Agree. He covers random things I would've never thought about... But then with each video I'm finding myself suddenly interested in the history/ explanation 😄
Except that it's physically impossible to print "dark mode" on newsprint. The ink spreads as it absorbs into the paper, so you just can't print big blocks of black with narrow white lines betwen them.
It actually does make sense to use green from a "natural selection" perspective. We evolved needing to spot small details amongst a green backdrop, whether it's berries on a bush or a predator stalking you in the tall grass. So our eyes did evolve to see discern between green and red really well. It makes sense to use it as a surrounding when you're doing surgery on the red internals of a person to help keep your red cones from getting overwhelmed.
I'm not really convinced by this. The red and green cones have huge overlap in frequency range so, anything that overwhelms your red cones is going to overwhelm the green ones, too (or, at least, be very close).
@@beeble2003there is plenty of difference between how the cones work, though. For starters, red cones don't get overwhelmed in the same way the other cones are (don't ask me the specifics, it's been a while since I've studied this). This is why red light doesn't blind you the same as every other color light does. The best explanation for this is an evolutionary beneficial general alertness for the color red as a signal for danger. And we are capable of distinguishing between more shades of green than any other color. This could best be explained as an evolutionary need to spot small details in green environments.
If our organs were more diverse in their color scheme, the color theory of using green wouldn’t work nearly as well (in color theory blue could be just as restful as green). But green is indeed substantially better than blinding whites, and it makes a bit of sense that it would allow the red cones to go through a period of significantly reduced stimulation (giving the cones a break). However, in a pinch most other cool colors (and possibly browns and greys) would work better than nothing, no need to rely on re-dying the flooring and clothes you have on hand.
"Newspapers should be printed with white letters on black background" This brilliant man predicted dark mode and he must be respected for that (and also for all of those lives saved)
@@Amradar123 And how much more would end up on your hands! Actually, a darkmode newspaper would be basically impossible. Ink spreads out as it's absorbed into the paper, especially cheap newsprint. You just physically can't leave narrow white gaps between big blocks of ink on that kind of paper.
@@Woodledude Very hard to get a high-density white ink. You'd likely end up with mid-grey writing on dark grey paper, which would be a low-contrast nightmare.
Thanks for this. I’m Red-Green color deficient. To me the “green” traffic light is white. Given that, I’m not surprised I never noticed any of the OR’s I’ve been in during medical school were green, to me it looked like an off white!
Thank you Phil for this video! I am an Operating Nurse and working in Germany, and my very 1st time working here is that all scrubs are green. Although I knew before that the color Green soothes well when our eyes are a little bit tired. but I did not saw this coming from your video. Good job! :)
08:30 This is essentially what our surgical “suites” look like today. Our institution has 6 operating rooms for inpatient and 6 for outpatient, not counting 6-8 minor procedure rooms scattered across the campus. I think with all of the modern lighting focused at the surgical site, and the lowering of the room lights, the color of the walls isn’t that important any longer. Advances in surgery lighting have made this the case for quite some time.
I love how u put the facts upfront, so we could "go watch another thing" (wich i obviously didn't, I also love how you summarize and tell the history behind this lil things)
Here is a place for you to expand this topic: green is not the only color of OR scrubs - interestingly most of the ORs I work in prefer blue scrubs, drapes and towels - walls are also frequently blue or tan, even white - did you get a chance to talk to any surgeons, scrub technicians or anesthesia providers for this video?
I was originally gonna make this all about scrubs actually, but I failed to track down as clear a chronology as I did for operating rooms. The overall chaos of the scrubs scene had me change to this topic. I read some rumors that blue scrubs originated in the 50s because they worked better on televised operating theatre recordings/broadcasts. I saw the same explanation for the color of some rooms, but that wouldn't have begun until later. I imagine that modernization efforts might co-mingle with new trends in color psychology (if you can't tell, I'm personally pretty skeptical of color psychology studies/theories, but your mileage may vary).
There is actual real science on color psychology. Particularly, there are scientific studies on how the color of clothing affects a person's attractiveness (with the most distinct effects found with blue, red, and black). Also, there are sports teams that changed their uniforms from one shade of yellow (jaundiced) to a more vibrant shade of yellow, and their wins went up after the change. Green is considered the color of nature (cooling), though I'm not convinced the shade of green used in operating rooms really achieves effective psychological effect.
As a potential patient, I'm all for whatever color the surgeon and his team feels works the best for them. Want to listen to Jimi Hendrix music too? Fine, go for it. Whatever helps you perform at your peak. 😊
Yes!!! Another youtuber who actually answers the title question early on. And then did the long answer and deeper story for the folks that want the details and backstory (and, to be fair, for some topics, I DO want those details and backstory). It's the perfect balance between pleasing the viewers and sucking up to the algorithm (which heavily favors videos around 15-ish minutes).
Nicely done video! I love the how the research is shown and emphasized to demonstrate the argument in greater depth than what you can find by googling for 5 minutes.
