Birds often think the reflection in a highly reflective window represent reality. So it is true that despite seeing them and probably even being able to tell the difference, their analytical skills aren't as highly developed. I mean let's face it, windows and buildings is a very recent phenomenon. How on earth would they have developed mechanisms to cope with them? And it's no laughing matter, birds striking buildings/windows is the single highest cause of death for birds, including some precious rarities and endangered species.
I do not think we know how birds perceive the world while flying and while being on the ground. The assumption that bird logic discriminates between ground and flight dangers isn't that far off. Then, there are plenty of transparant objects which aren't a thread - like clouds, fog or spiderwebs. If we remember that it's not possible for most birds to just stop midflight, the possibility to experience windows the way we do (by touching them out of curiousity) is no option. If they touch it, they crush into it because of basic physics. We do know that some birds show a really high level of intelligence, so they propably have the same way of coping with stuff we do: learning.
I love it when I google a question and I get a five year old SciShow video. Didn't answer my specific question, but still a fun time. Also Hank suddenly gets SO excited right when he says the bit about birds of prey at 1:55 and it's great.
+ Joshua Slowpoke No, they would understand reflections, it's just that they can't see glass, and thus they can't see mirror glass, and that's why they think what's on the other side is real, just like all other Birds. Birds are very smart, and most if not all of them would probably understand reflections if they could actually see glass.
Well can you read Chinese? Or Spanish? Or Japanese? Or Korean? Didn’t think so. That’s the same with birds. They can’t learn English like you. To us humans we can’t understand wut animals are saying, to us humans animals just sound like they’re saying gibberish and making noises, and that’s wut animals think to.
One thing you missed out about the pecten - the bird's eye has to periodically shake to distribute oxygen to the retina. So they get better vision from not having blood vessels running across the back of their eyes, but momentarily lose almost all use of their eyes every minute or so.
Human eye really don't see a whole lot compared to many other animals. Hawk and eagle can see incredible distance with accuracy; chameleon can move their two eyes independently and 360 degree; many birds can see at a greater range of wavelengths. To say god gave us eyes, then birds are probably his favorite pets.
Eyes are really some of the best evidence for evolution. For example, and people I'm sure know this, but the photo receptor cells in your retina actually face backwards. Light actually passes through all the blood vessels and conductive neural type cells before getting to them. If the eye were created clearly light wouldn't do this, and the bipolar cells and ganglion cells and etc would be behind the photoreceptor cells. It only makes sense in the context of how eyes and photoreceptive tissue evolved from more primitive structures and basically evolution did with the space it was given. For example octopus don't have that problem but it makes sense because their eyes evolved from different tissues. Our eyes actually evolved as extension of our brains, whereas octopus eyes evolved "the right way" as invaginations of photoreceptive tissue on the surface of their "face". Also, despite seeming counterintuitive the mammal set up allowed for other important adaptations to occur. I think Richard Dawkins refers to this whole thing as the "Blind Watchmaker". I may have actually just paraphrased him.
Does evolution also explain why the human visual cortex is at the back of the brain (instead of at the front near the eyes), having been pushed there by the expansion of the frontal cortex, the so-called "back-combing" effect?
Besides all the things pointed out at the end about how amazing birds' eyes are....they also can FLY (without the aid of a plane, or a copter....or...) - damn these birds and their show-off-ed-ness :)
We can't even to begin to imagine what their world looks like because no human has ever experienced it. And true they cannot imagine how we see but we can't imagine how they see and to think you can is ignorance.
Kyle Braun Well, no, we can begin to imagine things like that. We'll just never quite get there, unless we start messing around with our own eyes. One of our talents as human beings is that we can get kinda sorta close-ish to imagining things like that, give time and data.
