microtubules (cyan) and cell nuclei (blue). Multiphoton fluorescence image of HeLa cells stained with the actin binding toxin phalloidin (red). Depending on the exact condition of the object, there are a bunch of different physics processes that can be involved, and probably are at some level nearly all of these involve quantum mechanics. When we talk about an object having a color in the normal sense (not the quantum chromodynamics sense, in which interacting quarks have "color," where "color" is just a placeholder word for a three-valued property), we're really talking about light, specifically the light that reaches our eyes from that object. In order to start answering, though, it's important to be clear about what we mean when we talk about "the color" of something. A week or so ago, I got a question on Facebook that was relayed from one of the kids of a college friend, which I'll paraphrase as "What's the physics explanation of what gives objects their color?" It's a good question, but unfortunately there isn't a compact answer other than the weaselly-sounding "It's complicated." Which makes it a decent basis for a blog post.
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