4 ms·

They forgot Mantis Shrimp! Mantis shrimps see pretty much everything. Polarization, colors, ultraviolet, you name it.

gbaygon 13y ago
Thanks for the good read! ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantis_shrimp#Eyes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantis_shrimp#Eyes
- chestervonwinch 13y ago
  A good one from the oatmeal: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/mantis_shrimp http://theoatmeal.com/comics/mantis_shrimp
contulluipeste 13y ago
Interesting. Reading about tetrachromatic birds and infrared-vision snakes couldn't help but wonder if there is an animal out there with ability to (naturally) sense the whole spectrum. Mantis Shrimp has however, a bee-like compound eye and I guess it suffers from the same resolution-penalty.
- NAFV_P 13y ago
  It would be hard to detect high energy photons accurately, x rays have a refractive index lower than unity.
  - spatten 13y ago
    Wouldn't that mean that x-rays move faster than light (well, light in a vacuum) when they're in something other than a vacuum? Doesn't sound quite right. This spurred me to think about how you could detect X-rays, though. X-rays get absorbed really quickly in things like water, so it'd be pretty hard to sense them directly with an eye like ours, but I can imagine a sensory apparatus on the skin or behind a thin transparent (to X-rays) layer that would detect them. Another cool option would be to take advantage of all of the free electrons that an x-ray creates as it bounces around getting absorbed in a solid or liquid. If you had a sensory apparatus that consisted of a conductive liquid with a voltage across it, you'd generate a current whenever an x-ray hit. This is similar to how things like geiger counters work, although I doubt an animal would be able to generate enough voltage to create an avalanche effect amplification. I bet there are other ways, but that's two off of the top of my head.

Thanks for the good read! ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantis_shrimp#Eyes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantis_shrimp#Eyes

chestervonwinch 13y ago
A good one from the oatmeal: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/mantis_shrimp http://theoatmeal.com/comics/mantis_shrimp

contulluipeste 13y ago

Interesting. Reading about tetrachromatic birds and infrared-vision snakes couldn't help but wonder if there is an animal out there with ability to (naturally) sense the whole spectrum. Mantis Shrimp has however, a bee-like compound eye and I guess it suffers from the same resolution-penalty.

NAFV_P 13y ago
It would be hard to detect high energy photons accurately, x rays have a refractive index lower than unity.
- spatten 13y ago
  Wouldn't that mean that x-rays move faster than light (well, light in a vacuum) when they're in something other than a vacuum? Doesn't sound quite right. This spurred me to think about how you could detect X-rays, though. X-rays get absorbed really quickly in things like water, so it'd be pretty hard to sense them directly with an eye like ours, but I can imagine a sensory apparatus on the skin or behind a thin transparent (to X-rays) layer that would detect them. Another cool option would be to take advantage of all of the free electrons that an x-ray creates as it bounces around getting absorbed in a solid or liquid. If you had a sensory apparatus that consisted of a conductive liquid with a voltage across it, you'd generate a current whenever an x-ray hit. This is similar to how things like geiger counters work, although I doubt an animal would be able to generate enough voltage to create an avalanche effect amplification. I bet there are other ways, but that's two off of the top of my head.