Eyes forward

"X-ray vision" and the evolution of forward-facing eyes.

Why do our eyes face forward, and why do many mammals have eyes facing sideways? Here, we describe results suggesting that the degree of binocular convergence is selected to maximize how much the mammal can see in its environment. Mammals in non-cluttered environments can see the most around them with panoramic, laterally directed eyes. Mammals in cluttered environments, however, can see best w...

One step forward

Evolving eyes.

Despite the incredible diversity among extant eyes, laws of physics constrain how light can be collected resulting in only eight known optical systems in animal eyes. Surprisingly, all animal eyes share a common molecular strategy using opsin for catching photons, but there are a diverse collection of mechanisms with proteins unrelated to each other used to focus light for vision. However, opsi...

Eyes East

Last November I visited Japan for the first time and was lucky enough to visit individual labs at four different universities. As I talked with my hosts and their students I was struck by the differences between the scientific cultures of Japan and the United States. At its best, American science is all about the triumph of excellence in the land of opportunity, with 27-year-old assistant profe...

Sentimental Eyes!

A closer look at how users perform search is needed in order to best design a more efficient next generation sentiment search engine and understand fundamental behaviours involved in online review/opinion search processes. The paper proposes utilizing personalized search, eye tracking and sentiment analysis for better understanding of end-user behavioural characteristics while making a judgemen...