Kyle Braun Can you imagine being Superman, jumping over tall buildings and flying around? Yes, you can... but how, you've never experienced that? Acquiex I really doubt they have much of an imagination. For instance, when you cover their eyes and they can't see you, they seem to either be unaware you're there, or they think that you can't see them. In the latter case, I suppose they would be imagining what we see (or don't see). I'm sure you could devise an experiment to figure out which one is more likely
Parrots have terrible night vision. I am a parrot owner, and if I turn down the light to watch a movie, they start missing perches, fall behind objects and generally turn into a mess. When you realise what is going on, it's a race to the nearest lamp to turn on some mood lighting
no, parrots in general don't see well in the dark. I've had 3 parrots, and I regularly go to free flights and meet plenty of parrots. And they all have terrible night vision. This, of course has 2 exceptions. The night parrot and the kakapo are both nocturnal. Parrots sleep for 10-12 hours a day, and they aren't nocturnal. They're never awake when it's dark, so why would they develop night vision?
then you need to watch or read just a little bit about corvid intelligence and be amazed at their theory of mind and their problem solving and ability to plan for the future and hypothetical events and their ability to remember specific people they don't like for many years, attacking them. The lengths they will go to, clever corvids.
This video shattered my fantasy that birds see targeting reticules and a heads-up display listing things to kill. I always imagined people's cute little budgies seeing "target acquired" and whispering "yesssss yeeeesssss" as they plotted their owner's demise. Hank, you've destroyed yet another source of joy in my life!
But then imagine if you had bad eyesight as a bird and no ears to rest your glasses on ;) I'd be so screwed, with my glasses sliding off of my beak all the time.
Thatjust won't cut it. While your eyes would be able to sense UV (or whatever other wavelenght you wish), your brain wouldn't perceive it (you'd see either something messed up or the same things as always). That would require to modify your brain, which is something genetic engineering won't be able to successfuly do in quite a while.
***** I know what you were getting at and you failed at it spectacularly. Seeing the adromeda galaxy while nice and all has no practicle applications for life here, where as seeing the earth's magnetic field, long range vision and close range vision at the same time, and ultraviolet light, among other things could very useful in the here and now.
Fair enough, looking back that andromeda remark wasn't the best response, that was just what popped into my head as an example. I guess better examples would be binoculars, night vision goggles, microscopes or infrared scopes. Those definitely have more practical uses in the "here and now"
I always find it hilarious when those creationists claim humans are the crown of creation, created in the image of gods. Oh really? That's probably the reason why pretty much all of our senses are comparatively lame, our pancreas likes to explode from time to time and our wisdom teeth mess up our dentition. Sooo perfect!
***** I'm not trying to demote god, I'm just demoting the idea that he literally created us in his image. If there is a god I don't think we can even begin to understand his complexity and power (since he's supposed to be omnipotent, omnipresent and eternal) but yet the bible portrays him as person, looking vaguely human-like, because that's the logical consequence if we were created in his image. So if anything, a literal interpretation of the bible is what's demoting god in my opinion. Also the idea that animals can't adapt to their environment and always stay the same as they have originally been created would be very unintelligent design. There are many believing Christians who accept evolution and see is as even greater proof for god's brilliant plan for life on earth. Even the pope says this. I don't understand why so many protestant Christians in America still cling to the genesis story even though we know it is scientifically impossible and can't be true. That being said, yes, humans are special, we are the most intelligent creatures on earth. That's something, but we don't excel in any of the other categories, we just have large brains, that's it. I don't think that makes us any more god-like than any other life form on this planet. Attention: You are entitled to your opinion as well and I don't see why merely stating your beliefs in a well-mannered and respectful fashion as you just did would offend anybody. I'm not offended for once, I just fail to understand why you think rejecting science is required to be a "good Christian".
***** The mistake of one or two humans should not effect billions of people to come. Eating an apple, and in return we get diseases, pain, natural disasters, death, etc.? Not only does that sound like a fairy tale, it sounds immorally wrong and degrading to "god's" almighty intelligence. I also don't see why, if humans are his primary life forms that he likes to have control of and tamper with, he would give benefits to other life forms. If your great-great-great-great grandpa was arrested for drinking a glass of orange juice when someone told him not to, wouldn't you be quite mad if you were then arrested and tortured the instant you were born?
Why trust a book written by primitive goat-herders rather than modern mathematical, and trustable examination of the universe? Isiah 45:7 states that all evil is a result of god, so don't go putting the blame on humans, in this case. Keep in mind I don't believe in the bible, due to logical reasons, I'm just using it as a basis for my argument. God could apparently end all suffering and pain with the snap of his magical fingers, but does he? No, probably because he just might not exist.
9Mystere9 Well, I was going to make a better point with eating, drinking, and breathing from the same tube, but I figured the birds also have that problem.
This is so cool! I work at a Veterinary Ophthalmology clinic and I'm going to post this on our facebook page. You explain all this brilliantly. I would love to see one for cats and dogs as well!