You know, im only half way through the video so this may be addressed later. But I've been in a lot of OR's I don't remember any of them being green. I remember a lot of white & beige walls. However, the floors are a different story, they seem to be universally green.
I sometimes wonder if some of the color changes are because of aesthetic updates. I've really only seen blue, and white for procedural items (like drapes and rooms), and usually scrub color now is about identifying a position or service. Now when I see that shade of green in a hospital (besides scrubs) it always feels a little dated.
You know, my wife and I have been trying to find a restful colour for our bedroom walls... hmmm Also, she's a doctor so I'll ask her for a second opinion.
I have eye strain issues, and legitimately find it much easier to read white letters on black background, like the doc said. ... The, uh, the main problem with his suggestion is how to make that feasible for mass printing with the technology of the time 😂 black ink shows up on white paper much much more easily than white paint does on black, any coloring/painting/etc artist can likely tell you that dark shading is much more potent than light tints.
Do most folks with eye strain only struggle with dry eye? Wild. No, my problems are from chronic migraines. No one particular cause seems to be the root, but increased eye strain reliably leads to a migraine, at least. Dark screens help, like in night mode; warm overlays help, like in f.lux (desktop) and twilight (mobile app); when I go outside, I Literally Always wear a ball cap and sunglasses. It's not about the surface of the eye, it's the internal mechanisms in there somewhere, whether that's optical nerve or brain issue or what. Honestly I can't tell if the "earnestly" was sincere or if that's a sarcasm double reach around but either way I'd answer the same I guess, so. Lol.
I always thought they'd switched from white to green because the blood didn't look as bad on green clothes as it did when splattered on white clothing.
I've worked as a surgical intern in quite a few operating theatres in Australia (which was enough to make me say "no thank you" to a surgical career permanently - I'm well aware the surgical world is also happy I never stayed) - all our operating theatres in the public sector that I've worked in have had cream/beige coloured walls. I think the green-coloured operating theatre is a north american phenomenon. The gloves are usually cream-coloured as well (although sometimes blue or green) and the gowns and caps are usually universally blue here.
Green and amber were chosen for monochrome computer displays because they are restful colours, it would be interesting to know if there was a scientific backing to that.
Oof. I had both back in the early days. The green was really eye-exhausting. The amber was hard to see if there was much glare or sunlight. Yeah, I'm old enough that my Commodore 64 and 128 C were new when I got them. Anyone want to dance to the modem screech song?
I think they were chosen because green and orange phosphors were abundant and cheap. When using a monochrome display (yes, some things still have monochrome displays even today), green has better contrast and is easier to see. If displaying monochrome video signals on a modern monitor where you can choose the color, green is usually the best I find
The phrase "Not even wrong" was invented for stuff like "natural selection selected green cuz hunting, therefore we should have green operating rooms." It's such a lovely phrase: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_even_wrong
@@PhilEdwardsInc *dopamine hit from admired creator positively responding to YT comment achieved* But yeah, it's great fun/defense-mechanism, right up there with whipping out "You are an example of Poe's Law Perfected" in... y'know... certain topical conversations.
Yeah, it's amazing how much total nonsense was being spouted by both sides in that debate. Basically, "We should do green, because it's less glare-y and [enormous pile of nonsense]" vs "We should do white, because [enormous pile of nonsense]."
I've been in a few operating rooms and none were green. One was salmon pink. The reason you cite against white is exactly why white was used. Now you have directed artificial lighting above the patient. Before electricity the light came in from one side of the room through windows, so reflecting it off the floors, walls, and people was how to more evenly light the patient
The man is right about one thing. A black newspaper with white letters would be better. It's called dark mode and I'm using it on my phone to type this now. Edit: apparently I'm the second person to comment this.
Yeah, but no. Computer screens are transmissive; paper is reflective. Have you ever tried to read white text on a dark background, e.g., in a magazine? It's a lot of work. Not only would a dark-mode newspaper be much more expensive (it'd probably need more than ten times the amount of ink) but it's physically impossible to print. First, on low quality paper like newsprint, the ink spreads quite a bit as it absorbs into the paper. Second, you can't make printing type that has fine un-inked lines in it, because that requires a narrow groove in the type. But that groove just fills with ink anyway, and you end up printing all-black. And even if you could print it, the pages would stick together and transfer ink to each other.
I’m a grown man, but I actually find myself really wanting that doll. Never knew there were dolls who had organs, and I probably would’ve asked Santa Claus for one when I was a kid if I’d known about them sooner 😉
Another tidbit is that in military aircraft the cockpits are often the same color as it was shown to reduce aircrew fatigue over long sorties. Most famously done by the Soviets.
While the overall structure of chlorophyll is very similar to hemoglobin, a fundamental difference is that hemoglobin has iron while chlorophyll has magnesium. Still a very cool molecular convergence between the animal and plant kingdoms.
Ok, so now I want you to explain why my middle school (built in the 1960s) had a surgical green walls. Gotta keep those middle schoolers calm, I guess. 😂
Neat! I had heard it was the colour contrast, I'm glad I was able to learn a little more with this video. I like the use of green for the text highlighting.
