What is the rarest color in nature? - Victoria Hwang

Discover what colors are the most rare to see in nature, and how physics and evolution drive their scarcity.
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Plants, animals, or minerals found in nature bear almost every color imaginable. There are two factors that influence what hues you see in the wild: physics and evolution. So, which colors are you least likely to see in the natural world? Victoria Hwang explores one of nature’s rarest spectacles.
Lesson by Victoria Hwang, directed by Tamara Bogovac, Artrake Studio.
2:33 - Image referenced from paper by Eric R. Dufresne, Heeso Noh, Vinodkumar Saranathan, Simon G. J. Mochrie, Hui Cao and Richard O. Prum, photograph of Plum-throated Cotinga (Cotinga maynana) by Thomas Valqui, rsc.li/3xyhxGu
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Animator's website: www.artrake.com
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[@lordsiomai]

It's astounding really how TED-Ed never runs out of animation styles

[@ibrahimebaad6076]

yeah, its because of their immense creativity

[@Law-of-EnTropy]

it seems they also never run out of astounding animators

[@imsorryforarguingbut4555]

different animators = different styles

[@TheUnhanded]

They simply hire different animators from different parts of the world for each film. Some of my art teachers did animations for them :D

[@zesnowpea6347]

@@TheUnhanded what’d they do?

[@zohy98]

Absolutely ADORE this animation style! Whoever's behind it, please never stop creating! ❤️👏🏻

[@jupiter_ios]

I agree!

[@lilyludwig4323]

It's like if a textbook came to life

[@janmelon3603]

Thank you for presenting structural/scattering-based colors and pigment/absorption-based colors on equal grounds. I really appreciate it that you didn't invalidate any particular type of color by calling it "fake" in some way.

[@flamingpi2245]

If something looks like it’s a color than it is that color That’s literally what something being a color means

[@blueturquoise8668]

Violet was actually been known as one of the rarest colors in nature back then that not any flags in the world doesn’t have that much source of natural flag dyes before 1850s. Violet was actually considered as royalty as the natural dyes can only be get from one species of snail Edit: I didn’t expect that this comment would receive such attention but here is my judgement regarding to the argument. According to the video, technically violet is a color with a specific wavelength and is produced not by mixing other colors and is made either from artificial synthesis or from nature. Purple on the other hand is a color produced by combining blue and red hues. The terms were as we know it was cleared in the video. Tyrian Purple is a dye made from murex snails originally. We could infer that the dye that was made through the snails were violet because it was made through a chemical process not involving the mixture of two other colors. In much later point of history, blue and red hues were mixed to recreate tyrian purple, this is technically purple because it was mixed. However, before synthetic violet was made, the original violet dye (that wasn’t made through mixing) can be taken from this one species only of snail.

[@itsgonnabeanaurfromme]

Wow what a totally original, not at all copied comment

[@ballinbalgruuf8198]

@@itsgonnabeanaurfromme wow what a totally sarcastic, not at all unproductive and puerile comment

[@funfella5482]

Isn't that purple not violet?

[@meiken417]

@@funfella5482 I thought violet is a shade of purple

[@chusty93]

@@funfella5482 Its probably just a problem of translation if he's a non english native speaker. In spanish "purpura" (purple) and "violeta" (violet) are synonims.

[@Jake-isCool]

This is probably the most beautifully animated Ted ed short I've ever seen, absolutely wonderful!!!

[@lyannelove7359]

Purple (Violet) is really a wonderful beauty and I love it! One fact about color violet that back in 17th and 18th century, to find a pigment of violet is much harder so that's why most colors seen in flags and clothes are pigment of red, blue and many more. It is considered as the symbol of Royalty.

[@Pingwn]

Violet is actually a different colour than purple, while today it is sometimes used to refer to shades of purple that are closer to blue, the violet in the spectrum is a hue of deep blue.

[@ozymandiasnullifidian5590]

It was considered the symbol of royalty even in Rome, in Byzantine Empire, and in Japan too, because it was so rare, there was some animal, some snail called Bolinus Brandaris, spiny dye-murex, people made the Tyrian purple dye with great difficulty that color out of its mucus, so it was expensive, and because of that reserved for emperors, kings, and later for popes cardinals, etc...