Hank, did you know that we humans actually DO have the ability to see UV light? To a certain degree of course. But the reason why we aren't seeing it is because a layer of our ocular lens filters it away so it doesn't blast onto our retinas. But, we also don't entirely need that unless we're sensitive to sudden bursts of light, so out biology just keeps it there in case. But, not everyone needs one, so you can actually have it surgically removed, if you have the time and money for it I'm told. I'm not 100% sure on this, because I don't trust the internet too much, so I'm just sorta saying it's possible.... And could still be inaccurate. I'm just not sure.
It's to do with both the way pigments work and the way your eyes work. *First, eyes.* When light hits your eyes, it'll activate different cones depending on its wavelength. This is a vast simplification but all you really need to know is humans have 3 cone types: one for red light, one for green light and one for blue light. If, for example, light halfway between red and green hits your eyes, you'll see it as yellow. Importantly, you'll also see it as yellow if equal amounts of red and green light hit your eyes. Your brain has no way of telling the difference between light which is actually yellow and light which is half red and half green. We use this to make RGB displays that trick you into seeing a whole range of colours while only having to produce those three colours (red, green and blue) in various amounts. That's why the primary colours of light are red, green and blue. We call this "additive colour" because you start with black (no light) and add different wavelengths of light to produce different colours. *Now, to pigments.* ("Subtractive colour") The colour you see a pigment as is the colour of light which it reflects; that is, the part of the spectrum it's not absorbing. When you mix another pigment with it, that other pigment will absorb different colours of light, so what you get reflected will be different. Now say you add cyan ink to your white paper; it will mostly absorb red light, so what reflects back is cyan (a mix of blue and green). Now if you mix in an equal amount of yellow ink, which absorbs blue light, you'll end up with something which is absorbing the red light and the blue light, leaving only green light, so it looks green. We call this "subtractive colour" because you start with white (all the wavelengths of light) then absorb (subtract) different wavelengths of light to produce different colours.
Would that mean that yellow paint looks yellow to our eye, because it absorbs all other colors except red and green, and that red and green light that reflects off the paint hits our eyes, and we see it as yellow?
Grant Volker It absorbs all of the wavelengths that aren't that color. Yellow is roughly half-way between red and green so a yellow light will slightly activate your red cones and slightly activate your green cones. Your brain correctly interprets this as yellow. Just as it would incorrectly interpret red and green lights, very close together as yellow. The paint, however IS yellow, while the tiny dots on your screen are not. This is why mixing together your crayons makes black (eventually all the wavelengths are absorbed) but shining a red, a green, and blue light at the same spot is white. (Adding all the colors activates all three cones equally and your brain thinks "white")
It occurs to me that if we human beings often need glasses for poor eyesight, is it possible that any other animals might also have faulty vision? And if so, would glasses or contact lenses be able to correct that vision for them?
Other animals can *definitely* get faulty eyesight. Unfortunately...they don't speak English, so it would be hard for them to tell their eye doctor which image is crispest.
Whoa, looking through a hole and jiggling it allows you to see all of the blood vessel shadows. That's awesome! I'm pretty sure I can see a hole near the middle. Is that my fovea, or my blind spot???
Great info, great delivery. (I'll have to watch it again!) Some youtube vids , at times talk nonsense, or are too slow to get to the point. I'm very impressed about the birds eyes. Wish all animals could, at least, see the world as we do.
Being a bird would be pretty cool until you look at a public swimming pool or the ocean. Not to be specific, the amount of glowing water would be horrifying...
Downside is, of course, that with all those fancy gadgets in their eyes, the eyes themselves can't actually move... And if you're, say, perched on a swaying branch and trying to focus on something that's sitting still on the ground, and you can't rotate your eyeballs to constantly be facing it, you're not gonna find much luck. That's why birds keep their entire heads as still as they can, as often as possible! (Gosh, these comments by the way... You know breasts were nicknamed after bird types, not the other way around...)
Yeah, raptors like owls need to turn their heads to look at something. Their eyes are larger in proportion to the size of their heads than most other animals.
Karl Ramstedt If you try it, make sure you keep your eye still and focus on a light source like your computer screen, and when you gently shake your hand, you should see faint darker lines show up while you shake the hole, with a kind of clear blur around them, those are your blood vessels. Edit: It kind of looks like flashes of lightning on the computer screen, you have to shake your hand quite alot so that your vision of the screen is blocked and returned each time.
