Have you ever wondered if there were more colours. A combination of two colours maybe no-one has yet discovered. I have too. So, when I saw somewhere that there are colours we cannot see, I had to check it out.
Essentially the colour we see is comprised of waves on the electromagnetic spectrum. We see the colours in the visible light section of this spectrum. But that does not mean the other sections of the spectrum cannot be seen. Many animals in fact do see them.
The pit bat has infrared vision so it can catch its prey more easily when obscured, even at night.
The bee has ultraviolet vision so it can identify pollen easily.
So other parts of the spectrum can be seen. What does this mean for humans? It means that when we look around, we are not actually seeing everything. We are blind to most of the world. In fact, we only see 0.0035% of the spectrum. That means we see basically nothing.
But is this a good thing? Well seeing all the spectrum would not be ideal. The mash of all the waves would make it impossible to ever see something properly, because if you somehow manage to focus your vision on something, thousands of radio waves travelling at the speed of light would zoom all around you.
All in all, I believe our sight is perfect the way it is. We see just the right amount, not too much and not too little. I don’t want everyone to be able to see through objects with infrared vision. I don’t want people to be able to see every mark from human interaction with ultraviolet vision. It wouldn’t make a positive impact on the world.
So, I would just like you to imagine, for a second, how the world looks for those animals with other types of vision, and be grateful we see visible light (as we so self-centredly called it).
Please comment what you think about what I have to say and any improvements I could make.
Thanks for reading!
