Egyptian blue contains calcium, but Chinese purple contains barium.

埃及蓝含有钙中国紫则含有钡。

Egyptian blue first appeared around 2600 BCE and eventually spread throughout Mesopotamia and the Roman empire.

埃及蓝首次出现于约2600BC，最终传遍美索不达米亚和罗马帝国。

The story picks up in 1814, when archaeologists found Egyptian blue while excavating the ruins of Pompeii.

1814年这个故事才被人们发现，当考古学家们挖掘庞贝废墟时才发现了埃及蓝。

But as other colors like red and yellow became all the rage in Roman art, Egyptian blue lost popularity.

但随着其他颜色，如红色和黄色在罗马艺术中风靡，埃及蓝就逐渐落寞。

The synchrotron light beam confirmed that Chinese purple and Egyptian blue shared all the same ingredients with two exceptions.

同步光束证实了中国紫和埃及蓝拥有很多相同的成分，但有两个例外。

After a lot of experimentation, we now know that the chemical name of Egyptian blue is calcium copper tetrasilicate.

经过多次试验后，我们现在知道了埃及蓝的化学名称是四硅酸盐钙铜。

But this property of Egyptian blue means it has a bunch of other potential uses as well.

但是埃及蓝的这种性质意味着它还有其他的潜在用途。

Not only that, but the consistency of their results was also incredible — Egyptian blue pigment is almost exactly the same chemical in tombs built across nearly 3000 years.

不仅如此，他们结果的一致性也同样惊人——埃及蓝色素和3000年左右所建陵墓几乎有着相同的化学物。

The other was Egyptian blue, created by chemists working for the pharoahs thousands of kilometers from China and centuries before the silk road opened up trade between China and the west.

另一个是埃及蓝，在中国千里之外，由法老的药剂师所创造，比丝绸之路连通中西贸易还要早几个世纪。

Scientists discovered in 2009 that, when visible light is shined on them, Egyptian blue molecules emit infrared radiation — the long-wavelength light that our eyes can't detect, but can be felt as heat or be picked up by certain cameras.

2009年科学家们发现，当可见光照耀到色素上时，埃及蓝分子会发出红外辐射——我们的眼睛无法察觉的长波长光，但可以感受到热度或是被某种相机捕捉到。