Norway is historically an ice-skating super-power. It’s competing heavily with the Netherlands, which delivered Sven Kramer, the reigning allround skating world champion. But now the Norwegians have found the ultimate weapon to gain back the championship: the color blue. For the first time in 40 years, the Norwegian athletes wear blue skin suits.
Norwegian researcher Håvard Myklebust found that the color of the skin suit influences its speed. “We wouldn’t have chosen the color blue if it weren’t for the effect. It influences the speed profile for the air resistance of the fabric. The Dutch think they have the best suits, but we think they’re wrong.”
Kees Venner, a Dutch researcher, ripostes: “80% of the friction of a skater is aerodynamic. Dinimishing the friction with only 1% can make the difference between winning or loosing. However, air can’t perceive the color of the suit. So I don’t think it will have any influence.”
We’ll see who is right at the next speed skating championship which will take place in Amsterdam.
The Expanding Palette of Colors
Ever since the stone age, people have added colors to the world's natural palette. This shifted human vision and experience, literally adding shades to our perception of the world.
Still, there’s something universal that remains constant and common over peoples and time, it seems, in both simple and complex societies. We can see it in the similarities in the language of colors across tongues, according to cognitive scientist Edward Gibson of MIT.
See the video or read the recent article on MIT News.
Materials Color
As far as I'm concerned, it's always about color combinations, never about single colors. Colors only exist by virtue of other colors. White wouldn't exist without black. Green wouldn't exist without red.
It appears that Google has the same belief.
For the UI of the Android platform, they developed a very cool online tool to test if your color combinations work or not. It's mostly about contrast, never about single colors. Should a button stand out? Can everyone read your text? You can check it here.
The Color Of The Universe
Not to be outdone by the Dutch, US scientists assigned an official color to the universe. The color is named Cosmic Latte and its hexadecimal RGB value is #FFF8E7.
Science first identified turquoise as the color of the universe. However, that appeared to be a software error. Fortunately, because who wants to live in a turquoise universe?
There's No Blue In This Image
Or is there? It depends on whether you think color is something that happens inside your brain or a quality of a surface. In any case, this image contains no blue pixels. None at all. The boxes appear blue by virtue of the contrast with the brown/orange color in the image. Check it in Photoshop, if you don't believe it.
It is another interesting example of color constancy. The image was produced by Japanese professor Akiyoshi Kitaoka.
Hooker Red
It's official. The Amsterdam red light district has its own red paint color, which will go nicely with the red lights.
As you may know, Amsterdam is famous for its red light district. Prostitution is considered a legal, albeit heavily regulated trade. Most people in Amsterdam frown upon prostitution. However, because it is as old as the world, they figure it won't go away any time soon either. Therefor it's better to regulate it, so that at least they can keep the criminals out the door, who generally run the trade. This policy has given way to the famous town district.
Engels Verf, a well known local paint retailer, has taken it upon themselves to establish an official 'hooker red'. They collaborated with actual prostitutes to pick the 'real' red for the red light district. The color was unveiled recently at the occasion of the opening a new branche of the business.
