The Rarest Pigment in the World | Colour the Spectrum of Science | BBC Science 

This is why that blue room unearthed at Pompie is such a discovery.

He is so calm and it must be so nice to just chat with him. He has a peaceful aura

Ultramarine, such a beautiful word.

Ultramarine pigment was not just ground up lapis lazuli. After grinding the pure mineral lazurite was separated from the other minerals making up the rock and that's how ultramarine pigment was made. That separation is not easy so the pigment was way more expensive then lapis lazuli and also bluer than lapis lazuli. Nowadays that mineral can be created with chemical reactions so it isn't that expensive any more.

Lapis is one of my favorite stones to wire wrap for jewelry. I love the flecks of iron pyrite within, it's absolutely beautiful! 💙

Some say Tyrian purple was more valuable than Lapis Blue in antiquity.

Blue is my hands-down favorite color. Blue is magical. And so rare in nature.

We have lapis in Chile as well, is not exclusive from the middle east, it’s actually our national stone.

I once saw it in a market before. I regret not buying it.

Lapis lazuli is one of my very favorites, along with azurite (blue)-malachite (green), which often form together.

I have a 250 ml jar of ultramarine paint, it is the "bluest" thing I own, it's thick almost like pudding so a little goes a long way. I only use it for things that glow when I paint with it, like the sky or on the very fine edges of an intense white light source to make it look even more intense, like an extra bright star in a starfield or an electric/plasma arc.

They should’ve called that video “the true Minecraft lapis lazuli”

Sounds like he's trying to speak for the first time in 40 years. Hopefully with use, his voice will revive.

I was in a great mood when I started learning about this. But then I started feeling Blue.

1.4 million subs I'm guessing means that by tomorrow morning the market price of Lapis will have doubled from last week. Thanks BBC.

I used to cut that into gemstones for jewelry. I can't imagine crushing Grade A+ Lapis into powder....Horrors!

As an artist myself I am in awe of this stunning color, and I like to think perhaps almost to the same extent as Yves Klein: International Klein Blue (IKB) was developed by Yves Klein in collaboration with Edouard Adam, a Parisian art paint supplier whose shop is still in business on the Boulevard Edgar-Quinet in Montparnasse.

Enchanting. It's so beautiful, and it makes you appreciate things you'd never think of, like how to handle materials and the process it takes to transform all of this.

RU-vid’s algorithm, I swear. I had JUST watched the cable TV show Unearthed on the Sci Channel about blue being a rare, expensive pigment and used exclusively for royalty during egyptian pyramid times.

I've loved Lapis Lazuli since going to the Treasures of Tutankhamun tour in the 1970s as a small child.

Azurite and sodalite are two other blue minerals, azurite was used in jewellery and as inlays in furniture. Prussian blue, cerulean blue and cobalt blue were also pigments used in the 18th century. At approx $500/kg for lapis lazuli, gold is about 80x more expensive.

While lapis (lazurite) does have sulphur in its formula, the sulphur smell will be coming from the crushed pyrite which is embedded in the rock. The chemical bonding in the lapis won't release the sulphur.

This sparks my curiosity for further research on Lapis. Thank you.

For anyone who is interested in the history of colour, read Victoria Finlay's book 'Colour: Travels through a Paintbox'. It is a fascinating read.

Quite a few more steps than grinding it up to make true ultramarine blue.

As the saying goes, "You learn something new every day." Well, I learnt something new today thanks to your video .

This is amazing, would love to see those blue mountains

arguably the most precious. I would argue that "mummy brown" made from real Egyptian mummies was probably more... "limited" than a rock that occurred naturally. The rock is rare, but rocks are not rare. Weve made paint out of Kings before. Literally dead kings. That will never happen again ever on this planet. That rock could form again.

His voice matches the beauty of the stone

I wondered where Helen had gone . . . I hadn't seen her much on The Fully Charged Show lately. More Helen please.

when i hear Lapis Lazuli i think of the Annunaki giving it as most valuable gifts to eachother

That was insightful that comment of the girl when she said that this is the first time this piece of rock that she just broke became blue! Its true, only the surface in contact with light has a colour, inside is all pure black. Kind of obvious once you think about it, but its easy to take it for granted that the rock is blue throughout !

Why has no-one mentioned how lovely Helen is, i could listen to her all day. 😊

Thanks for whispering it to me.

What sort of oil is the blue pigment mixed with to make paint? The answer is linseed oil.

Golf R colour and a grand extra !

I always think of Maggie Nelson's Bluets anytime I observe these wondrous obsessions with the colour blue

there’s lapis in mexico too

Fascinating. How does the pyrite within the lapis affect the paint?

Lapis Lazuli and Labradorite are my favorite gems, partly because of the beautiful blue hues. 💙 Great video. Thanks!🙏

1:10 No, no they definitely did not believe that but it’s a nice metaphor.

I like how it fell from the sky to become rock, and then was crushed so it could be painted as a sky again. 💜

Best video I've seen in a while. Thank you!

If I saw one of these before watching this video, I would probably think it's a spray painted rock and walk right past it lol. The color doesn't even look natural. Very cool.

that color is heavenly! so fascinating!

Minimal info here. What about the chemistry? What about azurite? What color-name doe it produce?

Such a royal hue of blue. Just beautiful. 💙

I bought quite a bit of this while in Afghanistan. They sold it at just about every bazaar I’ve been to out there.

