LOST & FOUND: The blue in your jeans began in a chemistry lab.

For thousands of years, indigo dye came only from plants. Adolf von Baeyer, born in Berlin on October 31, 1835, spent years studying the molecule. In 1880 he patented a way to make indigo in the laboratory, and in 1883 he worked out its structure.

The chemical company BASF put synthetic indigo on sale in 1897. It could be made in larger amounts and at lower cost, and it replaced natural indigo in many regions. Baeyer won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1905.

Today synthetic indigo is mainly used to dye denim, so his chemistry is probably in your wardrobe right now.

Should natural plant indigo make a comeback, or has lab-made dye earned its place?

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