It's your second most complex organ after the brain, and
it’s responsible for 80% of everything you learn. Yep, I'm talking about your
spleen! No wait. It’s your EYES! Yeah. How many colors can they distinguish?
And why do you have way more in common with sharks than you think? Let's see!
But first I have this: Remember the TV show I Love Lucy?
Well, what did Lucy’s husband Ricky Ricardo say when he met a guy on the street
with five eyes? Give up? “Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay…” Okay maybe you never saw the
show. Let’s move on. Your eye has over 2 million working parts! One million
nerve fibers connect it to the brain! As all the pieces work together, they
process around 36,000 bits of information per hour.
The eyes see things
upside down. The brain then interprets this information and flips images for
us. That's because the cornea is curved, and light bends when it goes through it.
Your eyeball is around the same size as
a gumball you can get from a grocery store gumball machine. The lens in the eye
is the size of an M&M candy. It also has protein filling. Mmmm!
The human eye can distinguish 10 million colors. All of them
are combinations of three basic colors: red, green, and blue. Out of those 10
million, people see more shades of green than any other color. Iris scans are
way more individual than fingerprints.Compare these figures: your fingerprint
has 40 unique features, and your iris has 256! That's why biometric iris scans are
the present and future of security checks.
If you put all the
eyelashes you'll shed during your life in one line, it will be 98 feet long. It
differs from person to person, but you lose on average 1 to 5 lashes a day. Eyelashes
live for about 5 months. The first creatures to have eyes were single-cell
organisms some 550 million years ago. I wasn’t around then. Their eyes didn't
look anything like ours: they were patches of photoreceptor protein.Do you often get red eyes in photos? Blame your blood
vessels. When the light from the camera flash gets reflected, it lights up the
blood vessels at the back of your eyes, hence the red color. Your eye size and
shape affect your vision. People with larger eyes are often nearsighted. And
those who have eyes a bit shorter than average are likely to be far-sighted.
This has to do with how eyes reflect light.
Shark cornea is almost 100% the same as the human one. In
the future, it might allow scientists to use shark cornea proteins to create
biomaterials for making cornea substitutes for people. Yes, there’s something
fishy going on here.
You can sunburn your
eyes. Symptoms resemble those of skin sunburn plus blurry vision. You can't put
sunscreen on your eyes, (ouch) but remember to wear quality sunglasses for UV
protection. Everyone, even a person with perfect vision, has a blind spot. It's on top of where the optic nerve meets the retina. You aren't likely to notice
it unless you experiment on purpose. Your brain fills in the missing data for
you.
10, 000 years ago, everybody had just one eye color – brown.
The first blue-eyed person was born as a result of a genetic mutation. If you
have blue eyes, that was your ancestor. You share him or her with 10% of the
world's population. The most popular eye color is still brown..
Eye muscles are the fastest of them all. They enable your
eyes to move at a speed of 500 degrees per second. They can also focus on 50
different objects in just a second. Many of the moves your eyes make are
automatic. That's why you can see something on the periphery without actually
looking there.
You blink around 15-20 times a minute, 20,000 to 30,000
times a day, and at least 7 million times a year. Each blink lasts just a moment. And still, when you sum up all of them, it's 1.5 hours daily. You blink
more when you're talking and less when you're reading a book or something from
a computer screen. That's why in the second case, your eyes get tired faster.
Blinking helps your eyes stay clean and healthy.
The resolution of the human eye is 576 megapixels. But
before you throw away your expensive camera (which is not nearly as good!),
hear me out! The eyes only have that many color receptors in a tiny spot in the
center. You need to move them a lot to get the full picture.
You never sneeze with
your eyes open. It IS technically possible. But an absolute majority of people
have an autonomic reflex to shut their eyelids when they're about to sneeze. That's
how your body protects your eyes from all those nasty things that can jump out
of your nose. Is it pretty? No it’s not
An adult with healthy
vision can detect a candle flame from as far away as 1.7 miles! This distance
could probably be even bigger if the Earth's surface wasn't curvy and there weren't
other sources of light and natural obstructions.
New-born babies are
color-blind. And even though the little ones make a lot of crying sounds, they
never really shed tears. The tear ducts only start properly functioning when babies are somewhere between 4 and 13
weeks old. But yeah, they cry from day one.It also takes some
time for babies to learn to see! In the womb, their eyes get ready to
distinguish shapes, some colors, and light. But right after birth, babies can
only focus on something that's very close to them, like a parent's face when
they hold them. Learning to focus properly, move eyes, and interpret visual
information that goes from the eyes to the brain takes time.
"20/20" has nothing to do with perfect vision. It
only means you can see as well as other people from a distance of 20 feet.
Those with the sharpest eye have 20/10 vision. It means they can see from 20
feet what the average person would only spot from 10 feet.There is a gel-like
fluid in your eyes. It makes up 80% of the eye and floats between the lens and
the retina. It helps your eye stay in shape and protects the retina. When you're
young, the fluid is as thick as "Jell-O." As you get older, it
becomes more liquid. Drain-o?
Your eyebrows and eyelashes have important protective
functions. The eyebrows stop sweat and other fluids from getting into your
eyes. Eyelashes don't let in moisture, dust, sand, and other particles that are
in the air. And now, do you know how long eyelashes help camels survive in the
desert? Nope, they don't wink at travelers asking for water. The long eyelashes
keep sand out of their eyes. And since we've moved on to animals, some of them
have pretty cool eyes, too!
Ostriches have eyes that are as big as billiard balls. Each
eye is also larger than the bird's brain. No wonder they're the champions of
the land animal kingdom when it comes to the eye size. Huge eyes and a small
brain might be the reason why ostriches run in circles when they see predators
– not the smartest tactics, right?
The colossal squid has the largest eyes in the world - each
the size of a soccer ball!
Hamsters blink for
the same reason as humans – to get rid of dust and other unwanted particles.
But they only blink one eye at a time and keep looking around with the other to
stay alert.
Geckos can distinguish colors 350 times better than humans.
They can even see colors at night and notice ultraviolet and green light. Since
they don't have eyelids and can't blink, they lick their eyes to clean them and
keep them moist. Boy that’s a tongue.
Chameleons' eyes are
cool and unique: these animals have 360-degree vision. Their eyes can also
function independently. It means they can switch from binocular to monocular vision,
for example, when they hunt.
Many insects,
including bees, dragonflies, and wasps have 5 eyes: (Hey Ricky!) 2 on the sides
and 3 more set in a triangle on top of their heads. They use the extra eyes to detect
light and spot upcoming threats.
Some fish also have
more than two eyes. With four eyes, Anableps can see above and below water at
the same time! The box jellyfish go even further - these creatures have 24 eyes.
They help them navigate under the water without bumping into things. Sadly the
other fish tease them: “Hey 24 eyes!” ha ha ha!
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