My dad had an appendectomy, emergency life-saving, when he was around 10-years-old. That would be around 1938 or there about. He learned from his traumatic hospital surgery and long post-operative stay in the hospital, that the color green really complimented healing, restfulness, calm, quiet conversation. When it was time for me to learn to drive, he bought me a green Jeep Willys Overland. Meanwhile, the livingroom was always a pale green, his favorite car was always green. Oh my! I really did love that moss green Chevy Impala. He was the one in our family who had a professional photographer arrive to our home once every year to take not only family photographs but also portrait photographers of each member. He chose the clothing we would wear, and my color was always a green he called New Leaf Green. Thanks for reawaking all those memories. Very kind of you!
strangely enough, in the past 5-10 years or so, all modern coders have switched to white on black. Before that it was all black on white. Many phones and websites now offer dark modes, or even use them as default
Phil industrial machines also almost every time green, lathe, milling machine, grinder, when I went to vocational school, all the machines came from the ussr, they were all dark green, the lathe we have downstairs in the workshop, which came from East Germany (1956 production) is also green. Just because green is a dull/calm color.
Thank you for answering the question early in the vid. That way I could decide if I wanted to spend the next ten minutes finding out more details about the subject.
5:30 This is how I set up my terminal colors: black background with light green text. I discovered it back in the early nineties when I was spending more time online. I could be biased because my first computer was an Apple IIe (green text on a black background).
@@PhilEdwardsInc There’s a profile in Terminal called “Homebrew” which is close to what I use. I also made a profile for presentations with a huge font to make it easier for viewers to read.
As a kid, I found the green colored operating rooms stressful as well as the room being full of green with eyes floating around in it. Green is my favorite color, but not when it comes to operating rooms.
The natural selection idea does make sense in one way: the fact that we evolved to be able to see variations in green better than other colors. That was literally my first thought when learning (from your video) that operating rooms are green.
Phil, here's a tangent for another video: those light shades of pastel green/blue were the focus of numerous studies by military and government after WW2. Which resulted in basically most of the US military and government buildings being awash in the color. Just check any color footage from the era and you'll see it. Also, the USSR independently came to the same conclusion and covered their empire in it. Google the interior of any Soviet era fighter, aircraft cockpit, naval vessel, etc. So the hemoglobin guy may have still been right, just for the completely wrong reasons. Apparently a ton of data for decades backed it up.
you know i saw a lot of citations for this as "ciel" but couldn't find it in primary sources. do you know of any? (ie books or original documents, not web content?)
Not related to the main thesis but the guy saying "we should use black paper with white lettering" was super ahead of his time, I am literally typing this on a black screen with white letters, I use dark mode on as many apps that support it as possible. If I had the option to turn on dark mode on my university textbooks I probably would have; staring at white pages for hours on end can tire your eyes out.
The funny part about the newspapers from an eye strain point of view he's not wrong. That's why Nighttime mode works so well. I love these videos with the weirdness of the world thanks for the fun.
5:35 I 100% agree with him. White letters on black background is top tier. We all use dark mode. I hate fully white screens, they hurt my eyes. I also leave most lights off and prefer warmer lights.
Bravo! J'ai écouté plusieurs de vos créations, mais c'est la première fois que je commente. J'adore vos choix de sujets. Vous traitez chaque dossier avec un grand souci du détail tout en demeurant accessible. J'apprécie tout particulièrement votre ton léger et très proche de vos auditeurs. Félicitations! Continuez, j'adore ce que vous faites! Joie! ;~J
He was also right in that newspapers should be black with white text. And so should just about every website. The classic black screen and green text was way better than the commonplace white screen black text that's mostly used today.
That's really strange. You and Adam Savage both did a video about red and green and they're both sort of medical related. His tattoo of a ruler on his arm is teal and he chose that because it compliments the reds and pinks of his skin. And then I scroll down my feed a little further and here's your video about the green of operating rooms. What's also strange is that Adam also talks about two people coming to the same conclusion or solution to a problem independently. That's not exactly what happened here but two people did arrive at similar ideas independently.
They both stem from the same basic idea, picking a complementary colour. Some of the slightly later articles shown in this video mention “pastel green or blue” which match how we do it nowadays - at least in the NHS which uses a mix of blue and green scrubs. Turquoise is the “most” complementary to red, so any blood etc will show up very strongly. And the greens and blues for scrubs tend to cluster around turquoise. Pastel colours will darken upon being touched by clear fluids, and yellow-y fluids make a decent contrast too (a bit stronger against blue than green). So high contrast but low eye strain was the name of the game! Basically when picking a colour other than white, red was ruled out pretty quickly because it made cleanup more difficult.
It’s funny that every time I’ve been in surgery I’ve been too hyped on anesthesia to remember any of this, I had no idea they were green until this video
Honestly? I think that, if anybody's going to be losing in this situation, it's people with green-red colour blindness, lol. For them, it all looks the same now
I know Sherman didn't invent the green idea but, as someone with a cleft lip & palate, I think think it's SO COOL that's the surgery he referenced in his paper!
