Egyptian Blue, a pigment used by the Ancient Egyptians to decorate tombs, is finding modern day use as a tool against forgery and, potentially, medicine, according to SciShow. The artificial pigment, believed to be the world’s first, was widely used in Ancient Egyptian decorative art but fell out of fashion in the ancient world somewhere around the fourth century. It was rediscovered in the 1800s during an excavation in Pompeii and its use in Ancient Egyptian sites has since been well documented, with our ancestors having consistently got the mix right over a span of 3,000 years. The exact mix of elements used by the Ancient Egyptians isn’t known, but there are clues left by a Roman writer named Vitruvius. Egyptian Blue molecules emit infrared radiation which opens the door for potential uses in anti-forgery and fingerprint dusting as well as incorporating the pigment into a dye for medical scanning techniques (watch, runtime 3:46)