Full Spectrum

April 1, 2021
Photons and Pixar movies. Chromophores, cosmetics, and cave art. In this entertaining and effective account, Rogers explores the nature of color and exactly how we perceive, create, and utilize colors via an appealing mix of neuroscience, chemistry, physics, and culture. The importance of color goes beyond the way light bounces off various objects. Rogers explains, ""When we see colors, our brains are processing nothing less than the invisible subatomic world in action. Color is the way the deep mysteries of matter and energy say hello."" His discussion covers pigments (including ubiquitous titanium oxide found in paper, paint, and pharmaceutical products), an Asian beetle whose armor is ""the whitest white in the world,"" rainbows and prisms, wavelengths, Isaac Newton's Opticks, how the brain and eye work together to understand color, linguistics, artificial intelligence, and art (Monet's images of the Rouen Cathedral at different times and seasons, Mark Rothko's abstract expressionist works). Whether one's personal palette tends to Tyrian purple or warm earth tones, there is surely something in this kaleidoscopic portrait of color science to catch every eye and stir every imagination.

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Starred review from May 1, 2021

When we think of color, we might be speaking of a multitude of concepts that span many scientific disciplines: the chemistry and engineering of pigments that impart color to surfaces; the physics of light of specific wavelengths or energies; or the biology of parts of the eye and brain that detects and interprets color. Rogers (Proof: The Science of Booze) explains how industrial advances in pigment-making techniques and material craftsmanship spurred greater understanding of theories of color, which in turn led to new practical applications. Beyond these physical colorants and dyes, Rogers traces the influence of color on commerce, culture, linguistics, and psychology, as people around the globe sought better ways to depict the full spectrum of color. Much of this historical invention was in the service of faithfully recreating the natural world in art, or adorning the manufactured world in nature's colors. Color technologies of the present day allow engineers and artists, using newfound knowledge of the neurology of color perception, to expand the range of producible colors beyond what nature can offer. VERDICT This exploration of the lengths to which humankind has gone to represent the world with fidelity, and the many scientific advances that this quest has generated, will fascinate artists, scientists, and historians alike.--Wade Lee-Smith, Univ. of Toledo Lib.

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Starred review from April 1, 2021
The author of Proof: The Science of Booze (2014) returns with a lucid study of the physics, chemistry, and neuroscience of color and its influence on the human condition. The natural world is bursting with seemingly endless color, writes Wired deputy editor Rogers in this sharp, often jocular look at waves and particles, fluctuations in the Earth's magnetic and electrical fields, and the electromagnetic spectrum, of which humans only experience a small visual slice. Since prehistory, we have gone about repurposing objects around us; one example is the engineering of chemicals to provide color. Those colors are picked up by the photoreceptors in our eyes and then processed. Rogers discusses how our neurophysiological and psychophysiological impressions help create our sense of the world, examining color as knowledge (discovering a good place to find food), color as commerce (desire, rarity, trade), color as semiotics, "to know how someone will see those colors once applied." Rogers is particularly illuminating in his discussions of the history of color and our ever growing appreciation of it, from Aristotle to Arab physicists to the Chinese to the caves at Lascaux and beyond, as craft expertise blossomed into a revolution that marched in parallel with that of optics. While the author is in his element exploring the evolution of dyes and pigments, from the highly toxic to the highly opaque and bright, he is on less firm ground when approaching the "salience" of color, its "cultural and personal significance"--of course, this is understandable given that science has only begun to plumb the subject. Rogers also makes valiant attempts to discern the universality of color--"Do people who speak different languages literally see different colors?"--and through all the scientific concepts, he brings a tinder-dry humor and evident enthusiasm for the subject. From opsins to Technicolor movies, Rogers covers the colorscape with brio, dash, and crystal clearness.

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