Green or Blue scrubs or drapes are helpful for eye strain because of color fatigue in the eye. There are 3 different cones in the retina which are sensitive to Red, Green, and Blue. Because the surgeons look at Red all day, it's helpful to be surrounded by colors that don't include red.
There was later thinking in this same lineage of thought in the 30’s 40’s 50’s, for industrial plants, factories, etc. where the argument is that equipment should Be painted the Color contrast opposite of the material that was being worked; so mint green for copper, baby blue for brass, pastel yellow for blue metals; and so on. Or “battleship/dark grey” so to reduce eyestrain. Likewise a lot of the shift in task lighting happened then, away from incandescent lamps in enamel reflectors (which had to be specifically selected so that the rim blocked looking at the bulb within the normal plane of seeing), to florescent tubes which didn’t cause glare and eye strain. GE, Kodak, Bausch & Lomb, and others were putting a lot of research into the science of light and seeing at the time, and a lot of conjecture around glare, and eyestrain lead them to believe that many of those problems could be solved by lamp design, and Color schemes.
Similar but bluer shades of green manifest in Soviet aircraft cockpits, and I've seen almost that exact shade in U.S. Navy ships, and all sorts of ground-based combat vehicles the world over... but not consistently. There definitely was a some serious mid-century obsession with the "perfect" shades to reduce eye strain, increase alertness, etc. It never seems to have been very consistently applied, however.
Kinda crazy how just a tiny bit of setdec can fool you if you aren't paying attention 😅 the green + overhead light + scrubs and I didn't even notice till the end you werent actually in a hospital room
Very interesting but also quite a bizarre video for me. I'm in New Zealand and used to work as a photographer in a hospital. Went into theatre from time to time and it was a pretty white place, and the scrubs were all various shades of blue. Thankfully haven't had much cause to otherwise find myself inside an operating room outside of that work, but the few others that I have been in as a patient I recall being similarly white. I'm actually having a hard time trying to think of any time green, much less 'surgical green' was used at all.
Phil you really know how to spin a yarn from something superficially trivial
Yeah, like a death.
Goes to show nothing is trivial and everything is interesting if you're curious enough!
Superficiality is relative, I suppose.
If you think color is trivial and maybe your are superficial.
Props to Dr. Sherman for being the first dark mode advocate
seriously that's actually impressive
There needs to be more people like Phil Edwards. And I love how he just makes whatever he thinks is fun and interesting to talk about.
Agree. He covers random things I would've never thought about... But then with each video I'm finding myself suddenly interested in the history/ explanation 😄
We were this close to this guy inventing dark mode newspaper
i know as i was editing this, i was like, why did i not mention dark mode...
Except that it's physically impossible to print "dark mode" on newsprint. The ink spreads as it absorbs into the paper, so you just can't print big blocks of black with narrow white lines betwen them.
BLACK PAPER AND WHITE INK
@@chobies5383 There's no need to shout. It's hard to make a high-enough density white ink to print on black paper.
@@beeble2003 Hard? Yes. Impossible? No. Expensive? Probably.
It actually does make sense to use green from a "natural selection" perspective. We evolved needing to spot small details amongst a green backdrop, whether it's berries on a bush or a predator stalking you in the tall grass. So our eyes did evolve to see discern between green and red really well. It makes sense to use it as a surrounding when you're doing surgery on the red internals of a person to help keep your red cones from getting overwhelmed.
I'm not really convinced by this. The red and green cones have huge overlap in frequency range so, anything that overwhelms your red cones is going to overwhelm the green ones, too (or, at least, be very close).
@@beeble2003there is plenty of difference between how the cones work, though. For starters, red cones don't get overwhelmed in the same way the other cones are (don't ask me the specifics, it's been a while since I've studied this). This is why red light doesn't blind you the same as every other color light does. The best explanation for this is an evolutionary beneficial general alertness for the color red as a signal for danger. And we are capable of distinguishing between more shades of green than any other color. This could best be explained as an evolutionary need to spot small details in green environments.
If our organs were more diverse in their color scheme, the color theory of using green wouldn’t work nearly as well (in color theory blue could be just as restful as green).
But green is indeed substantially better than blinding whites, and it makes a bit of sense that it would allow the red cones to go through a period of significantly reduced stimulation (giving the cones a break).
However, in a pinch most other cool colors (and possibly browns and greys) would work better than nothing, no need to rely on re-dying the flooring and clothes you have on hand.
We were created
@@ChicagoMel23 through the natural selection of genetic mutations in response to environmental pressures over billions of years.
"Newspapers should be printed with white letters on black background"
This brilliant man predicted dark mode and he must be respected for that (and also for all of those lives saved)
Hmmm, how much ink or paint would be needed for "darkmode" newspaper? 😊
@@Amradar123 And how much more would end up on your hands! Actually, a darkmode newspaper would be basically impossible. Ink spreads out as it's absorbed into the paper, especially cheap newsprint. You just physically can't leave narrow white gaps between big blocks of ink on that kind of paper.
