We are surrounded by color blue! Blue is deeply embedded in every dimension of human life, from the skies above us and the seas around us to the fruits we eat and the human eyes we experience this all with. We could list blue things until we are blue in the face, so let’s take a moment to learn some blue facts!
5 Color Blue Facts
- Blue Morpho butterfly’s wings are blue because of the physical structure. (source) Structural colors are created by the physical form of certain animals, plants, and minerals. The Blue Morpho butterfly has wings that are covered with microscopic scales that have tiny grooves in them; the grooves amplify the color blue while canceling out all other colors.
- Less than 1 in 10 plants and far few animals are blue. (source) Very few plants have blue leaves (although there are a few species that dwell on tropical rainforest floors). This is mainly due to the physics of light. Pigments appear as the color of the light they reflect, meaning they do not absorb it. The most common pigment in plants is green chlorophyll, so most plants appear green. Blue light provides more energy than any other light on the visible spectrum, so most plants evolved to be able to absorb that light.
- Blue appears the most often in Fortune 500 company logos. (source) 38% of Fortune 500 company logos contained blue! Blue may be a favorite choice for branding because we associate many positive things with blue, such as clear skies and clean water.
- Blue is the second-most common eye color globally. (source) Despite being the second most abundant eye color, only 8-10% of people in the world have blue eyes. Blue eyes have the least melanin (pigment-producing substance) out of any other eye color. So it is not blue pigment that makes eyes blue, it is the lack of pigment.
- Blue light is believed to ease impulsiveness and create a sense of calm. (source) In 2009, blue lights were installed along Yamanote railway line platforms in Tokyo. Incredibly, suicide rates at these stations dropped 74%.
