope Educator

Richard Prum, Ph.D. - Yale University
Vinothan Manoharan, Ph.D. - Harvard University

SOURCES:

Bagnara, J. T., Fernandez, P. J., & Fujii, R. (2007). On the blue coloration of vertebrates. Pigment Cell & Melanoma Research, 20(1), 14-26.

Cuthill, I. C., Allen, W. L., Arbuckle, K., Caspers, B., Chaplin, G., Hauber, M. E., ... & Mappes, J. (2017). The biology of color. Science, 357(6350), eaan0221.

Kinoshita, S., Yoshioka, S., & Miyazaki, J. (2008). Physics of structural colors. Reports on Progress in Physics, 71(7), 076401.

Kinoshita, S. (2008). Structural colors in the realm of nature. World Scientific.

Prum, R. O., Quinn, T., & Torres, R. H. (2006). Anatomically diverse butterfly scales all produce structural colours by coherent scattering. Journal of Experimental Biology, 209(4), 748-765.

Vukusic, P., & Sambles, J. R. (2003). Photonic structures in biology. Nature, 424(6950), 852-855.

Vukusic, P., Sambles, J. R., Lawrence, C. R., & Wootton, R. J. (1999). Quantified interference and diffraction in single Morpho butterfly scales. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences, 266(1427), 1403-1411.

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It's Okay To Be Smart is hosted by Joe Hanson, Ph.D.
Director: Joe Nicolosi
Writer: Joe Hanson, Ph.D.
Producer/editor/animator: Jordan Husmann
Producer: Stephanie Noone and Amanda Fox

Produced by PBS Digital Studios
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[besmart]

You never notice how rare blue is, until you do, and then you (don't) see it *everywhere*.

Leave a comment and let me know what you thought of this week's video! And commence the blue-pun party

[Shirrako]

"Why Is Blue So Rare In Nature?"

The Sky: am I a joke to you?

[clortz]

He missed the perfect chance to say "blue-tiful"

[mohammadgalihputra]

Nature: "Animals can't be blue!"
Chameleon: "Allow me to introduce myself..."

[Forenzikproductions]

Blue is my favorite color and it's not even real on animals.

[danielnajerabetancourt]

I got to be honest: I didn’t search for this, yet is one of the best mind blowing videos out there.

[JeyPeyy]

"Butterflies are A-W-E-S-O-M-E, make no mistake!" This is a dude who loves his job

[captainamerica]

even blue LED's were hard to make

[tsukasa]

“But when I learned how this works... It kinda *blue* my mind”

[graciousgacha]

Why is blue rare in nature?

Purple: hold my beer

[jonathanlevitz]

Meanwhile in a parallel universe: A butterfly has a boxes of human corpses and says "Humans are Awesome!"

[davibartav]

What a nice video. Interesting subject, well-founded, nice narration, nice edition, nice illustrations, nice animation! 👏 People that watch have no idea of how much work is required to create such a nice product like this. Nice job, guys!

[shaggyhascancer]

Butterflies be like: “It’s not about the colors, it’s about sending a message..”

[sanchayspidy]

Humans: Blue is rare in nature
Aliens: That planet is totally Blue

[eatpant]

Water- Blue but not really
Butterfly-Blue but not really

Water=Butterfly

[rhjjrtj]

nature is miraculous. The way as I see it, for human being it is impossible to know all about nature, but nothing can deter me from being interested in nature

[jimjankowski]

"Nature doesn't do halfway with blue"

Literally 10 seconds earlier: "Even blue whales aren't that blue"

[lewiss]

“Why is blue soo rare in nature?”


Me thinking about purple:

[tishaflorence]

"There are no Blue Squirrels"
Me: *hold my beer*

[juliejohnson]

Blueberries, blue potato, blue corn, forget-me-not flowers, cornflowers (blue), rare blue lobster, blue dragonfly, bluebirds, butterfly, etc 💙