This doesn't necessarily pertain to birds but I've always wondered why nocturnal hunters don't have receptors for the infrared part of the spectrum. It would seem an incredible advantage to see as well as you might if you had night vision goggles on. And to see the warm glow of a mammal would make a snake's vision that much easier....
I believe some snakes can detect / sense infrared. Also; infrared is nice to detect mammals or other animal with high internal temperature, but may not be the best for other preys... I don't know...
Because the animals that do have infrared receptors only have it because of a chance mutation that stuck because it made them more fit for their daily life. If life was created by intelligent design, then maybe tools that all animals need and tools that are useful would have evolved for all, but alas it is not to be.
I also remember reading somewhere that some birds have oil-drop cells in front of their cones that expand and contact to change tints and contrast levels.
Thanks v much :) I'm discovering more about the many local birds here daily & I wondered how they found my fruit so easily from the air. Now I know the slightest bit of colour on ripening fruit must have an invitational glow! Best wishes & health & happiness to you & yours in 23 :)
We do have some awesome abilities other than our brains. I think most would agree we have the best hands in the animal kingdom. We are also superb long distance runners.
If we are as awesome as some animals are, we would never have been killed enough times to evolve the traits that we have which make us so powerful, i.e. our brains, our ability to communicate via speech, and our hands to make tools with. Let's just say the ridiculously well adapted animals such as the chameleon or the octopus will never invent a toaster that burns the pattern of the day's weather onto the bread, or bread for that matter.
The large "fovea" of the sea birds is technically not a fovea (and you can find similar strutures on other animals that lives in environment dominated by a strong horizon line). It is what is called an area centralis where the density of photoreceptors and ganglion cells (which are the nervous cells that collects information from photoreceptors) is the highest. For the area centralis to become a fovea you need to have a depression on the retinae which is how, for example, birds of prey have a up to 3 times zoom in their eyes (this is the effect of the depression that acts like a convex lens). Human fovea is not as marked and the depression is not big enough to allow the "zoom effect".
It makes sense that birds have such well developed eyes since they've evolved much longer with eyesight being the most important sense. We on the other hand, are mammals and we descended from animals that were mostly nocturnal and relied mostly on their hearing and sense of smell. Many mammals are still mostly nocturnal and most have only 2 types of cones for colour vision.
+morgan unfading You should check out mantis shrimp, they can see a bunch of different areas of the spectrum. They have 50 something cones in their eyes
If only we could see all of the colors. It's so hard to think of a new color. It's probably the hardest thing to think about besides what you're going to do for eternity. There has to be more than ROYGBIV. So many mind explosions.
Hank, you've just inadvertently answered a question I've had forever. I've always wondered what those squiggly lines are that sometimes appear on my vision. Blood vessels! Mind blown.
"They can see more colors then us, those colors look brighter, they can see electromagnetic fields and their eyes have more camera settings then my PHONE!" I couldn't help but to replay that over and over.
mikkel larsen Very recently actually so the information of your professor wasn't outdated by much. Here are some papers a quick search turned up. Sorry I don't have to time to do a proper research about who found out what first. www.nature.com/nature/journal/v484/n7394/abs/nature11046.html www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959438812000074 www.nature.com/nature/journal/v471/n7340/abs/nature09875.html It's all research from the last couple of years.
I thought we would get to see the world from a birds eye perspective. I would love to see what it would look like for a bird diving down from high altitude onto a target. Not just a camera strapped on it's back but an actual birds eye perspective with all the UV light highlighted, all the traits before and after the birds eye.
Hey @SciShow, so, let's say if we can artificially install birds' cones and vovea, can human brains handle (correctly interpret) the signals from the neurons?