I love the color blue it's my favorite color i like this shade very much

Well i subscribed and am watching this a second time. This is beautiful, excellent :)

damn it actually is eye catching even all these steps away thru the camera and my monitor. impressed .

I love lapis

I have a small unlabeled vial filled with a blue sand like material. Found in a clean out....no idea what it is but i liked the color so i picked it up and saved it ...kinda looks like this stuff....but could be something else. Who knows? 😮

Yes, but have they found a sentient shade of blue yet?

Omg why hasn't this guy made an asmr channel he'd become a billionaire

gorgeous

Wow just happen to have a chunk of this rock on my shelf. Was thinking lapidary, but now maybe painting.

Well colour me blue!

The problem with lapis lazuli is the more finer u make the powder it starts to lose its color, so u need to grind it enough but not mull it too much.

YInMn Blue, or Oregon Blue, a recently discovered pigment, is comparable to Ultramarine.

I have never seen that in the Tucson Gem, Mineral, & Fossil show.

I deal in lapis lazuli, have been for years now, and made this paint with fine madani 4 mine material, it truly is an amazing pigment. Its not rare as in emeralds or other gemstones, but processing it and shipping it makes it a bit of a nightmare, we crush it with hammer and have to replace the grinder every few months, I’ve broken through so many grinders, and it’s toxic so u have to wear protection and face masks when grinding.

Inventing a blue colour LED also turned out to be super hard. Scientists won Nobel prize for inventing blue colour LED. Without which we wouldn't have LED TVs and LED mobile phone screens.

❤. Very interesting history.

I love lapis lazuli!

Amazing!

10g purest Lapis $ 390.00

Very cool!

Y quien tiene el mérito por la variedades de los colores y tener la capacidad para crear combinaciones únicas que emocionan a otros? BCN

So interesting. Thank you for sharing. 💙💙💙

Ah yes, Lapis Lazuli... Minecraft flashbacks back then. :D

Really good video

Pigment is a color in and of itself (3:05). She opens the rock up and it's blue; it's integral. Your sight, the light, and perception do not enter into the equation. Tell me, what cast and lumen of light does it need to be blue?

There's a stone called, wait for it, bluestone, which is available in abundance.

It’s interesting that blue is so rare across many areas of the natural world, not only in regards to pigments or stone; for example, animals and plants are more likely to be any other color than blue. Why, I don’t know. Yes, shades of blue, violet, lavender, periwinkle are seen in the natural world, but many are far closer to purple. Depending on the richness of the hue, it may or may not be considered as "blue". Blue animals & plants do absolutely exist, such as the American collared lizard, or the Himalayan _Mechanopsis_ (blue poppy). Other flowers that are considered "blue", to some extent, include _Delphinium_ (larkspur), certain _Agapanthus_ varieties (Nile lily), but not many. Fish have many colors… some skinks have blue tails, such as the _Plestiodon_ (five-lined, Coronado's) skinks. But of all the rare blue creatures, the electric blue day gecko species _Lagodactylus williamsi_ from Micronesia, which is critically endangered, is one of the few species to be the EXACT tone of lapis lazuli. A living jewel 🦎 💙

The more purer lapis lazuli and expensive the less u have to process it…

How do you filter out the pyrite (yellow gold coloured bits )?

You could just take a file or rasp to it to create dust immediately.

Not atoms, but molecules. Sulfur (sulphur, ok?) is yellow in its elemental, atomic form.

I baught my wife some lapis at the local markets, have polished eggs and raw rocks!

If this guy's ringtone isn't "‎Blue (Da Ba Dee)" by Eiffel 65, I'll be very disappointed.

I am a trainee pen maker and i really would love to make pens that contain lapis lazuli!

how did they get it into my computer screen??

I would love to be this stone like in the Dream of the red chamber.

Lapis ... my ancestors ..

Soon one short video about the YELLOW.

So interms of the location u actually get it from more areas than just that one mountain he is referring to. Pakistan for example have mines of lapis lazuli, Tajikistan even (equally as beautiful I would argue but getting it is more difficult due to the location of the mines being so high up in the himilayan mountain ranges, but then u have less quality of lapis from chile and other localities

Ancient cultures didn’t even have a word for blue!

Lapis lazuli is not that rare, for example large parts of the floor in Dubai airport have lapis tiles. However the pigment is probably from very high quality lapis. I have a necklace of it, very inexpensive. I did not know that S caused the deep blue!

They say that you would start grinding pigments for your grandkids.

I knew what rock they were talking about just by reading the title due to my extensive Minecraft knowledge.

Chemically made the ferrocyanide and nitric acid

Why is it called ultramarine & not lapis lazuli for the rock from which it originates? Lapis Lazuli sounds much more interesting & seems more accurate.

I am worried that thieves will use the video to target the pigment collection. I suggest editing it to remove all indications of the location.

Man calmly and poetically describes just how mind blowing it must have been for ancient people to have discovered this blue hued mountain. This stone must have been a gift from God himself. Interviewer playing hot potato with this man's most treasured object: oy that's a crazy rock innit

as a minecraft player, i now appreciate that thing more

Now I understand the head piece On the egyptian pharaohs The blue and gold stipes Royalty Divine My ancestors Persian royalty lineage

😊🙏 Lapis Lazuli >>> One of the Ornamental Blue Colour worn by Celestial Beings in a Non-Toxic Form ... 🙏💙

doesn't look at all like the sky had fallen to earth and turned to rock, but okay...

They say he has the rarest of pigments and then show a window like that.