4 ms·

Also part of a bird's abilities is the ability to detect polarized light. It seems to work with the ability of birds to detect magnetic fields. See for an inte

Also part of a bird's abilities is the ability to detect polarized light. It seems to work with the ability of birds to detect magnetic fields. See for an interesting read: https://www.pnas.org/content/113/6/1654 https://www.pnas.org/content/113/6/1654 Many or maybe most humans can also see the polarity of light. Take your smart phone and make the screen display a white image. While it shows this image for a long time, rotate the phone. You should see a yellow whispy checkerboard pattern turning with the phone. This "brush" is actually a visible measurement of the polarity of the light coming from the phone. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4528539/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4528539/ I don't know if there's any mechanism for which humans can detect magnetic polarity, but there's research on this too: https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/can-humans-sense-the-magnetic-field--65611 https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/can-humans-sense-...

throwaway8451 5y ago
After some practice I can see Haidinger's brush (=> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haidinger%27s_brush https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haidinger%27s_brush ) with little to no effort. Turns out that this is inadvisable! Why? Because now I can see the effect each time I have to change between screens in landscape and portrait orientation when they are next to each other. It was so distracting that I had to change back to a landscape-only setup.
- RicoElectrico 5y ago
  Huh, I can see it reliably but the effect is soooo subtle I can't imagine this being a nuisance. The dust that I often don't bother to wipe of my monitors is more of a problem (at least a few times in the past it masqueraded as punctuation).
  - throwaway8451 5y ago
    Do you use dark background/dark mode? Dust shows a lot more on dark than on bright background while for Haidinger's brush it is the opposite.
- jiggawatts 5y ago
  Damn you! Now I can't unsee it!
  - throwaway8451 5y ago
    I'm sorry, I should have thought of this :(

throwaway8451 5y ago

After some practice I can see Haidinger's brush (=> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haidinger%27s_brush https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haidinger%27s_brush ) with little to no effort. Turns out that this is inadvisable! Why? Because now I can see the effect each time I have to change between screens in landscape and portrait orientation when they are next to each other. It was so distracting that I had to change back to a landscape-only setup.

RicoElectrico 5y ago
Huh, I can see it reliably but the effect is soooo subtle I can't imagine this being a nuisance. The dust that I often don't bother to wipe of my monitors is more of a problem (at least a few times in the past it masqueraded as punctuation).
- throwaway8451 5y ago
  Do you use dark background/dark mode? Dust shows a lot more on dark than on bright background while for Haidinger's brush it is the opposite.
jiggawatts 5y ago
Damn you! Now I can't unsee it!
- throwaway8451 5y ago
  I'm sorry, I should have thought of this :(