Biology Stack Exchange
Biology Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [vision]

Questions regarding how the brain interprets information from the eyes. Consider using the "eyes" tag for discussion of eye anatomy, physiology and evolution.

The tag is for questions about how the brain and eyes combine to give and interpret signals to give vision, how an organism processes the electrical signals it receives from its visual organs.

For questions on eye and brain anatomy, physiology and evolution see the and tags respectively.

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Is there a reason why human eyesight and plants make use of the same wavelength of light?

The accepted range for the wavelengths of light that the human eye can detect is roughly between 400nm and 700nm. Is it a co-incidence that these wavelengths are identical to those in the Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR) range (the…
Rory M
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Is there an RGB equivalent for smells?

Millions of colors in the visible spectrum can be generated by mixing red, green and blue - the RGB color system. Is there a basic set of smells that, when mixed, can yield all, or nearly all detectable smells ?
Spartacus9
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What is the evolutionary advantage of red-green color blindness?

Red-green colorblindness seems to make it harder for a hunter-gatherer to see whether a fruit is ripe and thus worth picking. Is there a reason why selection hasn't completely removed red-green color blindness? Are there circumstances where this…
Christian
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Are humans more adapted to "light mode" or "dark mode"?

I was discussing with a colleague about using dark-mode vs. light mode and remembered an article arguing that humans vision is more adapted to light-mode rather than dark-mode: I know that the trend “du jour” is to have a dark mode for pretty…
Alexei
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Why did life not evolve to use radio?

We use electromagnetic communication everywhere these days. Cell phones, wifi, old-school radio transmissions, television, deep space communication, etc. I'm curious about some of the possible reasons we have never seen biological systems having…
Geuis
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Does red light preserve your night vision?

A number of companies have started marketing LED lamps that can be switched to a red mode. The claim is that red light is less harmful to one's night vision. Given that our eyes are less sensitive to red light, though, I'm not convinced that that…
Shep
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What do you see when your eyes are closed?

If you are in pitch black and you close your eyes, you sometimes can see strange shapes of various colors. A lot of the time these shapes and colors change as you observe them. This phenomenon still occurs if you are not in complete darkness. I am…
JonHerman
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Can one see flickering of a light bulb at 50 Hz?

Yesterday I had a BBQ with some friends. The sun had already set and the only light source left (besides some ambient light from the world around) was a low energy light bulb. After a while I started to see lighting changes in the faces of my…
Timo
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Can humans ever directly see a few photons at a time? Can a human see a single photon?

I am not asking the following question: Can humans ever see a photon in the same way we see a chair? My question is: Can a human retina respond to a single photon? If so, how does this happen and why is the retina able to "sense" (detect) a single…
Daniel Mera
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Is it possible that by mutation a human could see infrared or other 'colours'?

Incoming light reacts with the several types of cone cells in the eye. In humans, there are three types of cones sensitive to three different spectra, resulting in trichromatic color vision. Each individual cone contains pigments composed of opsin…
Marijn
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Why can't we see in low light if staring long enough?

For me it seems reasonable that if I kept my gaze on a fixed point in a room with low light, a progressively brighter and better picture would appear before my eyes, just like a camera can see in the dark if the shutter speed is really slow, e.g. 4…
filip
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Why do stars disappear when I look at them?

I've noticed that when I'm out at night stars seem to vanish when I focus on them. I assume the reason is physiological and not astronomic. Why does this happen? I would expect that things would be more clear when I focus on them.
Shep
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Why does my room suddenly look 'reddish'? My eyes seem to adapt to color

To get the context of this question clear, I would like you to walk through some parts of my house. We'll start with one of my rooms as it appears normally - As evident, this part of my house has a creamish tinge to it, also the balcony door is…
Sarthak123
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Why do I see different hues of colors between each of my eyes?

Frequently, I see colors with a slightly different hue when looking through my eyes individually. The right eye is more red-tinted ('warmer' hued) and the left is typically more blue-tinted ('cooler' hued). However, sometimes I can't notice any…
theforestecologist
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Why do blood vessels in the eye not obstruct vision?

As light enters the eye, it reaches the photoreceptors at the "base" of the retina, which then pass that signal to the bipolar and ganglionic neurons -- the latter of which send the signal outside of the eye via their axons (collectively forming the…
theforestecologist
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