Instructions: Q In the fruit market, the display is beautiful - full of brilliant reds, oranges, yellows and greens. But there are very few blues. Is there a special reason for that?

A Most scientists would say there are special reasons for everything. The problem is we dont know them all.

Starting green

All fruits start out being green, along with other parts of the plants, because of the green chlorophyll that plants use for photosynthesis. When they ripen, many fruits turn red, orange or yellow. These colors come from underlying chemicals - carotenoids - that were there all along, but had been masked by the chlorophyll. They are revealed when the chlorophyll has done its job and retreats.

But, you may ask, why arent some of those underlying colors blue?

A few are. But in general, Mother Nature wants ripe fruits to be as attractive as possible to animals, who will eat them and spread the seeds in their droppings. Brighter colors seem to work best. Blue is just too drab to attract attention.

Unattractive light

Blue food is unappetizing even to humans. If you shine blue light on a plate of food, no matter how delicious it looked before, most people will find it suddenly unappetizing. On the other hand, producers of novelty foods for children often color them purple or blue, because kids love to do things that gross out grown-ups.

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