Table Of Content“Exceptional books about science are rare. This is one of them.” — D EBORAH BLUM $28.00
Higher in Canada
F
“I love it when someone wakes me up to see what I was sleepwalking F U L L
U
through. Adam Rogers does that in this book. He showed me that the colors
we see everywhere today are technologies we invented. Invented colors! L
Head explodes!” A LIVELY ACCOUNT OF OUR AGE-OLD QUEST FOR
L
— KEVIN KELLY, New York Times best-selling author of The Inevitable MORE VIVID COLORS, WHICH CHANGED THE WAY
S
WE SEE THE WORLD, FROM THE BEST-SELLING
“Adam Rogers’s book Full Spectrum is everything you’d want from a book
P AUTHOR OF PROOF: THE SCIENCE OF BOOZE
about color — shining with the full gemstone range of blues, golds, greens,
S P E C T R U M
E
and carnelian reds that tint the world around us. But woven through it, like
the threads of a tapestry, is so much more: history, science, the rainbow C
from the blue of sky meeting ocean to the
spectrum of human culture in its many hues. Exceptional books about sci-
ADAM ROGERS T luminous moment when a black-and-yellow bee
is the New York Times best- ence are rare. This is one of them.”
selling author of Proof: The Science of Booze, R touches a bright-pink flower, our world practi-
— DEBORAH BLUM, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of
cally vibrates with colors. But the human-made
a finalist for the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary
The Poison Squad and The Poisoner’s Handbook U
versions haven’t always matched nature’s kalei-
Science Writing Award and winner of an IACP
Award and a Gourmand Award. He is a senior M doscopic array. To reach those brightest heights
“This is a wonderfully human book that takes the reader on a kaleidoscopic
required millennia of remarkable innovation
correspondent at Wired.
tour of the world of color science. It is one of those books that makes you
and a fascinating exchange of ideas between
see everything afresh — you’ll start identifying pigments everywhere, and
science and craft that’s allowed for the multi-
diving back into the book to discover the intellectual quest behind them.”
colored manifestations of our built and adorned
— MARK MIODOWNIK, New York Times best-selling author of world.
Stuff Matters and Liquid Rules In Full Spectrum, Adam Rogers takes us on
that globe-trotting journey, tracing an arc from
A
“There’s a word for the color you see when you turn off the lights: it’s called the earliest humans to our digitized, synthe-
D
‘eigengrau,’ or brain gray. Reading this book is like cranking the dimmer sized present and future. We meet our ancestors
switch up, chapter by chapter, from eigengrau to Full Spectrum. Illuminat- A mashing ochre in caves, Silk Road merchants
ing, funny, and utterly fascinating, Adam Rogers draws on history, chemistry, competing for the best ceramics, and textile
M
biology, and geology to reveal that we’ve engineered a far more colorful HOW THE SCIENCE OF COLOR artists cracking the centuries-old mystery of
world than the one our ancestors inhabited. Prepare to be dazzled; after you how colors mix, before shooting to the modern
y read this book, you’ll never see color the same way again.” R MADE US MODERN era for high-stakes corporate espionage and the
n
mpa — ZIYA TONG, science broadcaster and author of The Reality Bubble O digital revolution that’s rewriting the rules of
o color forever.
C
ng G In prose as vibrant as its subject, Rogers
Jacket design by Brian Moore hi “This book is the best kind of deep dive into its subject, and Adam Rogers is
Jacket image: Bluestocking / E+ / Getty Images blis my favorite kind of science writer. Reading this book feels like having a long, E A D A M R O G E R S opens the door to Oz, sharing the liveliest
Author photograph © Jenna Garrett Pu fascinating, and delicious meal with the most interesting person you know.” events of an expansive human quest — to make a
urt R brighter, more beautiful world — and, along the
co — ADAM SAVAGE, executive producer and cohost of MythBusters,
r way, proving why he’s “one of the best science
a S
H science communicator, and maker
n writers around” (National Geographic).
Available as an e-book and an audiobook ffli
Mi
n $28.00 Higher in Canada NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR OF
o ISBN 978-1-328-51890-3
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HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT g PROOF: THE SCIENCE OF BOOZE
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HMHBOOKS.COM
© 0521
1720441
RRooggeerrss__FFUULLLL--SSPPEECCTTRRUUMM__jjaacckkeett__ffiinnaall..iinndddd 11 4-color on soft-touch matte lam with embossing 22//2222//2211 44::0011 PPMM
“Exceptional books about science are rare. This is one of them.” — D EBORAH BLUM $28.00
Higher in Canada
F
“I love it when someone wakes me up to see what I was sleepwalking F U L L
U
through. Adam Rogers does that in this book. He showed me that the colors
we see everywhere today are technologies we invented. Invented colors! L
Head explodes!” A LIVELY ACCOUNT OF OUR AGE-OLD QUEST FOR
L
— KEVIN KELLY, New York Times best-selling author of The Inevitable MORE VIVID COLORS, WHICH CHANGED THE WAY
S
WE SEE THE WORLD, FROM THE BEST-SELLING
“Adam Rogers’s book Full Spectrum is everything you’d want from a book
P AUTHOR OF PROOF: THE SCIENCE OF BOOZE
about color — shining with the full gemstone range of blues, golds, greens,
S P E C T R U M
E
and carnelian reds that tint the world around us. But woven through it, like
the threads of a tapestry, is so much more: history, science, the rainbow C
from the blue of sky meeting ocean to the
spectrum of human culture in its many hues. Exceptional books about sci-
ADAM ROGERS T luminous moment when a black-and-yellow bee
is the New York Times best- ence are rare. This is one of them.”