[@gogosquirrel7249]

Purple on a flag is rare becuase umm, I think it was made out of ground up snail shells? Not completely sure abt that though

[@lyannelove7359]

It would be really cool if back in those days, there is that one purple flag among others. That would be a big for hehehe-

[@Psychol-Snooper]

@@gogosquirrel7249 That was Tyrian Purple (named because a major production point was Tyre on the Mediterranean coast of the Levant.) It was actually made from a poisonous secretion of the creature that lived in the shells. It was a pretty cruel process if you happen to be a certain type of mollusk.

[@maapauu4282]

This animation absolutely blew my mind, it's simply incredible! I love how you make it look 3D and 2D simultaneously with slightly different colours and textures, which also perfectly match the lesson!

[@angrygoose23]

Structural coloration is epic. I can only imagine how beautiful a TED-ED video on hummingbird rosettes would be.

[@terezapuskarova576]

Amazingly structured video - captivating, informative, eloquent and concise all at once! Thank You TED-Ed, Your videos never disappoint.

[@HonnePerkele]

It's interesting that Purple in Finnish is called Violetti. It just makes everything extra confusing.

[@Jdog1681]

it's just a matter of the semantics of language. Violet in english is almost never used colloquially because violet just looks to be purple. Theres a certain beauty to the fact that violet is the only pure purple, while the rest just want to be

[@ozymandiasnullifidian5590]

It is the same in many other languages, we call it Violet, or sometimes Lila, Lilac.

[@HershO.]

69th like

[@chusty93]

In spanish we have both terms. Violeta y purpura

[@CelVini]

@@chusty93 same in portuguese: Violeta, Roxo and Púrpura as well (we see them all as different colors)

[@Terrik240]

This animation gave me huge nostalgia feelings. It feels like something I would have watched as a kid

[@Devilmaycry-Joker]

Before watching I’m guessing purple.

[@voidzgaming2872]

I’m guarding blue

[@bhupesh3442]

no

[@ELM777]

Blue for me. I'll see Edit: was wrong lol

[@shizupl8598]

Same

[@nomore714]

So close

[@Felix-nz7lq]

The irony is still that once you look at nature as the entirety of the universe and not just the Earth, green is probably the rarest colour since no stars emit enough of it as to be percieved visible amongst the stronger reds and blues.

[@XoLiTlz]

We had to make dye from snail mucus because the color is so rare in nature. In ancient times, extracting this dye involved tens of thousands of snails and substantial labor, and as a result, the dye was highly valued and represent royalty. It cost three times its weight in gold! It's called Tyrian purple, also known as Phoenician red, Phoenician purple, royal purple, imperial purple, or imperial dye.

[@foxnym]

Nas daily's text lol

[@junaidbabar8446]

This 5 minutes video has more stuff and concepts than 1 hour long lecture. Thanks, TED-Ed ❤

[@codeThemUp]

Nature has its own beauty, own complexions, and own domain which is what science deals with, feels awesome to see such nice videos!!

[@reiimabduu]

Have you ever wondered why flags were never painted in purple? Well, it's because the finest purple dye which is Tyrian purple aka Royal or imperial purple is extracted from the murex shellfish in the City Tyre in ✨Lebanon✨ and was first produced by the Phoenicians in Lebanon in the bronze age, hence this dye was so expensive to afford, furthermore that's the reason why flags were never painted in purple. Proud of my country!

[@Leftatalbuquerque]

How has the progress of rebuilding been going after that explosion in the harbour?

[@reiimabduu]

@@Leftatalbuquerque nothing has happened yet, it's all left destructed since then :(

[@doigt6590]

@@reiimabduu that's rough, good luck

[@AJTheShawg]

Hmm… I think I’ve seen Spain with purple?

[@samuraijosh1595]

All Lebanon needs is more Jesus and less Allah

[@aaronslepkov5835]

Fantastic. This is pretty complicated and nuanced physics, brought to life with wonderful animation. Kudos!

[@SilverScarletSpider]

That is really cool. I learned that violet is the rarest, violet is a wave length of high energy light which is different from purple (blue+red), and violet is rarer than magenta/pink (negative green)

[@user4241]

Actually, purple is blue + red, but only with pigments. Because of how our eyes work, seeing "pure" violet light is seen as the same as mixing blue and red light, but in different proportions. If you mix red and blue light in equal quantities, you get the color magenta, which is negative green, don't confuse it with pink.

