Colour perception
Posted: Fri Apr 05, 2013 12:46 am
I was listening to a podcast on radiolab that just blew my mind. I'll repost a post I just made on fb, and add some more words to it.
Did you know that while most human's usually have 3 cones of colour perception (R,B,G - Trichromads) and people who are colour blind only have 2 (B,G - Dichromads) there are a few humans out there who have FOUR? (R,B,G,Y - Tetrachromads) - One lady when interviewed by Radiolab, described the sky as having shade of red and purple in it, she was a tetrachromad - While most of us would only see one shade of yellow, she would see a whole spectrum. Bees and many types of bird are also tetrachromads, but unlike humans they perceive a spectrum of colour that includes Ultra violet light. In the link below you can see our conception of how a bee might see flowers compared to us. But what animal sees the most in a rainbow? Some species of Mantis shrimp can have up to 16 cones of colour perception, four cones dedicated to ultra violet light alone. If a mantis shrimp were to stare at a rainbow, it would see a tonne of different colours that we have no perception of.
It blows my mind to think about stuff like this. You can't even imagine the colours that it sees, because you've never seen them. Interestingly, science now has the ability to give colour blind people a third colour cone in their eyes. When interviewed the scientist was asked if it would be possible to give humans a fourth colour cone? He said yes! One day we'll be able to get cone implants in our eyes that will allow us to see millions of new colours that we've never even dreamed of.
A link to the bees eye view: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... ly-us.html
Mantis shrimp: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantis_shrimp
It's amazing how colourful a mantis shrimp is to our eyes, imagine what a mantis shrimp would look like to another mantis shrimp. I dare say it would be one of the most colourful beings on the planet.
Did you know that while most human's usually have 3 cones of colour perception (R,B,G - Trichromads) and people who are colour blind only have 2 (B,G - Dichromads) there are a few humans out there who have FOUR? (R,B,G,Y - Tetrachromads) - One lady when interviewed by Radiolab, described the sky as having shade of red and purple in it, she was a tetrachromad - While most of us would only see one shade of yellow, she would see a whole spectrum. Bees and many types of bird are also tetrachromads, but unlike humans they perceive a spectrum of colour that includes Ultra violet light. In the link below you can see our conception of how a bee might see flowers compared to us. But what animal sees the most in a rainbow? Some species of Mantis shrimp can have up to 16 cones of colour perception, four cones dedicated to ultra violet light alone. If a mantis shrimp were to stare at a rainbow, it would see a tonne of different colours that we have no perception of.
It blows my mind to think about stuff like this. You can't even imagine the colours that it sees, because you've never seen them. Interestingly, science now has the ability to give colour blind people a third colour cone in their eyes. When interviewed the scientist was asked if it would be possible to give humans a fourth colour cone? He said yes! One day we'll be able to get cone implants in our eyes that will allow us to see millions of new colours that we've never even dreamed of.
A link to the bees eye view: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... ly-us.html
Mantis shrimp: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantis_shrimp
It's amazing how colourful a mantis shrimp is to our eyes, imagine what a mantis shrimp would look like to another mantis shrimp. I dare say it would be one of the most colourful beings on the planet.