If you’re a selfie enthusiast, Megapixels are the first numbers you check on a phone or a camera. More megapixels don’t mean better quality of photos but we have a number there, and we like to believe that more, the better. Well, Can you guess your eyes’ resolution? 30? 200? 250? A whopping 576! But, that’s not what helps you sense all the different colors! That’s rods and cones on the retina for you.
Ever wondered what it would be like if you just took off your eyes’ lens, because you know, it is such a normal thing to do? You’d see wonders, you will. The lens of your eye is responsible for filtering out the UV rays to prevent damage. This is why we can’t see UV rays. However many species of birds, bees and certain fish can see things in Ultraviolet. They see more details than we do, just like tetrachromats
Monet’s Aphakic Eyes
Aphakia is a condition of eyes where the lens is absent, due to surgery or congenital anomaly. A person having this condition can see in UV. Claude Oscar Monet was a painter and the founder French Impressionist painting. His paintings are surely a delight to the eyes.
One can see the rich colors in the painting and wonder, surely no water lily ponds are like that – so colorful and full of life? For Monet, yes. That’s exactly how he must have seen it, owing to the absence of lens in his eyes. Monet had undergone an eye surgery in 1923 and agreed to have his lens permanently removed.
Removal of lens causes no other problems, as it is responsible only for 30% of focusing power of the eye. The blue light sensors in eye can see ultraviolet better than blue. Military has been known to recognize the benefits of this condition and recruit several Aphakic observers to watch over the enemy lines.
This again is line with our earlier piece where we delve into neuroscience and explain the difference between hallucinations and reality.
Dear readers, you are all beautiful, embrace your flaws because some of them enable you to see the world like no other 🙂
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