[HN Gopher] Mantis shrimp eyes
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       Mantis shrimp eyes
        
       Author : rojobuffalo
       Score  : 52 points
       Date   : 2023-02-04 16:51 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (ryanblakeley.net)
 (TXT) w3m dump (ryanblakeley.net)
        
       | vmoore wrote:
       | Obligatory Oatmeal comic about the Mantis Shrimp:
       | 
       | https://theoatmeal.com/comics/mantis_shrimp
        
         | ilovecurl wrote:
         | Obligatory Ze Frank vid:
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5FEj9U-CJM
         | 
         | The Oatmeal claims that, "the mantis shrimp sees a
         | thermonuclear bomb of light and beauty." This piece contradicts
         | that claim:
         | 
         | "Mantis shrimp have twelve photoreceptor classes. Humans have
         | three. We derive a spectrum of colors through comparisons
         | between our three classes; this is called the opponent process
         | or opponency. Mantis shrimp do not do this. They collapse the
         | spectrum into just twelve colors."
        
           | rojobuffalo wrote:
           | Ya, that's a lovely comic, but it appears to be a
           | misconception. That comic is actually specifically called out
           | in the book on page 107.
           | 
           | It's more like a 12 color lookup table.
           | 
           | > Every kind of red stimulates the bottom receptor of row 3.
           | All shades of violet stimulate the top receptor on row 1
           | 
           | That's based on an experiment where they were trained to
           | attack colored lights for a reward.
           | 
           | The comic also says they have 16 color receptors, but the
           | other 4 (2 in the midband and 2 in the hemispheres), as far
           | as anyone knows, aren't involved in color vision.
        
             | GoldenRacer wrote:
             | Would they be able to distinguish between a light that is
             | pure orange (a single 600nm wave length) and a light that
             | is a mix of red and yellow that gives humans the perception
             | of orange?
             | 
             | If so, I think that's still kind of a cool thing to think
             | about.
        
               | shrx wrote:
               | It is my understanding that a mix of red and yellow
               | frequencies would trigger the corresponding yellow and
               | red-sensitive receptors, if it has them, but not orange.
        
           | e40 wrote:
           | I'd forgotten about Ze. Wow, what a wild ride his 365 day
           | vlogging experiment was. It was the first and most precious
           | thing I did everyday for almost a year.
        
         | tootie wrote:
         | Also https://radiolab.org/episodes/211119-colors
         | 
         | Also of interest, mantis shrimp are edible and quite delicious.
        
       | tpmx wrote:
       | Finally something we're better at!
        
       | carlob wrote:
       | Delicious too
        
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       (page generated 2023-02-04 23:01 UTC)