logo
episode-header-image
Jun 2022
12m 13s

59: Why Ancient People Didn't See the Co...

The Why Files: Operation Podcast
About this episode

Here's a philosophical question for you. If a color doesn't have a name, can we still see it?  

Many years ago, the human eye evolved to give us the ability to see about a million colors.  

That's a lot.  

Then how come, until very recently, nobody saw or even heard of the color blue?  

Well, it's because blue just -- didn't exist yet.  

Let's find out why.

--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thewhyfiles/support
Up next
Feb 6
627: The Basement #002 | Mike Bara - Kennedy Assassination, Moon Conspiracy and NASA's Lies
Mike Bara spent 25 years in aerospace working on Boeing 757, 767, F-35, and classified military programs before co-authoring the New York Times bestseller Dark Mission: The Secret History of NASA with Richard C. Hoagland.A frequent Ancient Aliens contributor and author of seven b ... Show More
3h 28m
Feb 2
626: Project Anchor: NASA's Secret Gravity Shutdown Program
You wake up floating above your bed. Everything in your room drifts toward the ceiling. Outside, cars lift off highways and trees rip from the ground. According to a leaked government document, this happens on August 12th, 2026 — and NASA has known since 2019.Project Anchor descr ... Show More
46m 48s
Jan 23
625: Unexplained Phenomena: The Dead Village, Rain Phenomena, YouTube Mystery
Gather round for three campfire stories that cannot be explained.A corrections officer watches water materialize inside a concrete prison cell with no source. A YouTube channel uploads 72,000 videos in nine months at an impossible rate, then vanishes after pointing to coordinates ... Show More
40m 41s
Recommended Episodes
Jun 2024
Can Color Heal Us?
<p>For centuries people have been drawn to the potential healing powers of colored light. From a civil war general to a Thomas Edison wannabe, people have touted it as a medical miracle. Despite claims to the contrary, though, colored light won't regrow limbs or heal burns. And y ... Show More
39m 28s
Aug 2025
Quelle couleur n'existait pas durant l'Antiquité ?
Rediffusion La perception que nous avons des couleurs n'est pas immuable. Elle a en effet changé selon les époques. C'est ainsi qu'on faisait très peu de place au bleu dans l'Antiquité.L'un des Premiers ministres de la Reine Victoria, William Gladstone, était un fervent lecteur d ... Show More
1m 57s
Jan 2025
How science can help us tackle racism
Most of us like to think we live in an equal society that offers the same opportunities to all. But unfortunately, hundreds of scientific studies say otherwise. Racial bias is essentially everywhere, often hiding in plain sight. For example, did you know that black people are as ... Show More
40m 58s
Nov 2024
90 - Quintessence: Is Dark Energy Changing? (Ft. Sean Carroll)
Is it possible that dark energy is not a constant, but rather is changing over time? Sean Carroll talks to us about how our understanding of dark energy evolved in recent history, and what is still left unknown.For exclusive ask-us-anything episodes, join us for just $3 a month o ... Show More
41m 43s
Dec 2024
What to do with your sadness, pain, and grief
How can we find happiness? That's an old question. Since the beginning of philosophy people have been wondering what makes us happy and how to get more of it. But if you're a real person living in the real world, you know already that it's not possible to be happy all the time. S ... Show More
56m 48s
Jun 2025
Unveiling Olo — A Color Out of Oz!
"Olo" does not exist in nature, nor can it be found among paint cans. But for a very select few, olo can be seen — through the intervention of careful computing and lasers. A team led by vision scientist Austin Roorda and computer scientist Ren Ng at UC Berkeley figured out a met ... Show More
13m 48s
Oct 2023
How many colors can we see?
It’s a colorful world out there! When light from the sun hits surfaces on Earth, those surfaces reflect different wavelengths of light. Our eyes collect those waves and send them to our brains, which interpret the waves as colors! It’s an incredible process, and it happens in…wel ... Show More
5m 4s