Well, in that case: Dear God, fuck you very much for giving birds the far superior eyes. And cephalopods. And those can change color, too. That's just great. Why should the crowning achievement of your precious creation get any of that, huh? Also, back in the beginning, instead of doing it right after you realized you had screwed up our moral compass, you threw those two suckers out of paradise, waited a couple of generations, then killed all of us because you realized humans still sucked somehow (from which we got an Emma Watson movie so thanks for that actually but then when I come to think of it, why exactly can't we all look that great?) except for a few who inherited the crappiness of the human species and now we've long been back to where we started, killing each other and, more recently, screwing up the planet because driving a big car is more important to us than leaving a functioning biosphere for our grand-children. And now tell me you didn't see it all coming, you omniscient fuckface. But then again, what do I expect of someone who is a monotheistic god with balls and a penis. Stupidest thing ever. Anyway, fucks again for the world we live in, yours truly, Penny
mikkel larsen Yep. The "argument" of irreducible complexity totally fails unless at some point, something less complex created something more complex. And if that's the case...the requirement for a god in this argument disappears. In fact, it supports evolution, because evolutionary theory is that complexity is a result of evolution from simpler organisms as shaped by reproductive pressures. So... TL;DR: The argument of "this natural thing is too complex, so it must have a creator" eventually leads to the conclusion that the creator is simpler than the natural thing, and thus not any definition of god most people ever claim.
Somethingafw No, there is no "theory until it's proven". Plate tectonics is a theory, how gravity works is a part of the theory of special relativity, the heliocentric solar system is a theory. Being a theory is the highest you can achieve in science, there is nothing better than that. Facts and laws are things that happen, theories explain why. Facts and laws are of no use without a theory.
This might be a stupid question, but would it be possible to somehow extract the lens of the birds and attach it to our lenses? To see the same view like a bird's?
Its not the lens in the bird that lets them see well. The video talked about the bird's retina, which is a thin layer in the back of the eye. Id imagine it would be extremely difficult to put that into a human and make to work cause you would need to hook it up to the brain and it might not even work that well
It's not a stupid question. Don't be afraid to ask questions! It would in theory be possible to extract the lens of a bird, but we don't have the same "wiring" as birds do, so you would probably end up blind. As stated in the video, their blood vessels are arranged differently and they have multiple fovea, or their fovea are shaped differently. I suppose you could take out the whole eyeball, but you would need a brain that can interpret the signals from the eye. Our brains didn't evolve to see out of bird eyes. I hope that helps a little. Maybe someone else has more insight into this. I would love to hear more thoughts.
If you can hook up their retinas to our optic nerve, give them a pathway into the brain, and then train the brain to interpret that data....then sure. But those are all so difficult as to be impossible right now (actually, the brain-training is the easiest part of the three). We're better off using inorganic technology to do this for us.
Because dinosaurs lost a lot of awesome shit but the few remaining in their era who were bird like and kind of technically dinosaurs went on to get fabulous prizes personally delivered by insanely long periods of time to emerge cool stuff via adaptations,... Or dinosaurs decided to do this in a mysterious plan David Icke will unveil when the time is right.
evilyig If you think of it, dinosaurs were the most complex evolved creatures at the time so they had a good headstart advantage against us. Those few dinosaurs that didn't die out then of course how to have super-awesome adaptations, I wouldn't expect any less of them. A shame they never got human-like brainpower though. I wonder if any bird species ever will, maybe in a few million years from now, who knows...
War Rock Because they need them to survive, we have survived just fine with our ordinary eyes, for example; we weren't "supposed" to move at high speeds by ourselves, only with the aid of technology and by the time that came around Natural Selection and Evolution for humans had become pretty much non-existent anyway.
We should splice genes from eagles into human DNA so we can appreciate current and future advances in TV and other visual displays. Because we now have display resolutions that exceed our capacity to differentiate with our standard human eyes, what's the point of increasing display resolutions if your eyes can't tell the difference. Making our senses superior would I think, encourage the brain to advance even faster. Because it would need to develop the capability to process more complex information.
Unfortunately they're not so good at seeing windows.
Lol so true
Well its not that they can't see them, its that fact they don't understand them
***** yeah I guess thats right but what is there to understand
Bird: people are bad
Bird: buildings are bad
Stay away from them
Birds often think the reflection in a highly reflective window represent reality. So it is true that despite seeing them and probably even being able to tell the difference, their analytical skills aren't as highly developed. I mean let's face it, windows and buildings is a very recent phenomenon. How on earth would they have developed mechanisms to cope with them?
And it's no laughing matter, birds striking buildings/windows is the single highest cause of death for birds, including some precious rarities and endangered species.
I do not think we know how birds perceive the world while flying and while being on the ground. The assumption that bird logic discriminates between ground and flight dangers isn't that far off.
