Naked Science Forum

Life Sciences => Cells, Microbes & Viruses => Topic started by: Lewis Thomson on 25/02/2022 13:41:57

Title: Does everyone have their own colour spectrum?
Post by: Lewis Thomson on 25/02/2022 13:41:57

Donald has sent in a question to find answers to.

"The light from the sun that is filtered by Earth's atmosphere that humans can see is called white light, and is composed of many different individual photons of specific frequencies that are able to be separated by prisms. Some animal species have different photo-reactive chemicals and implicitly, therefore, a different palate of 'colours' they perceive. Are there humans who might have variations or mutations in the basic photochemicals alive today, and could we test for them. Perhaps among those who cannot "colour coordinate" are those who just see the spectrum slightly differently?"

Discuss in the comments below...

Title: Re: Does everyone have their own colour spectrum?
Post by: alancalverd on 25/02/2022 15:51:41

It has been asserted that women have a subtly different spectral response from men, and some people apparently see a wider spectrum (generally extended into the ultraviolet) than average.

Title: Re: Does everyone have their own colour spectrum?
Post by: vhfpmr on 25/02/2022 17:08:14

Colour blind people see differently from the rest of us.

Title: Re: Does everyone have their own colour spectrum?
Post by: evan_au on 26/02/2022 00:01:40

There are different genetic variants of the pigments in your eyes, with slightly different wavelength response.
One of these genes is on the X-Chromosome, so women (with 2 X-Chromosomes) could in theory seen an additional dimension of colour which is invisible to men (with only 1 X-Chromosome).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrachromacy#Humans