Blue: The Science and Secrets of Nature's Rarest Color: In Search of Nature's Rarest Color

by Kai Kupferschmidt

Many heated debates that I, as a journalist, have had in recent years with friends had to do with the words we choose to use and the specter of political correctness. In these discussions I frequently argued that it was certainly right to choose our words carefully, but that it seemed futile to eradicate racist language without changing the racist attitudes of many people. It would be like putting makeup over a wound: The problem may not look as bad, but it’s still as dangerous as before. But what if the categories we use when we speak every day, quite without thinking, have an effect on our perception? If they influence the way we see the world at some fundamental level, even if only slightly, then I consider that a strong argument for taking our choice of words even more seriously. In this way, the studies on blue that I have read over the past few years have indeed changed how I view the world.