[@LordBrittish]

If blue light waves and red light waves make things green, would a blue bird be green on a planet with a red sun? Or purple or violet?

[@ashr7590]

I like the way u think...

[@ozymandiasnullifidian5590]

It depends on which colors some object is absorbing, and what colors are reflected. You are seeing that object in those colors it reflects, so that bird that looks blue under our white sun will not look green under the red sun, but it sure will not look the same as under this light.

[@mahlataban686]

I thought there was a mistake there...chlorophyll is supposed to absorb yellow and blue..not red and blue😕

[@CelVini]

Red stars emit white light, same as or Sun...

[@darkithnamgedrf9495]

@@mahlataban686 it absorbs red as well

[@Manofthewoods.]

Ted Ed never ceases to release new and interesting content. Great video!

[@ioriyagami9982]

Yeaah buddy, I totally agree

[@maebug1015]

I know it's probably impossible to show true colors on a screen, but I would love to see violet and purple side-by-side so I can be able to differentiate between the two

[@fos1451]

Violet is bluer than purple, purple is also not a 'real' color in the sense that it has no individual wavelength like purple does, it's simply created by our brain when we see blue and red combined together (on a ratio 1:1)

[@tsukuyomirai5264]

As a biology student and a part-time artist, it really is surprising to know about these colours😍😍

[@KnightsofGaming2016]

I really hope to see more "The History of..." videos on foods and stuff. I just love learning about the history of how we got the stuff we have today and how much they have changed.

[@lanceparker7295]

This is the earliest I've been to a TED-Ed video! (And the colorful Like button certainly makes this experience a little more memorable~ 😊)

[@codeThemUp]

Sometimes it’s more difficult to guess then it’s to explain, however this was brilliant.

[@joellebryceroque4698]

The way I first answered blue as the rarest color and learned new things. Great video TED-Ed

[@leovincible7736]

i appreciate this video in so many ways. working on a project with this information helps a lot. thank you for this.

[@melpower2525]

I'd like to appreciate that TED-Ed explained the difference between pigment and structural colours. It helped me better understand other videos (like some butterfly videos) where they were describing structural colour without any context. Now I have a new fun fact to share randomly with people 😅

[@adamlatosinski5475]

On top of it, violet color cannot be displayed by most screens (which can only trick us into seeing violet while using purple), which makes violet rare outside of nature as well.

[@Locke_daisy3786]

I'm glad I happened upon this video. I'm a Color Scholar, studying colors for their intuitive messages and while this was a little more scientific than I was looking for, it adds another level of my knowledge and fascination. I will now give violet a little more study.

[@user-xo6bj9yr2u]

I really like when she describes the principle of some species, its background is also the color of itself

[@aditisk99]

You should make a video explaining the difference between similar shades of a color. Eg: Purple,violet and indigo or orange, tangerine, crimson and scarlet.

[@speedstriker]

This.

[@emilygrace3526]

Howdy. I’m an artist, and hopefully I can help. Purple is the mostly equal mixture of red and blue and isn’t hard to make, whereas violet is a very specific shade of purple that’s perceived as more blue and is extremely rare in nature, as the video explained. Indigo is a deep dark blue with a very slight hint of violet. Orange is an equal mixture of red and yellow pigments, whereas tangerine leans slightly on the more yellow side. Crimson is a deep (but not dark) velvety blood-red, and scarlet is a brighter red with slight hints of orange. The “youtube red” is closer to scarlet than crimson.

[@aditisk99]

@@emilygrace3526 OH OK. It's more about which one has one color more than the other, like it depends on amount of one color in the mixture.

[@tineantonio4821]

Ted-Ed is Love, Death + Robots of the educational world. Amazing animation and content ✨ Never fails to amaze us with new animations ahhh!!

[@abhishiktaganguly9557]

All your videos are super enjoyable!💜

[@jonelparilla7972]

TedEd never fails to amaze us. From the quality of the content and the superb animation.❤️

[@Benni777]

So, basically, plants are doing microscopic waves, like in a big crowd, and we don’t even get to see it?! 🤯🤭

[@ozymandiasnullifidian5590]

No, what was said is not just simplification, it is simply wrong.

