Color

In the beginning of the podcast I found the statement that scientist often make "color has an objective reality, but colors we see are tricks of the imagination" very insightful. This explanation made a lot of sense to me and is an easy way to think about color because in actuality there is no completely correct way to observe color or determine the "real" color being viewed.

I found it interesting when the speakers went on to talk about the different color receptors of multiple creatures and how each thing would see the rainbow in a distinct way. A dog has only two color receptors, blue and yellow, and can be compared to someone who is color blind. A human has a third color receptor, red, which mixes with many other colors and helps humans have the ability to see about 100 more colors and shades. A sparrow sees more of the start of a rainbow than we do because of their ultraviolet vision. They also see more colors than dogs and humans because they have extremely sensitive red receptors that created more shades of colors. One thing that surprised me was that invertebrates have better color vision than vertebrates, starting with butterflies who have five to six color receptors and probably the animal with the most receptors and the most complicated visual system of any animal is the mantis shrimp, who has sixteen different receptors. This enables them to see multiple shades of ultraviolet and numerous shades of every color.