Then, there are plenty of transparant objects which aren't a thread - like clouds, fog or spiderwebs. If we remember that it's not possible for most birds to just stop midflight, the possibility to experience windows the way we do (by touching them out of curiousity) is no option. If they touch it, they crush into it because of basic physics.
We do know that some birds show a really high level of intelligence, so they propably have the same way of coping with stuff we do: learning.
I love it when I google a question and I get a five year old SciShow video. Didn't answer my specific question, but still a fun time. Also Hank suddenly gets SO excited right when he says the bit about birds of prey at 1:55 and it's great.
Being a human has never felt so lame.
But did birds invent the Oreo Pizza? I think not.
skribzy1157 'Murica :/
Being a human never felt so lame, especially with you weebs running arround.
Warillusen I feel so good and bad at the same time because I have a bird but I can't see like my bird
skribzy1157 so
Gives a whole new meaning to "Bird's Eye View"
Twosocks42 😂
With camera settings like that they should make an iBird
I think most cameras can see uv light to an extent. Try pointing your TV remote to your phone's camera, and push a button
@@meflea3675 But arent we using our eyes to see the camera image lol
Not funny
The F in women stand for funny
Hahahaahhaa hahahaha ahahaaahahhhhh
I was hoping to see a CGI image of what the earth's magnetic field looks like through a bird's eyes.
Computer generated image...image?
neverAskMeWhy07 PtNyer It's "imagery" actually so it's debatable if "computer-generated imagery image" is still bad style when you abbreviate it.
RIP in peace everyone I'm off to the ATM machine XD
Sentinalh I'm gonna use my GPS system to find the ATM machine so I can increase the GNP product of the USA.
Dominus Felis I laughed
Birds may see better than me, but they're still no match for my window.
Haha
If i were a bird ill be smarter ill see a window but stop peck. If there is a window ill fly away
Lydia Xavier Songbirds usually aren't smart enough to understand reflections, so windows are what usually kill songbirds.
+ Joshua Slowpoke
No, they would understand reflections, it's just that they can't see glass, and thus they can't see mirror glass, and that's why they think what's on the other side is real, just like all other Birds. Birds are very smart, and most if not all of them would probably understand reflections if they could actually see glass.
Lydia Xavier you see with your mind, not your eyes
The birds may be able to focus on the text on either side of the screen, but they can’t read it either, so there. :)
Well can you read Chinese? Or Spanish? Or Japanese? Or Korean? Didn’t think so. That’s the same with birds. They can’t learn English like you. To us humans we can’t understand wut animals are saying, to us humans animals just sound like they’re saying gibberish and making noises, and that’s wut animals think to.
@@4lm0nd_br41n learn to take a joke
One thing you missed out about the pecten - the bird's eye has to periodically shake to distribute oxygen to the retina. So they get better vision from not having blood vessels running across the back of their eyes, but momentarily lose almost all use of their eyes every minute or so.
well ok, but that's hardly a disadvantage because it can be timed. Just like blinking.
Wtf are you talking about? I'm 37, and have yet to see a bird "shake" it's head or it's eyes, in 37 years.
So compared to birds, humans are partially blind... dayum.
So they can see better than us, but can they see why kids love the taste of cinnamon toast crunch?
HHAHAHHAHHAHAHHAHHAAHAHHAHAAHHAHAHHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHA
I don’t get it
Yea yea very impressive. At least I don't crash into windows on a regular basis.
+Peter Timowreef To be fair. I've seen a few humans dogs and cats do that.
*****
Ye that why I added "on a regular basis" haha
Sorry I left out the part where I've never seen a bird do it.
humans usually know what windows are
it's not their fault. it's our fault. we discovered windows...
When i click a scishow video i cross my fingers that it is Hank Green. This video did not disappoint
Human eye really don't see a whole lot compared to many other animals. Hawk and eagle can see incredible distance with accuracy; chameleon can move their two eyes independently and 360 degree; many birds can see at a greater range of wavelengths.
To say god gave us eyes, then birds are probably his favorite pets.
u think all life are just pets ? No judgment j curious actually
This reminds me of that anti-evolution argument "but what good is a partly-developed eye?". The answer: a bird might ask you the same thing.
