Educator Guide: Beets Bleed Red, But Chemists Turn It Blue

Chemistry
beets and blue dye made from beets

The powdered food additive maltodextrin (right) gets a splash of color from a new blue dye derived from red beets.

Avalon_Studio/E+/Getty Images plus (left); E.L. Bastos (right)

About this guide

In this guide, students will learn how light and chemical structures affect color and how chemists apply that knowledge to create pigments. Students will then pair up to research a pigment of their choice.

This Guide Includes:

Creating the blues with chemistry

Students will answer questions about the online Science News article “Beets bleed red but a chemistry tweak can create a blue hue,” which explores how scientists altered the molecular structure of a pigment molecule from beets. A version of the story, “Beets bleed red, but chemists turn it blue,” can be found in the May 9 & May 23, 2020 issue of Science News.