Journal journeys: Day -8, The colour of chemistry
Back in my undergraduate days at the University of Birmingham (the one in England), I had a particularly entertaining set of lectures on aromatic chemistry from Jim Burdon. I don't know how he got on to the subject, but during one of the lectures he told us that neutrons were purple, and then went on to discuss the colour of electrons. Now, that's obviously incredibly silly... we all know that neutrons are a funny green-brown colour (and that electrons are blue).
As we start to put the nuts and bolts of Nature Chemistry in place, we need to make important decisions about colour... what do I mean by that? Well, go and have a look at the Nature Materials homepage - see the red in the banner at the top of the page and in the section headers - that is known in these parts as 'Materials red'. If you pick up a copy of the print issue, you will see the same red used throughout the journal, particularly as the font colour for titles, headlines and figure captions.
In the same vein, you will see that Nature Geoscience is green (British racing green in fact). Nature Photonics is blue, Nature Physics is blue/purple. Nature Chemical Biology is yet another different shade of blue... Now go to Nature Nanotechnology - that's a gold-ish colour. In print, however, we use a red (not 'Materials red', but, you've guessed it, 'Nano red') because gold doesn't really work well for text.
So, along comes Nature Chemistry and it needs its own colour - preferably a consistent one that works for both print and online content. We're already experimenting with shades of a particular colour here - but I'm not going to tell you which one yet... I want to know what colour you think chemistry is?
Stuart
Stuart Cantrill (Senior Editor, Nature Nanotechnology)
Comments
Maybe I've just seen too many chalkboards filled with arrow-pushing and stereochemistry, but it seems to me the color of chemistry is slate. You could also go with green, but it might make too much of a statement about the content of the journal (green chemistry, get it?!).
Posted by: Catherine | January 24, 2008 10:36 AM
Perkin's mauve?
Posted by: Joshua | January 24, 2008 12:53 PM
I like slate, but I think the same could be said for too many chalk boards of mechanics equations, and other physics or maths stuff.
You could take your inspiration from various chemicals - a nice potassium permanganate purple-pink could be eye catching, a beautiful copper sulfate blue quite relaxing, or a luminous colour more reminiscent of the neon lights in the city! I was thinking about orange, in the rich, vibrant and cheerful sense. One of those colours that makes you feel quiet positive and cheerful. That has to be a good thing for a publication!
Posted by: Propter Doc | January 24, 2008 12:56 PM
For me chemistry has always been a tie-dye mixture of colors. At the end of the semester in my intro organic lab we made tie-dye shirts/labcoats, and since then I've always associated this huge burst of color with chemistry. That might not work for Nature Chemistry though--not professional enough I guess ;) Instead, a dark orange/red color might do the trick...
Posted by: Amanda | January 24, 2008 01:21 PM
International Warning Orange!
The IWO sticker on my plastic bucket of silica gel says, "¡Aviso! Niños pueden caer adentro de el balde y ahogarse. Retire los niños delos baldes aunque solamente tengan un poco de agua." (Kids with teeth will lick sweat from a retired bald sunbathing aunt?)
Posted by: Uncle Al | January 24, 2008 01:22 PM
England named a university after an Alabama one, how cheeky...
Grey for graphite might work. But, then it will have that professional look instead of that NaturePhotonics look of "I'm new and I'm cool". Although, grey could also make it easier to contrast cool images against down the road...
Posted by: Mitch | January 24, 2008 03:10 PM
My labcoat is the colour of chemistry:
dull white with flecks of ill-defined, brownish-black filth.
Posted by: joel | January 24, 2008 10:08 PM
I think joel takes the cake with his labcoat color, but that probably won't do for the journal. My vote goes for a nice non-obnoxious, balanced shade of orange. Since slate/grey is nice, but multi-disciplinary...
Posted by: Materials Girl | January 28, 2008 04:28 AM
I also think of brown - the color that my air-sensitive compounds would turn when they'd gone bad. And the color of many a chemical reaction gone awry. Something warm and rich would be nice, like a mocha brown.
Posted by: Anne | January 31, 2008 11:05 AM