[@AGDinCA]

There is only one insect and two vertebrate animals that receive their blue color from actual pigment, and not from structural coloration: the olivewing butterfly (Nessaea obrinus), and only two members of the dragonet family of fishes - the psychedelic mandarin (Synchiropus picturatus) and the mandarinfish (Synchiropus splendidus). To be technically correct, the Obrina Olivewing butterfly, and other members of its genus, use a bile pigment for their blue coloration. The two fish listed above are the only known animals on earth to actually produce true blue pigmentation through cyanophores. So, it's fair to say true blue is pretty darn rare.

[@redcaramel2222]

This is such a beautiful narration ❤️ Thank you for this!

[@number7417]

All my life, I thought and shared that it was blue. Thanks again for another great informative video.

[@mist383]

Your interestingly informative videos also add up colour in my boring life.

[@stlalve9297]

Because of this wonderful video, now I can consider that why violet is a aristocratic and royal color!!! 💜

[@husyen2798]

Colours and expressions are consistent really great two masterpiece of nature !!!

[@huailiulin]

I actually wanted to figure out this question by coding a picture analyzer that displays a graph that shows the number of pixels that is each color. It did not work out but thank you for answering this question.

[@crismakesstuff]

this partially explains why Violet is almost never found in country flags. before synthetic pigments, it would have been extremely hard to find Violet in nature so it was just never used. Also why it's a symbol of royalty!

[@CalaTec]

Did you really copy this comment? What for? Is identical to at least 3 other comments that are at the beginning of the comment section.

[@Primalxbeast]

@@CalaTec It's far more likely that these people just didn't read the entire comment section before posting. There's no reason to think that they were copying other posts.

[@CalaTec]

@@Primalxbeast well, then the comments are surprisingly similar.

[@Primalxbeast]

@@CalaTec That happens quite frequently in all comment sections. I've known why flags don't have purple for decades so I'm sure many people know and some people wanted to comment about it.

[@bruce5015]

I think we all can admit that Ted Ed videos are very aesthetically pleasing to watch

[@TheTerranInformed]

Cool! I had previously heard different answers to this and this is a very interesting take on it!!!

[@mso1ps4]

These animations are great, I can't believe these are free to watch

[@vagabondfeet]

Funny statement: "...the violet wings of a purple emperor butterfly." So the person who named it didn't watch this video obviously where it says purple is different from violet.

[@ionic7777]

I guess I was technically correct with the rarest color being blue since the most common way for blue to be seen is through that amplification process. But at the same time completely wrong. Maybe that’s the reason why purple was used as royalty, since it’s such a rare color

[@Datasavingmode]

just, wow. Well structured, great animation, understandable

[@peterhofer8998]

Thank you for this wonderful and insightful journey.

[@alexbowman7582]

Many decades ago people would receive eye lens transplants which would enable them to see ultra violet, they described this as a completely new colour, the British used some of these people in WW2 to receive flashed UV messages from occupied France. The trouble with seeing UV is that the intense radiation burns the retina causing eventual blindness but not in eagles who see in UV but constantly renew their retina cells.

[@subhabaskaran1849]

you mean the people used for war or could they see uv all the time

[@akamarsbars3355]

I like how Ted Ed explains more in 5 minutes than a teacher does in a whole semester

[@ahmedayesh3728]

How can you always come out with such so creative and interesting videos

[@ronaldkable]

What a delightful lesson, thank you

[@vinnyvinson]

Purples and reds are some of the most beautiful (& difficult to produce) colors in glass art.

[@joermnyc]

Fun fact: the flag of Dominica has an Imperial Amazon Parrot on it… these birds have violet plumage, so Dominica has the ONLY national flag in the world with violet in the color palette.

[@aditisk99]

Yeah, even if it's in small amount.

[@ZaDussault]

Nicaragua also has purple on its flag, on the rainbow

[@nguedjioblerin7681]

of course I need to know about the deathless ones now. the background son and the animations are very nice once more

[@joca_sol]

I just love the way of passing information.