@@beeble2003White ink on black paper, surely? It could be done - We bleach wood pulp these days, but we could just as easily dye it.
@@Woodledude Very hard to get a high-density white ink. You'd likely end up with mid-grey writing on dark grey paper, which would be a low-contrast nightmare.
Dude had visual snow, I'm sure of it
Thanks for giving us the simple answer and then telling the story!
i'll try to do this when it happens!
I actually Googled first before I clicked
@@PhilEdwardsInc do a short on why your name is incorporated, I thought you were a impersonator
@@matt45540 too many other phil edwards's!
I offer my condolences to the family of the doll, they must be so devastated.
there's a gofundme for a really nice felt coffin
@@PhilEdwardsInc I would be happy to donate.
I'm offering resurrection services. I can make it as alive as it was before the operation. I'm good with a needle, I know some stitches.
@@PhilEdwardsInc😅😂😅
Thanks for this. I’m Red-Green color deficient. To me the “green” traffic light is white. Given that, I’m not surprised I never noticed any of the OR’s I’ve been in during medical school were green, to me it looked like an off white!
The Mr. Beast gag is exceptional. I love this.
Thank you Phil for this video! I am an Operating Nurse and working in Germany, and my very 1st time working here is that all scrubs are green. Although I knew before that the color Green soothes well when our eyes are a little bit tired. but I did not saw this coming from your video. Good job! :)
08:30 This is essentially what our surgical “suites” look like today. Our institution has 6 operating rooms for inpatient and 6 for outpatient, not counting 6-8 minor procedure rooms scattered across the campus. I think with all of the modern lighting focused at the surgical site, and the lowering of the room lights, the color of the walls isn’t that important any longer. Advances in surgery lighting have made this the case for quite some time.
Always amazed at the very old and obscure, high-quality sources you're somehow able to dig up
archive.org is a godsend!
I love how u put the facts upfront, so we could "go watch another thing" (wich i obviously didn't, I also love how you summarize and tell the history behind this lil things)
Here is a place for you to expand this topic: green is not the only color of OR scrubs - interestingly most of the ORs I work in prefer blue scrubs, drapes and towels - walls are also frequently blue or tan, even white - did you get a chance to talk to any surgeons, scrub technicians or anesthesia providers for this video?
I was originally gonna make this all about scrubs actually, but I failed to track down as clear a chronology as I did for operating rooms. The overall chaos of the scrubs scene had me change to this topic.
I read some rumors that blue scrubs originated in the 50s because they worked better on televised operating theatre recordings/broadcasts. I saw the same explanation for the color of some rooms, but that wouldn't have begun until later. I imagine that modernization efforts might co-mingle with new trends in color psychology (if you can't tell, I'm personally pretty skeptical of color psychology studies/theories, but your mileage may vary).
I agree. Everything is blue where I am.
@@PhilEdwardsInc Still do a video about scrubs!
that dead body skit was integral to this video
requiescat in pace
There is actual real science on color psychology. Particularly, there are scientific studies on how the color of clothing affects a person's attractiveness (with the most distinct effects found with blue, red, and black). Also, there are sports teams that changed their uniforms from one shade of yellow (jaundiced) to a more vibrant shade of yellow, and their wins went up after the change. Green is considered the color of nature (cooling), though I'm not convinced the shade of green used in operating rooms really achieves effective psychological effect.
Effective effect
As a potential patient, I'm all for whatever color the surgeon and his team feels works the best for them. Want to listen to Jimi Hendrix music too? Fine, go for it. Whatever helps you perform at your peak. 😊
Yes!!! Another youtuber who actually answers the title question early on. And then did the long answer and deeper story for the folks that want the details and backstory (and, to be fair, for some topics, I DO want those details and backstory). It's the perfect balance between pleasing the viewers and sucking up to the algorithm (which heavily favors videos around 15-ish minutes).
Every time you publish a video, it always makes my heart so happy! You’re a phenomenal journalist! Looking forward to your next video
The “can you guess my age” video is relevant to this one in a roundabout way. You don’t look old but it feels like you are. Good!
Nicely done video! I love the how the research is shown and emphasized to demonstrate the argument in greater depth than what you can find by googling for 5 minutes.
thanks for noticing! lucky to live in an age when it's possible to get so much amazing archive so easily.
@@PhilEdwardsInc yes, but correctly finding and utilizing that information is a skill you have!
You know, im only half way through the video so this may be addressed later. But I've been in a lot of OR's I don't remember any of them being green. I remember a lot of white & beige walls. However, the floors are a different story, they seem to be universally green.
I sometimes wonder if some of the color changes are because of aesthetic updates. I've really only seen blue, and white for procedural items (like drapes and rooms), and usually scrub color now is about identifying a position or service. Now when I see that shade of green in a hospital (besides scrubs) it always feels a little dated.
i think that may be right!
Algorithmic punch!
Great vid, an interesting peak behind the curtain of the operating theater.
