AKA Yellow is Not a Real Color
Image: The Canada Heat Wave of 2021 (should probably be called "the first" heat wave of 2021, since it happened in June)
Heat maps are a big deal these days, especially since the planet is now getting so hot that we have run out of colors.
But this brings up a problem in science communication that's been around forever --
rainbows distort data. They also make the data unreadable for those with color blindness. It's actually a big deal, especially for scientists, journalists, public health professionals, law enforcement, you name it.
This is something that's upset me forever; I was an art teacher -- The color yellow does not belong on a lettered sign. You want to make a sign? Prom? Fine. Lots of colors? Fine. But know this -- any letter that is colored yellow, on a background of white paper, will be invisible, and it will make your sign illegible.
Full-grown adults still don't get it; I see it happen all the time. Please stop.
And if what you're trying to do is to make the data visible according to a continuum of visual stimuli, then maybe stick to black and white; light-to-dark communicates this continuum much better than a rainbow (which goes from light to dark to light to dark and back again, which is confusing).
Notes:
Using better colours in science
Oct 2020, phys.org
via University of Oslo: Fabio Crameri et al. The misuse of colour in science communication, Nature Communications (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-19160-7
Also, this: Evolution of Basic Color Terms (red was the first color that we could see, and some groups of people still can't see blue)
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