Monthly Archives: December 2010

coloured keyboard

When I bought my first mac this year – A mac book pro – I was really pleased with the keyboard. The backlighting is a really cool effect and makes the keys really easy to see. However, I came across a whole new meaning of backlit keyboard today.

The new Luxeed U5 illuminated keyboard allows the user to select one 430 backlit colours for each of the keys. The intended use for this is for gamers who may want to use colour coding to make it easier to identify keys with certain tasks.

living pigments

Recent research from Prof Pettigrew – University of Queensland, Australia – has shown that one of the reasons that some cave paintings have apparently retained their colour for so long is that the original pigments in the paint have been replaced by living organisms that are themselves coloured. This makes dating cave paintings difficult and also makes it hard to know what the original paint colours were. The story is reported by the BBC – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12039203