Why Red Is Such a Potent Color The Olympic athletes have been
parading around like fashionistas in an array of colorful
outfits, and we, their adoring public, can't resist commenting
on the style and color of their high-end athletic wear. My
favorite was the faux silk, faux embroidered, slinky red
leotards of the Chinese women's gymnasts. Apparently, as
researchers have recently discovered, the choice of red for
those leotards might also have given the Chinese gymnasts an
advantage. But why is the color red so impressive? The answer
lies in our tree-living past. In the back of the vertebrate
eyeball are two kinds of cells called rods and cones that
respond to light. Cones take in a wide range of light, which
means they recognize colors, and they are stimulated best during
daylight. Rods respond to a narrower range of light (meaning
only white light) but notice that light from far away and at
night. Isaac Newton was the first person to hold up a prism and
refract white light into a rainbow of colors and realiz