Only 12% of People Can See This!

TL;DR

Our eyes have evolved to perceive specific wavelengths of light, allowing us to see different colors. Complementary colors have an energetic reciprocity that our brain finds pleasing.

Transcript

stare at this image for five seconds and without realizing it the photoreceptors at the back of your eyes will start to become fatigued so much so that when this image turns white you see the green birds as red and the red background is green all of this happens because of biological processes in your eyes that link you to the lives of pollinating ... Read More

Key Insights

• 😃 Our eyes have evolved to perceive specific wavelengths of light, allowing us to see different colors.
• ❓ Objects don't possess color; they absorb and reflect specific wavelengths.
• ❓ Complementary colors create a pleasing visual effect due to the working of our cone cells.
• 🥺 Bees and humans share similar trichromatic vision, leading to similar color preferences in flowers.
• 👨‍🦰 Men are more likely to be colorblind due to the genes encoding red and green cones on the X chromosome.
• 😣 12% of women are tetrachromats and can see a wider range of colors than the rest of us.
• 🤵 Understanding the science of color perception can help in designing pleasing rooms and environments.

Questions & Answers

Q: How do our eyes perceive color?

Our eyes contain cone cells that absorb light and pass it onto the brain's visual cortex, where it is interpreted as color. We have red, green, and blue cone cells, which work together to see over 10 million different colors.

Q: What are complementary colors?

Complementary colors are two colors that, when combined, produce white light. They have an energetic reciprocity that our brain finds pleasing. For example, purple and gold are complementary colors.

Q: Why are bees attracted to purple and yellow flowers?

Bees and humans have similar trichromatic vision, which means we see colors in a similar way. Bees are attracted to purple and yellow flowers because they have a reciprocal pair of colors that bees find attractive, aiding in pollination.

Q: Why are men more likely to be colorblind?

Genes encoding red and green cones are located on the X chromosome. Since men have an XY chromosome, they are more likely to have colorblindness, as the genes show high sequence homology. However, 12% of women are tetrachromats, meaning they have an extra cone and can see a hundred times more color than the rest of us.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Our eyes can see wavelengths between 380 to 700 nanometers, allowing us to perceive different colors.

• Objects don't possess any color; they absorb certain wavelengths and reflect others, which our brain interprets as color.

• Complementary colors, when combined, produce white light and create a pleasing visual effect.