The DRESS that broke the Internet

Late on Thursday night and early Friday morning, Twitter and Facebook feeds across the world had only one question on their mind: Is this dress white and gold or is it black and blue.

The dress has thrown the Internet into a tizzy with people across social media  arguing about whether a picture depicting a perfectly nice bodycon dress is blue with black lace fringe or white with gold lace fringe. And neither side is standing down from this fight.

The entire debate began on Thursday when Scottish singer Caitlin McNeill posted the enigmatic dress to Tumblr with this caption: “Guys please help me – is this dress white and gold, or blue and black? Me and my friends can’t agree and we are freaking the f–k out.”

Almost everyone with an Internet connection has an opinion on this dress. Pop princess Taylor Swift tweeted: “I don’t understand this odd dress debate and I feel like it’s a trick somehow. I’m confused and scared. PS it’s obviously blue and black.”

Actress Anna Kendrick stated: “If that’s not white and gold the universe is falling apart. Seriously what is happening????”

Even reality star Kim Kardashian entered the war saying, “What colour is that dress? I see white & gold. Kanye sees black & blue, who is colour blind?”

Oscar winner Julianne Moore had her say, writing back to TV couple Mindy Kaling and BJ Novak: “What's the matter with you guys, it’s white and gold.”

Miley Cyrus too waded in the debate posting on Instagram: “What's the deal with this f**king dress? #blueandblack.”

@BuzzFeedBen tweeted: “My daughter thinks it's blue and green and we are headed to the ER.”

@DennysDiner added, “stops furiously scribbling amidst dozens of coffee cups* there is no dress. it is not the dress that changes colours, it is only yourself.

@ASvPDuke tweeted: What if the illuminati is trying to distract us from something they’re doing rn with #TheDress

@Irelay tweets: My mom just seriously asked if I was on drugs or going blind, a dress is literally tearing my family apart. #whiteandgold

And for those who voted for the blue and black combination, you are correct. The dress is blue-black. 

Here's the scientific reason why the dress appears to be different colours

Light enters the eye through the lens -- different wavelengths corresponding to different colours. The light hits the retina in the back of the eye where pigments fire up neural connections to the visual cortex, the part of the brain that processes those signals into an image.

Critically, though, that first burst of light is made of whatever wavelengths are illuminating the world, reflecting off whatever you’re looking at. Without you having to worry about it, your brain figures out what colour light is bouncing off the thing your eyes are looking at, and essentially subtracts that color from the “real” colour of the object. “Our visual system is supposed to throw away information about the illuminant and extract information about the actual reflectance,” said Jay Neitz, a neuroscientist at the University of Washington, to Wired.com.

Usually that system works just fine. This image, though, hits some kind of perceptual boundary. Human beings evolved to see in daylight, but daylight changes colour. That chromatic axis varies from the pinkish red of dawn, up through the blue-white of noontime, and then back down to reddish twilight. “What’s happening here is your visual system is looking at this thing, and you’re trying to discount the chromatic bias of the daylight axis,” says Bevil Conway, a neuroscientist who studies colour and vision at WellesleyCollege. “So people either discount the blue side, in which case they end up seeing white and gold, or discount the gold side, in which case they end up with blue and black.”