You know, my wife and I have been trying to find a restful colour for our bedroom walls... hmmm
Also, she's a doctor so I'll ask her for a second opinion.
I have eye strain issues, and legitimately find it much easier to read white letters on black background, like the doc said. ... The, uh, the main problem with his suggestion is how to make that feasible for mass printing with the technology of the time 😂 black ink shows up on white paper much much more easily than white paint does on black, any coloring/painting/etc artist can likely tell you that dark shading is much more potent than light tints.
Have you tried, and I ask this earnestly; blinking more?
Realized dark mode on my phone and its apps has been a game changer.
Do most folks with eye strain only struggle with dry eye? Wild.
No, my problems are from chronic migraines. No one particular cause seems to be the root, but increased eye strain reliably leads to a migraine, at least. Dark screens help, like in night mode; warm overlays help, like in f.lux (desktop) and twilight (mobile app); when I go outside, I Literally Always wear a ball cap and sunglasses. It's not about the surface of the eye, it's the internal mechanisms in there somewhere, whether that's optical nerve or brain issue or what.
Honestly I can't tell if the "earnestly" was sincere or if that's a sarcasm double reach around but either way I'd answer the same I guess, so. Lol.
I see the world through spinach-tinted glasses.
no other way to live
It's one of my favorite colors so I'm cool with it
I always thought they'd switched from white to green because the blood didn't look as bad on green clothes as it did when splattered on white clothing.
I've worked as a surgical intern in quite a few operating theatres in Australia (which was enough to make me say "no thank you" to a surgical career permanently - I'm well aware the surgical world is also happy I never stayed) - all our operating theatres in the public sector that I've worked in have had cream/beige coloured walls. I think the green-coloured operating theatre is a north american phenomenon. The gloves are usually cream-coloured as well (although sometimes blue or green) and the gowns and caps are usually universally blue here.
Agreed. All ORs I’ve worked in as an RN were all white-walled and our scrubs were always blue.
Green and amber were chosen for monochrome computer displays because they are restful colours, it would be interesting to know if there was a scientific backing to that.
Oof. I had both back in the early days.
The green was really eye-exhausting. The amber was hard to see if there was much glare or sunlight.
Yeah, I'm old enough that my Commodore 64 and 128 C were new when I got them. Anyone want to dance to the modem screech song?
I think they were chosen because green and orange phosphors were abundant and cheap. When using a monochrome display (yes, some things still have monochrome displays even today), green has better contrast and is easier to see. If displaying monochrome video signals on a modern monitor where you can choose the color, green is usually the best I find
thanks for giving me new knowledge which is very hard to find
5:45 the mate invented dark mode in 1907 XD
The phrase "Not even wrong" was invented for stuff like "natural selection selected green cuz hunting, therefore we should have green operating rooms."
It's such a lovely phrase: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_even_wrong
ha that was a good read! thx!
@@PhilEdwardsInc *dopamine hit from admired creator positively responding to YT comment achieved*
But yeah, it's great fun/defense-mechanism, right up there with whipping out "You are an example of Poe's Law Perfected" in... y'know... certain topical conversations.
Yeah, it's amazing how much total nonsense was being spouted by both sides in that debate. Basically, "We should do green, because it's less glare-y and [enormous pile of nonsense]" vs "We should do white, because [enormous pile of nonsense]."
I've been in a few operating rooms and none were green. One was salmon pink.
The reason you cite against white is exactly why white was used. Now you have directed artificial lighting above the patient. Before electricity the light came in from one side of the room through windows, so reflecting it off the floors, walls, and people was how to more evenly light the patient
Incredible that the guy behind green operating rooms is the patreon saint of programmers who choose dark mode.
The man is right about one thing. A black newspaper with white letters would be better. It's called dark mode and I'm using it on my phone to type this now.
Edit: apparently I'm the second person to comment this.
Yeah, but no. Computer screens are transmissive; paper is reflective. Have you ever tried to read white text on a dark background, e.g., in a magazine? It's a lot of work. Not only would a dark-mode newspaper be much more expensive (it'd probably need more than ten times the amount of ink) but it's physically impossible to print. First, on low quality paper like newsprint, the ink spreads quite a bit as it absorbs into the paper. Second, you can't make printing type that has fine un-inked lines in it, because that requires a narrow groove in the type. But that groove just fills with ink anyway, and you end up printing all-black. And even if you could print it, the pages would stick together and transfer ink to each other.
It is unbeLIEVEable how underapprecieted this channel is
I've been thinking about this question recently. Let's find out! Thanks mr. Edwards
I’m a grown man, but I actually find myself really wanting that doll. Never knew there were dolls who had organs, and I probably would’ve asked Santa Claus for one when I was a kid if I’d known about them sooner 😉
it's so that you can chroma key the background and use the surgery footage in movies, duh
“This seems like the sort of hazing that even a fraternity might say is ‘kinda unreasonable.’” 😂😂
OMG, Phil! I love the weird and wonderful stuff you get yourself into!!!
Another tidbit is that in military aircraft the cockpits are often the same color as it was shown to reduce aircrew fatigue over long sorties. Most famously done by the Soviets.
