Unlike LCDs, OLEDs do not have a backlight behind every pixel, enabling them to deliver theoretically infinite contrast and deeper blacks.

Each pixel in a micro-LED display gets its color from electrifying inorganic materials, which are more durable and resilient than the organic materials in OLEDs.

LCD displays use the same principle as polarizing sunglasses, which act as filters that block light waves traveling with specific orientations.

Liquid crystals were accidentally discovered while studying carrot cholesterols in 1888—decades before they served as the foundation of various display technologies.

Only one pixel is activated at a time on a CRT television, even when you watch an entire screen of video.

LEDs emit pure colors, while incandescent bulbs filter white light

Organic pigments can be made in a lab or in nature—the term indicates the presence of carbon-hydrogen bonds, not their source.

Quantum dots are nanocrystals that can emit different colors, even when made of the same material, depending on their size.

Not all colored materials can become pigments—the process of grinding materials down into smaller particles may destroy the color-producing molecules.

Learn about the terminology used to describe television brightness, color, and gamma—a measure of how the display transitions from pure black to pure white.

Creating a perfect red pigment that is vivid, durable, and nontoxic is likely impossible.

By converting ultraviolet light into visible light and reflecting specific visible colors, fluorescent pigments can often provide much brighter, neon-like color than traditional pigments.

Starting with red, colorful objects will appear to lose their colors the deeper they are submerged because water scatters light, reducing the amount available to reflect off objects and be observed.

Some octopuses change color while they sleep—a potential sign that they dream.

Blacklights can illuminate certain biological materials, including blood, teeth, and fingernails, because they contain fluorophores—molecules that visibly glow immediately after exposure to higher-energy light.

HDR, or High Dynamic Range, increases image detail by expanding the range of the darkest black and the brightest white and the steps between them.

Some organisms' colors come from structural color—tiny structures that distinctly scatter different colors of light, eliminating some while reinforcing others that become visible.

Some organisms can change color by quickly revealing or hiding various pigments, as seen in octopuses, squids, and other cephalopods.

Inorganic pigments—those that lack carbon-hydrogen bonds—typically comprise metal oxide crystals.

Humans can distinguish an estimated 10 million colors—a number that is limited by photopigments that only activate when exposed to specific wavelengths of light.

Blood moons only occur during total lunar eclipses, when the Earth blocks the sun, but its atmosphere lets redder parts of sunlight through to reflect off the lunar surface.

Cathode-ray tube televisions were once one of the most common particle accelerators, producing images by firing electrons at screens.

View examples of luciferin, the light-emitting molecule behind bioluminescence

View a breakdown of the semiconducting materials behind LEDs, which can produce different wavelengths of light through the introduction of chemical impurities.

Owls cannot move their eyes because they lack eyeballs, having instead developed cylinder-like tubes held in place by bones, which provide stability and lock visual focus when hunting prey.

Vision experts generally don't recommend blue-light-blocking glasses because there's no scientific evidence that the light from computer screens damages eyes.

Bioluminescent organisms produce their own light through chemical reactions involving unstable, energetic molecules, while biofluorescent organisms re-emit light shone on them at a different wavelength.

Violet is the rarest color in nature because it is the most energetically demanding visible light for pigments to reflect and for nanostructures to scatter.

Blood can be blue, green, magenta, or transparent due to differences in the oxygen-carrying respiratory pigments they contain.

View a gallery of bioluminescent organisms, including snails, worms, fungi, jellyfish, and mushrooms.

Most advanced touch screens rely on electrical charge in your skin

While black tattoo removal can be done with a single laser, removing multicolored tattoos may require multiple lasers due to the variety of pigments.

Bioluminescence may provide a sustainable alternative to electric lighting

With a core consisting of a glass fiber roughly the width of human hair, fiber-optic cables transmit digital information via flashes of light that reflect within the glass.

Massive blooms of microscopic algae called dinoflagellates produce the neon blue light seen in glowing tides.

Why 75% of ocean animals glow

The majority of the 100,000 natural compounds that produce colors are pigments, which can be categorized based on their chemical structure.

Photonic integrated circuits use light instead of electrons within circuit components

Bioluminescence provides organisms with a method of hunting, defense, or mating

Light pollution is giving oysters insomnia

Laser disc technology stores binary data in etched pits and lands

See the evolution of vision, from cells that could only detect the intensity and direction of light to the human eyeball.

View a sample of the bioluminescent tree of life

View a gallery of biofluorescent animals, which contain cells that emit various colors when exposed to ultraviolet light.

You manipulate an electric field whenever you use most touch screens, and software analyzes changes to the field to identify where you tapped.

Fiber lasers used for metal engravings can't burn your skin

The different energy levels of each element result in unique colors when burned

When processing light, the brain can perceive colors with no natural wavelength

View illustrations of bioluminescent functions in marine organisms

Bioluminescent reaction enzymes are often used in biomedical research

Solutions of bioluminescent bacteria can create FOMO-inducing living art