selling author of Proof: The Science of Booze, R touches a bright-pink flower, our world practi-
— DEBORAH BLUM, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of
cally vibrates with colors. But the human-made
a finalist for the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary
The Poison Squad and The Poisoner’s Handbook U
versions haven’t always matched nature’s kalei-
Science Writing Award and winner of an IACP
Award and a Gourmand Award. He is a senior M doscopic array. To reach those brightest heights
“This is a wonderfully human book that takes the reader on a kaleidoscopic
required millennia of remarkable innovation
correspondent at Wired.
tour of the world of color science. It is one of those books that makes you
and a fascinating exchange of ideas between
see everything afresh — you’ll start identifying pigments everywhere, and
science and craft that’s allowed for the multi-
diving back into the book to discover the intellectual quest behind them.”
colored manifestations of our built and adorned
— MARK MIODOWNIK, New York Times best-selling author of world.
Stuff Matters and Liquid Rules In Full Spectrum, Adam Rogers takes us on
that globe-trotting journey, tracing an arc from
A
“There’s a word for the color you see when you turn off the lights: it’s called the earliest humans to our digitized, synthe-
D
‘eigengrau,’ or brain gray. Reading this book is like cranking the dimmer sized present and future. We meet our ancestors
switch up, chapter by chapter, from eigengrau to Full Spectrum. Illuminat- A mashing ochre in caves, Silk Road merchants
ing, funny, and utterly fascinating, Adam Rogers draws on history, chemistry, competing for the best ceramics, and textile
M
biology, and geology to reveal that we’ve engineered a far more colorful HOW THE SCIENCE OF COLOR artists cracking the centuries-old mystery of
world than the one our ancestors inhabited. Prepare to be dazzled; after you how colors mix, before shooting to the modern
y read this book, you’ll never see color the same way again.” R MADE US MODERN era for high-stakes corporate espionage and the
n
mpa — ZIYA TONG, science broadcaster and author of The Reality Bubble O digital revolution that’s rewriting the rules of
o color forever.
C
ng G In prose as vibrant as its subject, Rogers
Jacket design by Brian Moore hi “This book is the best kind of deep dive into its subject, and Adam Rogers is
Jacket image: Bluestocking / E+ / Getty Images blis my favorite kind of science writer. Reading this book feels like having a long, E A D A M R O G E R S opens the door to Oz, sharing the liveliest
Author photograph © Jenna Garrett Pu fascinating, and delicious meal with the most interesting person you know.” events of an expansive human quest — to make a
urt R brighter, more beautiful world — and, along the
co — ADAM SAVAGE, executive producer and cohost of MythBusters,
r way, proving why he’s “one of the best science
a S
H science communicator, and maker
n writers around” (National Geographic).
Available as an e-book and an audiobook ffli
Mi
n $28.00 Higher in Canada NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR OF
o ISBN 978-1-328-51890-3
ht
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT g PROOF: THE SCIENCE OF BOOZE
u
o
H
HMHBOOKS.COM
© 0521
1720441
RRooggeerrss__FFUULLLL--SSPPEECCTTRRUUMM__jjaacckkeett__ffiinnaall..iinndddd 11 4-color on soft-touch matte lam with embossing 22//2222//2211 44::0011 PPMM
FULL SPECTRUM
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F U L L S P E C T R U M
HOW THE SCIENCE OF COLOR
MADE US MODERN
A D A M R O G E R S
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
boston new york
2021
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Copyright © 2021 by Adam Rogers
All rights reserved
For information about permission to reproduce selections from
this book, write to trade.permissions@ hmhco .com or to
Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company,
3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.
Portions of this book first appeared, in different form, in Wired
in articles titled “The Dress,” “Vantablack,” and “Colors Are
How Your Brain Makes the World,” all by Adam Rogers.
hmhbooks.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Rogers, Adam, 1970– author.
Title: Full spectrum : how the science of color made us modern / Adam Rogers.
Description: Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2021. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020039337 (print) | LCCN 2020039338 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781328518903 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780358449379 |
ISBN 9780358449010 | ISBN 9781328519146 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Color — Physiological effect. | Color — Psychological aspects. |
Color vision. | Color (Philosophy)
Classification: LCC QP483 .R64 2021 (print) | LCC QP483 (ebook) |
DDC 152.14/5 — dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020039337
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020039338
Book design by Kelly Dubeau Smydra
Printed in the United States of America
ScoutAutomatedPrintCode
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For Melissa and the kids
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CONTENTS
Introduction ix
chapter 1: Earth Tones 1
chapter 2: Ceramics 18
chapter 3: Rainbows 37
chapter 4: The Lead White of Commerce 59
chapter 5: World’s Fair 83
chapter 6: Titanium White 106
chapter 7: Color Words 138
chapter 8: The Dress 160
chapter 9: Fake Colors and Color Fakes 175
chapter 10: Screens 189
Conclusion 213
Acknowledgments 225
Notes 228
Bibliography 260
Index 294
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