While the overall structure of chlorophyll is very similar to hemoglobin, a fundamental difference is that hemoglobin has iron while chlorophyll has magnesium. Still a very cool molecular convergence between the animal and plant kingdoms.
Doc knew Night Mode is where it's at
Ok, so now I want you to explain why my middle school (built in the 1960s) had a surgical green walls. Gotta keep those middle schoolers calm, I guess. 😂
Phil is still alive ❤
🫀
5:33 the guy really started arguing for dark mode a hundred years early, truly ahead of his time
Neat! I had heard it was the colour contrast, I'm glad I was able to learn a little more with this video. I like the use of green for the text highlighting.
My dad had an appendectomy, emergency life-saving, when he was around 10-years-old. That would be around 1938 or there about. He learned from his traumatic hospital surgery and long post-operative stay in the hospital, that the color green really complimented healing, restfulness, calm, quiet conversation. When it was time for me to learn to drive, he bought me a green Jeep Willys Overland. Meanwhile, the livingroom was always a pale green, his favorite car was always green. Oh my! I really did love that moss green Chevy Impala. He was the one in our family who had a professional photographer arrive to our home once every year to take not only family photographs but also portrait photographers of each member. He chose the clothing we would wear, and my color was always a green he called New Leaf Green. Thanks for reawaking all those memories. Very kind of you!
wow what a nice green story! thanks for sharing!
strangely enough, in the past 5-10 years or so, all modern coders have switched to white on black. Before that it was all black on white. Many phones and websites now offer dark modes, or even use them as default
Dude knows what he was talking about. Green is just a relaxing color and black with white text is dark mode - the best mode.
Phil industrial machines also almost every time green, lathe, milling machine, grinder, when I went to vocational school, all the machines came from the ussr, they were all dark green, the lathe we have downstairs in the workshop, which came from East Germany (1956 production) is also green. Just because green is a dull/calm color.
Thank you for answering the question early in the vid. That way I could decide if I wanted to spend the next ten minutes finding out more details about the subject.
5:30 This is how I set up my terminal colors: black background with light green text. I discovered it back in the early nineties when I was spending more time online. I could be biased because my first computer was an Apple IIe (green text on a black background).
i am oddly tempted to try this too, even though i've never been a dark mode guy
@@PhilEdwardsInc There’s a profile in Terminal called “Homebrew” which is close to what I use. I also made a profile for presentations with a huge font to make it easier for viewers to read.
As a kid, I found the green colored operating rooms stressful as well as the room being full of green with eyes floating around in it. Green is my favorite color, but not when it comes to operating rooms.
This is also why Russian cockpits are green. Relaxing, but also possibly the blood.
The natural selection idea does make sense in one way: the fact that we evolved to be able to see variations in green better than other colors. That was literally my first thought when learning (from your video) that operating rooms are green.
I honestly never noticed this.
That guy basically made the first feature request for dark mode.
News papers print in dark mode. The guy was ahead of his time
Phil, here's a tangent for another video: those light shades of pastel green/blue were the focus of numerous studies by military and government after WW2. Which resulted in basically most of the US military and government buildings being awash in the color. Just check any color footage from the era and you'll see it. Also, the USSR independently came to the same conclusion and covered their empire in it. Google the interior of any Soviet era fighter, aircraft cockpit, naval vessel, etc.
So the hemoglobin guy may have still been right, just for the completely wrong reasons. Apparently a ton of data for decades backed it up.
you know i saw a lot of citations for this as "ciel" but couldn't find it in primary sources. do you know of any? (ie books or original documents, not web content?)
Not related to the main thesis but the guy saying "we should use black paper with white lettering" was super ahead of his time, I am literally typing this on a black screen with white letters, I use dark mode on as many apps that support it as possible. If I had the option to turn on dark mode on my university textbooks I probably would have; staring at white pages for hours on end can tire your eyes out.
The funny part about the newspapers from an eye strain point of view he's not wrong. That's why Nighttime mode works so well. I love these videos with the weirdness of the world thanks for the fun.
5:35 I 100% agree with him. White letters on black background is top tier. We all use dark mode. I hate fully white screens, they hurt my eyes. I also leave most lights off and prefer warmer lights.
Bravo!
J'ai écouté plusieurs de vos créations, mais c'est la première fois que je commente.
J'adore vos choix de sujets. Vous traitez chaque dossier avec un grand souci du détail tout en demeurant accessible. J'apprécie tout particulièrement votre ton léger et très proche de vos auditeurs.
Félicitations! Continuez, j'adore ce que vous faites!
Joie!
;~J
I read a translated version of this, thank you!
J'ai lu une version traduite de ceci, merci!
He was also right in that newspapers should be black with white text. And so should just about every website. The classic black screen and green text was way better than the commonplace white screen black text that's mostly used today.
