The Origins of Human Color Vision - HHMI BioInteractive Video

[@FutureAIDev2015]

3:46 how in the world were they able to modify the color perception system of an adult organism?

[@nawtmyrealnamelol]

It would be interesting to know if there was something that drove us to the perception of specific colors. Maybe some color outside our perception wouldn't have been as advantageous as blue for example, so the gene changed over time until it arrived at what we know as blue. Or maybe it really is as arbitrary as a single mutation that happened to be blue instead of the seemingly infinite theoretical color perceptions. I guess the question is "is blue the most efficient color to percieve?", so you'd have to somehow have organisms percieve only one color and at like 450 nm for all of them, but change the perception to blue, red, green, etc and see if it has any impact at all

[@williamchamberlain2263]

Could be differential selection by fruiting plant species - slightly purpler fruit get picked by humans, who maybe digest them a bit more/less/slower/faster than other similar primates, so that sub-population of fruit gets different distribution pressures, and hey-presto there's a positive feedback loop for blue-fruit-human-distribution. Or maybe there was a plant with purple/blue fruit that managed to spread where it wasn't before and gave humans that could see it a slight edge. There's a lot of blue fruit in Australia, apparently because the birds there can see them easily - the biggest fruit get spread by cassawaries, which are big and can spread huge seeds.

[@swvwc8393]

Does this mean we can attempt to take an opsin from an animal that sees more color than we do, and surgically add it to a human to make them see a wider visual spectrum?

[@biointeractive]

Don't know for sure, but I would think you would also need the appropriate "back end" of neurons and brain regions to accept that wider set of data.

[@ethericboy]

A certain kind of lobster has 16 opsins to our only 3;would you volunteer to be test subject for a lobster gene?

[@chrisleblanc581]

Some people are born with more than three photopigments and can discriminate colors most cannot. It’s rare but it’s documented.

[@chrisleblanc581]

@biointeractive. You comment makes absolutely no sense. Back end? Extra brain regions? I don’t think you get neurons and neural processing

[@FruitBasketyay]

I have a question; If they can see blue and yellow why cant they see the mixture of the 2 as green?

[@Golkarian]

Mixing blue and yellow paint makes green because they absorb all other light. However mixing blue and yellow light does not make green (mixing red and green makes yellow for example).

[@numberpirate]

Because they cannot see true yellow.

[@munchkin0.o]

Thank you

[@response2u]

What can't that technology be used on color blind people to give them a colorful vision?

[@chrisleblanc581]

It can. But it has to go through testing. It usually takes 10-20 years for a lab result that is applicable to make its way to medical practice. The time can be less when its impact is greater. But color blind people have no health risks, so there is no medical need to rush things. Color blindness has advantages as well. While not so relevant for most, camouflage often won’t fool and color blind persons vision. This was probably more relevant when we hunted for a living and tried to avoid apex predators.

[@FutureAIDev2015]

1:18 so the monkey's just guessing, and at that point he's just getting frustrated

[@06wrxRAR]

next question is: Through millions of evolution, why are we still wearing glasses!!!!! i want a scentific explanation for that.

[@numberpirate]

Because sunlight stimulates a growth factor in the eyeball that makes sure it keeps its roundness and therefore the appropriate focal length on the retina. Want to know what exactly the stimulator is? Its dopamine, when your eyeball is exposed to sunlight dopamine is produced in the eyeball which keeps visual acuity in check. Now the problem with a lot of people that need glasses is they do not spend enough time outside when they are younger. This is shown in the east asian cultures where they spend so much time inside studying that the all end up nearly blind. I heard this whole story on NPR once.

[@Mighty_Maihi]

But how? do they precisely do this. At what point did they know they could do this? trial and error? I came across a video exclaimed by a woman her heterochromia iridium was a disease, and I always wished I had it which lead me down this rabbit hole.

[@PhilominaNila]

They could do same experiment with colour blind people and at the end of the experiment could gift them with a gene for colour vision as a prize for participation in the program

[@jeans629]

next question is do they put those lab animals back in their home?

[@chrisleblanc581]

If you are referring to te squirrel monkey, his home is a cage in an animal care facility at a university. The animal was born and bred to be a research animal and had never lived in the wild. If you disagree with animal research, make sure to not take any drug, under go any medical procedure, or use any hygiene product. They were and are all tested in animals.

[@FutureAIDev2015]

If they were raised in captivity from birth chances are they wouldn't have the required skills to survive in the wild.

[@immigrantworld4899]

human trials please. FDA must grant this. Another color blindness types like Achromats and BCM have been treated

[@Uulfinn]

I'm still red green colorblind