Our eyes are truly amazing and without doubt the most important of all our five (or as some people believe six) senses!
Our vision is used in just about every task we do whether that is walking around, driving, reading or recognizing faces. In fact around 80% of all the information our brain takes in is courtesy of our eyes. That means that all the other 4 senses combined only account for 20% of our daily life.
As well as being amazing there are also a few strange facts about our eyes that you may find interesting and my top 5 are below – See what you think!
We are Born Color Blind
Sounds weird but it’s true. When we are born we are unable to see color so it doesn’t matter to a baby what color your dress them up!
Over the first year our eyes are developing at their most rapid rate and this is when our color vision develops.
Another interesting thing about color vision is that around 8% of men are color blind whereas women are never really color blind. This may explain some men’s poor fashion sense!
Why Does Our Nose Run When we Cry?
When we cry we produce water from a gland under our eye brows and it fills the eyes with tears. These tears are then passed across the eye as we blink and are drained through our puncta which is located on the very inner part of our eye near our nose.
The tears then pass through the puncta and into the naso-lacrimal duct which drain into the nose! The tears therefore pass from our eyes to our nose and hence our nose runs!
Our tears are not just water
Most people think our tears are made of just water but they are far more complex than that. There are 3 main components to our tears and they are fat, mucous and water.
In order for the tears to function properly all 3 components have to be in the correct concentrations otherwise the tears will evaporate quicker than normal and you will suffer from dry eyes. Our tears also contain enzymes and water blood cells which fight off the threat of infection should we get something in our eye.
Over one million components
I think most people would agree that our eyes are pretty complex but would you believe it if I said the eyes were made up of over 1 million different parts!
It is hardly surprising really when you realize that the eye has to assess the color, shade, shape, distance before identifying exactly what the object is it is looking at. And it does this in the blink of an eye … literally!
We don’t actually see with our eyes!
Having said how amazing our eyes are, technically speaking we actually see with our brains. The eyes effectively collect all the information about the object they are looking at and then send it to the brain (visual cortex) for processing.
The brain then puts all this information together, rather like putting the individual pieces of a jig saw together to give the final image.
I hope this article has made you realize just how impressive your eyes are! This is why having regular eye tests is important so that you can maintain your vision throughout your life.
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