That's really strange. You and Adam Savage both did a video about red and green and they're both sort of medical related. His tattoo of a ruler on his arm is teal and he chose that because it compliments the reds and pinks of his skin. And then I scroll down my feed a little further and here's your video about the green of operating rooms. What's also strange is that Adam also talks about two people coming to the same conclusion or solution to a problem independently. That's not exactly what happened here but two people did arrive at similar ideas independently.
They both stem from the same basic idea, picking a complementary colour.
Some of the slightly later articles shown in this video mention “pastel green or blue” which match how we do it nowadays - at least in the NHS which uses a mix of blue and green scrubs.
Turquoise is the “most” complementary to red, so any blood etc will show up very strongly. And the greens and blues for scrubs tend to cluster around turquoise.
Pastel colours will darken upon being touched by clear fluids, and yellow-y fluids make a decent contrast too (a bit stronger against blue than green). So high contrast but low eye strain was the name of the game!
Basically when picking a colour other than white, red was ruled out pretty quickly because it made cleanup more difficult.
Your surgery could have been performed by ninjas.
Or stagehands, or puppeteers more likely.
lmao, my dude was asking for a dark mode for the newspaper
I work as a dentist I was wondering the same. I've never wondered why it has to be a green.
I'll never think about Spinach the same way again!
Thanks Phil for another banager! 🙏
- Andy
Seriously you make my Sunday mornings fun for just a bit before I gotta go be an adult, thanks Phil
First video I had to share with my wife of yours Phil
(She's a nurse... Was very interested)
1:28 Phil, you mad man, did you really pull off a three-way split composite shot with fixed focus? If so, I'm green with envy.
hahah i can't comment fully on my surgery's dubious employment practices, but we may have some clones at work
It’s funny that every time I’ve been in surgery I’ve been too hyped on anesthesia to remember any of this, I had no idea they were green until this video
Dude just invented dark mode newspapers
“…ya know… I guess that’s medicine?” 😂😂😂
Thank you for answering the questions no one has ever asked but needed.
Bro Harry wanted dark mode newspapers. He was born too early
The phrase "Wry Humor" was invented for you, Phil! And I am so glad,
Honestly? I think that, if anybody's going to be losing in this situation, it's people with green-red colour blindness, lol. For them, it all looks the same now
1:32 but I just want to shed a comment’s worth of light on this one moment in the video holy goodness
I know Sherman didn't invent the green idea but, as someone with a cleft lip & palate, I think think it's SO COOL that's the surgery he referenced in his paper!
The editing is great, Phil!
I thought they just wanted to be prepared in case a Christmas party broke out.
Love these videos please keep doing them
Green or Blue scrubs or drapes are helpful for eye strain because of color fatigue in the eye. There are 3 different cones in the retina which are sensitive to Red, Green, and Blue. Because the surgeons look at Red all day, it's helpful to be surrounded by colors that don't include red.
There was later thinking in this same lineage of thought in the 30’s 40’s 50’s, for industrial plants, factories, etc. where the argument is that equipment should Be painted the Color contrast opposite of the material that was being worked; so mint green for copper, baby blue for brass, pastel yellow for blue metals; and so on. Or “battleship/dark grey” so to reduce eyestrain. Likewise a lot of the shift in task lighting happened then, away from incandescent lamps in enamel reflectors (which had to be specifically selected so that the rim blocked looking at the bulb within the normal plane of seeing), to florescent tubes which didn’t cause glare and eye strain.
GE, Kodak, Bausch & Lomb, and others were putting a lot of research into the science of light and seeing at the time, and a lot of conjecture around glare, and eyestrain lead them to believe that many of those problems could be solved by lamp design, and Color schemes.
Cool, now, I know why the surgeons always wear green gowns :D. The video was - as always - really funny!
the guys in the background is a cool touch, i like that
I loved all the shots of the surgery doll. Made me laugh every time.
his life meant something after all
Similar but bluer shades of green manifest in Soviet aircraft cockpits, and I've seen almost that exact shade in U.S. Navy ships, and all sorts of ground-based combat vehicles the world over... but not consistently. There definitely was a some serious mid-century obsession with the "perfect" shades to reduce eye strain, increase alertness, etc. It never seems to have been very consistently applied, however.
i absolutely love your videos, a bunch of stuff you wouldn't think about & well researched
5:31 my man was an OG proponent of dark mode
This is something I didn’t think of but once again Phil gave me an interesting story in my mind hehe 💚
Kinda crazy how just a tiny bit of setdec can fool you if you aren't paying attention 😅 the green + overhead light + scrubs and I didn't even notice till the end you werent actually in a hospital room
this channel alwyas answers questions I didn't know I needed answering. lol
Very interesting but also quite a bizarre video for me. I'm in New Zealand and used to work as a photographer in a hospital. Went into theatre from time to time and it was a pretty white place, and the scrubs were all various shades of blue. Thankfully haven't had much cause to otherwise find myself inside an operating room outside of that work, but the few others that I have been in as a patient I recall being similarly white. I'm actually having a hard time trying to think of any time green, much less 'surgical green' was used at all.
i did run into an interesting rumor that blue scrubs emerged, in part, to be easier for early operating theatre videos and films