Envisioning Chemistry: Flowers & Colors

Macro lenses and a microscope capture flowers immersed in sodium hydroxide as their pigments shift dramatically from red, blue and purple to green and yellow.

Mesmerizing close-ups turn a simple chemistry lesson about pH into a dazzling show of shifting colors.

Most red, blue, or purple flowers contain pigments called anthocyanins, whose colors are sensitive to pH (the acidity or basicity of an aqueous solution). As a result, when we immerse a blue flower into an acid or basic

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