Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #TuesdayisBluesday
Most recents (3)
Roses are red
but never blue.
If you’re wondering why,
I’ve got a thread for you
(and a book of course ;))
#tuesdayisbluesday
but never blue.
If you’re wondering why,
I’ve got a thread for you
(and a book of course ;))
#tuesdayisbluesday
Last week I wrote a thread about the beautiful blue of the cornflower and the chemistry behind it, but I also mentioned that blue is rare in flowers. So let’s talk about the blue that isn’t there today. And the scientists trying to change that
Many flowers don’t naturally come in true blue:
tulips, carnations, chrysanthemums or orchids, for instance (the blue orchids you can buy in stores are usually artificially coloured), and - most famously - roses.
tulips, carnations, chrysanthemums or orchids, for instance (the blue orchids you can buy in stores are usually artificially coloured), and - most famously - roses.
Last week I wrote a thread on Prussian Blue including a quote from Fontane’s Frau Jenny Treibel:
“What are all the cornflowers in the world compared with a Prussian blue factory?”
So it seems only fair to talk about the blue of the cornflower today...
#TuesdayisBluesday
“What are all the cornflowers in the world compared with a Prussian blue factory?”
So it seems only fair to talk about the blue of the cornflower today...
#TuesdayisBluesday
Blue flowers are beautiful but they are also quite rare.
Gardeners and naturalists had long noticed that a true blue seemed less common in flowers than a vibrant red or yellow. Goethe mentioned this in his “Theory of Colors” published in 1810, for instance:
Gardeners and naturalists had long noticed that a true blue seemed less common in flowers than a vibrant red or yellow. Goethe mentioned this in his “Theory of Colors” published in 1810, for instance:
This fascinated artists.
In German romanticism the blue flower became a symbol of longing, of the unattainable.
Joseph von Eichendorff wrote:
“I seek the flower of blue
Seek yet never can find.
I dream that in its hue
My happiness is enshrined."
In German romanticism the blue flower became a symbol of longing, of the unattainable.
Joseph von Eichendorff wrote:
“I seek the flower of blue
Seek yet never can find.
I dream that in its hue
My happiness is enshrined."
People often ask me what I find so fascinating about blue and what it has to do with science, so here‘s a story about one particular blue from right here in Berlin:
#TuesdayisBluesday
#TuesdayisBluesday
Around 1706 alchemists in Berlin accidentally discovered a new blue. Johann Jacob Diesbach was working in the lab of Johann Konrad Dippel trying to make a red pigment, carmine. But he used some potash contaminated with animal blood by Dippel and ended up with a blue pigment.
They quickly realized the blue was stable and easy to make and that meant it was worth a fortune. Because good blue pigments were rare. Ultramarine, for instance, was laboriously made from lapis lazuli (shipped most prominently from the Badakshan region) and incredibly expensive.
