However, the eye is not like a single frame snapshot camera but, instead, like a video stream. The eye works tirelessly, moving rapidly in small, angular amounts so that it can continually update the image of what we are seeing in our brain. Considering we have two eyes, this power also gets multiplied by 2, which further increases the resolution and, thereby, the amount of detail we perceive. This basically makes our eyes more powerful than any digital camera, as the eye plus brain assembles a higher resolution image than possible, because of the number of photoreceptors in the retina. This resolution is roughly estimated at a whopping 576 megapixels.(source)
8 Human corneas are so similar to shark corneas that they may, one day, be used as a replacement in human eye surgery.
Sharks can actually prove extremely useful to humans. Optometric researchers are investigating the possibility of using shark corneas as a replacement to human corneas in transplant surgeries. Apparently, shark corneas are rather similar to our corneas. If this were to become a reality, it would be pathbreaking.(source)
9 Green-eyed people make up only 1-2% of the entire human population, and naturally occurring violet-colored eyes exist.
If you know someone with green eyes, they are a part of very tiny percentage of the human population. While green eyes are dominant over blue eyes, there are very few people that carry the gene responsible for green eyes. Therefore, within the ‘light-eyed community’, the number of blue-eyed people greatly outnumber those with green eyes. Thus far, scientists have found evidence linking the presence of certain other traits, such as having red hair, or gender with the occurrence of green eyes.
Even rarer than green eyes are violet eyes. However, violet eyes are steeped in lots of mystery and surrounded by many myths.(source)
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10 No, carrots don’t make your eyesight better. This was actually a lie that the British came up with to cover up the fact that they had come with a new, cutting-edge technology, during WWII.
Unfortunately, if you’ve been chomping on carrots in the hope that you can toss your spectacles away, once and for all, you’re going to be disappointed. This famous ‘cure’ for better eyesight is actually just an elaborate cover-up, a story of wartime espionage. During the World War II, British pilots had the advantage of a game-changing tool, RADAR, that let them spot their enemies at night. However, to ensure that their enemies did not find out about RADAR, and then copy it, they claimed that their pilots had high-carrot diets to thank for their night-time vision!(source)
11 Lightning fast vision protein in the human body has been named after the adorable pokemon, Pikachu.
The newly-discovered protein, Pikachurin, has been named after Pikachu, in honour of his blink-and-miss moves and electrifying powers. The team of 18 Japanese scientists who discovered Pikachurin all work at the Osaka Bioscience Institute. This newly-discovered protein is essential for eye-to-brain transmission of visual signals and also for the way the eye tracks moving objects, in its field of vision.
Essentially, without the fantastic Pikachurin, it can take upto three times longer for visual signals to reach the brain.(source)
12 Humans get ‘red eye’ in photos because the flash reflects off of the blood vessels in our retinas. In dogs and other animals, eyes look green because they have an extra layer of cells behind their retinas.
The mystery of the frustrating red eye has been decoded. When taking photographs, if light reflects off of the blood vessels in our retinas, it gives us devilish, red-tinted eyes. Similarly, animals tend to take on an unnatural, ghostly green glow in photographs, sometimes. The reason their eyes look green is because they have a special layer of cells, either in or behind their retinas, that acts like a mirror in reflective light and helps them see better at night.
To make sure you never ruin another picture with ‘red eye’, try to shoot at an angle so that the light source is not directly above your camera.(source)
