Colour Vision: Colouring the Dark

Colour Vision: Colouring the Dark

Humans lose colour vision at night and it has often been assumed that this happens to other animals as well. It is not true of nocturnal moths, however: a recent study has shown that the elephant hawk moth makes use of trichromatic colour vision when seeking flowers by starlight.

Colour-Vision and Colour-Blindness

Colour vision

The immense range of colours that we see belies the relative simplicity of the system underlying colour vision. We see colours because each of the three distinct types of cone photoreceptor in our retinae is sensitive to a different range of wavelengths of light. The L, M and S cones, colloquially called red (R), green (G), and blue (B), are selective for long, middle and short wavelengths, res...

Colour vision

Editorial Colour vision 2006 is an important bicentenary for the Ulster Medical Society. In 806, the Belfast Medical Society was founded and the later formation of the Belfast Clinical and Pathological Society in 853, allowed amalgamation of both societies to form the current Ulster Medical Society in 862. The vision of the early founders of the Belfast Medical Society, was far sighted, and som...

The Colour Vision of Fish

At one time during the past few months the writer's attention was called to the following statement made in January I926 by an eminent surgeon: "In fishes a falci-ft \form ligament is attached to the back of the lens and to the back of the eye for N /fX,E1 focusing. They have no color vision. This fact will be disputed by those who sell q .; ~~~artificial flies at high prices.""5 A subse-"~ Xe\...