[@gwitched3217]

Fun fact: every color in the rainbow has a letter contributing in it Red - R Orange - A Indigo - I Green - N Blue - B Violet - O Yellow - W

[@ommsterlitz1805]

I though you said purple for violet, English needs to steal all French words 😅

[@harshitapratap448]

VIBGYOUR

[@gwitched3217]

@UC7UgdNgj3_9lTKvYP0u36xw The only color with A in its letters

[@prashantv666]

Voilet is so rare that the voilet coloured butterfly is named Purple Emperor Butterfly. 😀 Wowww...... ☺️ Great animation by Ted-Ed. Cheers 🎉

[@sheeshhhh333.]

I'm so excited in watching this because it's about nature! Waaaaa I love nature sooooo much

[@sarthaktrip99]

Such a great and wonderful video!

[@byzantiumgaming]

"May I never be deprived of this purple robe, and may I never see the day when those who meet me do not call me empress" - Theodora

[@robertdesantis6205]

"Lydia, from Thyatira, a seller of purple goods." Acts 16:14

[@deanab-se5op]

Blue

[@moonshade5532]

Thank you so much for the Japanese translation!! And explaining easily to understand.

[@cookie_0999]

i don't know much colors but when i see a color i am always mesmerized by colors.

[@ritsuchan2340]

This is what i love about ted talk cus they never run out of ideas and cease to amaze me

[@philip2205]

because

[@nathansimon6203]

I swear, Ted-ed becomes my daily consumption every single period of time

[@datmangotho9618]

Ooh I love her voice, it’s so beautifully calming

[@EcoSnooki]

Very informative....this channel is awesome❤

[@1987Videolover]

And thats why there is no country flag color that has purple or violet in their flag... Because there is no natural source of it

[@BBwal]

What’s it called when a chameleon can’t change its colors anymore? A reptile dysfunction.

[@Aman-qr6wi]

Haha,very funny

[@Mappycastro]

Your voice is so soothing… I wish Ted es did playlist by narrator. I could have this in the background all day

[@christelbitoon4129]

I knew it. I saw a video about why flags of a country don’t have the color violet. The color was so difficult to create that it was only reserved for royalty. Then a scientist accidentally created the color violet in a lab and decided to market his creation. Now the color is everywhere

[@Nietabs]

it's sad that people recognize rainbow as an lgbt flag now

[@robertdesantis6205]

Look at it as a subtle prediction of 2 Peter 3. 🌈

[@titiorn3610]

This is so beautiful and educational. 🥰

[@eddiesonnavarro8298]

The animation is GREAT!

[@Starfire861]

Violet is such a beautiful color 💜

[@joshua19145]

Geesh! Absolutely rewatching.✨

[@ranjanjoshi3454]

Excellent presentation thanks insightful

[@berthiecasinto1205]

This video is so cool! 💜

[@yilongchen2150]

Great video!

[@megamind_2222]

I'm from Botswana and interestingly enough, we lump all the colors on the shorter side of the spectrum and refer to them using one word. Green, blue and violet are called "Tala" in Setswana. I've always thought it's because they are so rare in our natural environment that we never got the chance to see them well enough to fully differentiate them.

[@LearningDevgarg]

Loved it!!!

[@user1688dish]

Fabulous video!

[@higgins4282]

I love the animation style!

[@bloodviper1176]

The animations are awesome

[@YouAndImpact]

Amazing video 👌

[@abdullahak2204]

This is really interesting !

[@wardahzahid6595]

I love that animation!!

[@AyJayEdits]

what do you animate your videos on? I love them

[@michellemcfarland80]

💗💗💗 Thank U!!!

[@eomguel9017]

My favourite colour of course had to be the most special one! 💜💜💜

[@dipakshisarma2903]

2:49 I like the electrons. They are cute and are holding hands while dancing😁

[@5minutesaway124]

This safety is actually the reason not many flags are violet/purple. The pigments were very expensive at the time so countries and cities avoided these colors to be able to produce flags at a lower cost. You will find violet/purple in recent flags though.

[@wlsmdltn]

Thank you!

[@Teauma]

That was delightful

[@RosheenQuynh]

I guessed either pink or purple cuz I couldn't think of any animals with either one in them off the top of my head. Glad to see I was on the right track!