Created about 4,600 years ago, Egyptian blue was a popular pigment used on coffins, murals, and pottery; today, the hue is being used in a wide-ranging number of applications, including medical imaging, reports Mental Floss.
Scientists today know how to recreate Egyptian blue—but instead of using it to paint their labs, they’re researching ways to incorporate the pigment into dyes for medical imaging techniques, creating new types of security ink, and even making dusting powder for fingerprint detection.
