Science behind Blue Animals (and why plants lack blue..)

Exploring ways in which Mother Nature colors the living world.

Blue surrounds us, in the ocean and the sky, leading Earth to be nicknamed "The Blue Planet". Yet, if we set aside these vast expanses of water and air, blue becomes a rarity.

It might seem odd, like claiming brown is scarce without considering soil or rocks. But bear with me; there's an intriguing point on the horizon(which is in most cases the line separating 2 shades of blue).

Before we dive deeper, let's quickly understand how colours manifest in nature.

Earth's Atmosphere: Nature's Sunglasses

Think of the atmosphere as Earth's sunglasses, filtering the sunlight that reaches us. It's a multilayered barrier, each layer sifting through the light spectrum.

The Atmospheric Window

The upper atmosphere, which includes the ozone layer, shields us from gamma rays, X-rays, and UV rays. Meanwhile, water vapor absorbs most of the infrared light. What gets through this selective screening is known as the 'Atmospheric Window'.

Why can our eyes only see visible light, and why is this common among Ea…