Darren New wrote:

> Summary: You really don't see blue very well.

Gee, do you think this could be somehow related to the fact that only 7% 
of the light receptors in your eye are tuned to blue?


Actually, you know what? Screw that... Where can I find this "Traci"??

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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"Bill Pragnell" <bil### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:

> I remember once seeing the sun's power spectrum compared to the eye's response
> spectrum, possibly at uni. The eye's spectrum follows the sun's very closely -
> not suprising considering we evolved under its glare. This of course means that
> we are far more sensitive to green light than red or blue, which are at the far
> extremes of the visible range.

Just pondering that evolutionary adaptation is fascinating. I wonder if it came
about from the fact that we descended from tree-or-forest-dwelling animals,
where the predominant color was green? Not that the *entire* earth was
forested, but a good portion of it.  Does it also mean that we humans can now
see subtle gradations of green better than subtle gradations of red or blue?

KW

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> Just pondering that evolutionary adaptation is fascinating. I wonder if it came
> about from the fact that we descended from tree-or-forest-dwelling animals,
> where the predominant color was green? Not that the *entire* earth was
> forested, but a good portion of it.  Does it also mean that we humans can now
> see subtle gradations of green better than subtle gradations of red or blue?

The question is... why are leaves green in the first place? Wouldn't 
they work so much better if they were black??

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> Just pondering that evolutionary adaptation is fascinating.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=evolution-of-primate-color-vision

Might be of interest...

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Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> Darren New wrote:
> 
>> Summary: You really don't see blue very well.
> 
> Gee, do you think this could be somehow related to the fact that only 7% 
> of the light receptors in your eye are tuned to blue?
> 
> 
> Actually, you know what? Screw that... Where can I find this "Traci"??

I think it's a given that if the list of links at the bottom had one to 
more pix of Traci, that link would get the lion's share of the hits.

Regards,
John

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Kenneth <kdw### [at] earthlinknet> wrote:
> [-- text/plain, encoding 8bit, charset: iso-8859-1, 17 lines --]

> "Bill Pragnell" <bil### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:

> > I remember once seeing the sun's power spectrum compared to the eye's response
> > spectrum, possibly at uni. The eye's spectrum follows the sun's very closely -
> > not suprising considering we evolved under its glare. This of course means that
> > we are far more sensitive to green light than red or blue, which are at the far
> > extremes of the visible range.

> Just pondering that evolutionary adaptation is fascinating. I wonder if it came
> about from the fact that we descended from tree-or-forest-dwelling animals,
> where the predominant color was green? Not that the *entire* earth was
> forested, but a good portion of it.  Does it also mean that we humans can now
> see subtle gradations of green better than subtle gradations of red or blue?

  No, it's because of the surface temperature of the Sun. Both leaves and
best vision is at the green amplitude for a common reason.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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Invisible wrote:
> The question is... why are leaves green in the first place? Wouldn't 
> they work so much better if they were black??

Leaves are green because water passes green light (to a first approximation).

First plants evolved just below the surface of the water, with purple (red 
and blue) color. I.e., the first plants absorbed the abundant green color 
while reflecting both the infrared and ultraviolet that was dangerous. You 
still see some plants and most photosynthetic anaerobic single-cell 
organisms with this coloring. It's also the stuff in your eyes that lets you 
see better after 10 minutes in the dark.

Then oxygen-creating photosynthesis evolved in bacteria that lived *under* 
the layer of purple algae, which absorbed the purple reflected from that 
algae, and hence looks green.

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   There's no CD like OCD, there's no CD I knoooow!

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Warp wrote:
>   No, it's because of the surface temperature of the Sun. Both leaves and
> best vision is at the green amplitude for a common reason.

If green was the best color for light absorbtion, the leaves wouldn't be 
*reflecting* green. :-)

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   There's no CD like OCD, there's no CD I knoooow!

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"scott" <sco### [at] scottcom> wrote:
> > Just pondering that evolutionary adaptation is fascinating.
>
> http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=evolution-of-primate-color-vision
>
> Might be of interest...

Cool!  Thanks for that. I need to get that issue of SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN; not
only does it discuss this very topic, but also 'dark energy.' Being a closet
cosmologist at heart, the issue should keep me fascinated for weeks!

KW

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I wonder why WE can't see into the ultraviolet (and the infrared?) That
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN article points out that some existing creatures can see at
least somewhat into the UV spectrum. So their retinas(?) must have developed
some kind of protection that we don't (currently!) have. "Man is the superior
being.": Bah, humbug.

And if we could see into the infrared, then Traci would be looking *oh* so much
nicer.  ;-P

KW

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