Surprising Science — March 7, 2014

This Is Not Yellow

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Your retina does not have individual cells programmed to see yellow. Then how can it tell your brain that you’re seeing the color? It turns out that it’s easy to lie to the brain. Our friends at VSauce explain how.

Image credit: Cygnus921/Flickr

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Starts With A Bang

Ask Ethan: How do scientists color the Universe?

When we see pictures from Hubble or JWST, they show the Universe in a series of brilliant colors. But what do those colors really tell us?

Colorful, blurry streaks of red, blue, and green converge towards the center on a black background, creating a dynamic and radiant starburst effect that illustrates how we see color in all its vibrant glory.

Neuropsych

Color is in the eye, and brain, of the beholder

The color of the shirt you’re wearing right now depends on many factors, from your eye shape to what language you speak.

An image of a cluster of galaxies, meaning science.

Starts With A Bang

10 thoughtful insights about the great cosmic unknowns

An in-depth interview with astronomer Kelsey Johnson, whose new book, Into the Unknown, explores what remains unknown about the Universe.

A deep-space image captured by the JWST showcases numerous galaxies of various shapes, sizes, and colors scattered across a dark background, potentially setting a new cosmic distance record.

Starts With A Bang

Why hasn’t JWST broken the cosmic distance record by more?

Despite many ultra-distant galaxy candidates found with JWST, we still haven’t seen anything from the Universe’s first 250 million years.

Starts With A Bang

The quantum physics behind fireworks displays

From the explosions themselves to their unique and vibrant colors, the fireworks displays we adore require quantum physics.

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