Hah! :D
Eyes are really some of the best evidence for evolution. For example, and people I'm sure know this, but the photo receptor cells in your retina actually face backwards. Light actually passes through all the blood vessels and conductive neural type cells before getting to them. If the eye were created clearly light wouldn't do this, and the bipolar cells and ganglion cells and etc would be behind the photoreceptor cells. It only makes sense in the context of how eyes and photoreceptive tissue evolved from more primitive structures and basically evolution did with the space it was given. For example octopus don't have that problem but it makes sense because their eyes evolved from different tissues. Our eyes actually evolved as extension of our brains, whereas octopus eyes evolved "the right way" as invaginations of photoreceptive tissue on the surface of their "face". Also, despite seeming counterintuitive the mammal set up allowed for other important adaptations to occur. I think Richard Dawkins refers to this whole thing as the "Blind Watchmaker". I may have actually just paraphrased him.
Does evolution also explain why the human visual cortex is at the back of the brain (instead of at the front near the eyes), having been pushed there by the expansion of the frontal cortex, the so-called "back-combing" effect?
What's amazing to me is that someone could believe in evolution after seeing how incredibly, unbelievably complex life is.
The complexity is actually part of the reason that I know rather than believe that evolution is a thing.
Besides all the things pointed out at the end about how amazing birds' eyes are....they also can FLY (without the aid of a plane, or a copter....or...) - damn these birds and their show-off-ed-ness :)
Well at least we can imagine how they see the world... they cannot imagine how we see it
We can't even to begin to imagine what their world looks like because no human has ever experienced it. And true they cannot imagine how we see but we can't imagine how they see and to think you can is ignorance.
Kyle Braun Well, no, we can begin to imagine things like that. We'll just never quite get there, unless we start messing around with our own eyes. One of our talents as human beings is that we can get kinda sorta close-ish to imagining things like that, give time and data.
We can use cams and computer tricks to mimic things like that
Who says they can't imagine it? And why would they even want to considering how much worse our vision is..
Kyle Braun Can you imagine being Superman, jumping over tall buildings and flying around? Yes, you can... but how, you've never experienced that? Acquiex I really doubt they have much of an imagination. For instance, when you cover their eyes and they can't see you, they seem to either be unaware you're there, or they think that you can't see them. In the latter case, I suppose they would be imagining what we see (or don't see). I'm sure you could devise an experiment to figure out which one is more likely
Instructions were unclear, got eye stuck in computer monitor.
Parrots have terrible night vision. I am a parrot owner, and if I turn down the light to watch a movie, they start missing perches, fall behind objects and generally turn into a mess. When you realise what is going on, it's a race to the nearest lamp to turn on some mood lighting
your parrot probably has bad vision.
no, parrots in general don't see well in the dark. I've had 3 parrots, and I regularly go to free flights and meet plenty of parrots. And they all have terrible night vision. This, of course has 2 exceptions. The night parrot and the kakapo are both nocturnal. Parrots sleep for 10-12 hours a day, and they aren't nocturnal. They're never awake when it's dark, so why would they develop night vision?
The part about seeing your own blood vessels inside your eye is very interesting. I didn't even know I could do that.
Amazing episode. I didn't know bird eyes were so interesting.
SciShow rules
then you need to watch or read just a little bit about corvid intelligence and be amazed at their theory of mind and their problem solving and ability to plan for the future and hypothetical events and their ability to remember specific people they don't like for many years, attacking them. The lengths they will go to, clever corvids.
theoatmeal also discusses this in his praying mantice shrimp post.
This video shattered my fantasy that birds see targeting reticules and a heads-up display listing things to kill. I always imagined people's cute little budgies seeing "target acquired" and whispering "yesssss yeeeesssss" as they plotted their owner's demise.
Hank, you've destroyed yet another source of joy in my life!
Man, I don't even have good eyes for a human. It would be so cool to see like a bird.
Scientists are trying to find our how hawks see so well. They want to alter human genetics to make that a possibility.
But then imagine if you had bad eyesight as a bird and no ears to rest your glasses on ;) I'd be so screwed, with my glasses sliding off of my beak all the time.
Little flying dinosaurs with super-vision. Birds are pretty dang cool
I want bird eyes. ..... science hurry up and be more awesome
Totally possible. Changing the genes for human eyes. Genetic engineering.
Thatjust won't cut it. While your eyes would be able to sense UV (or whatever other wavelenght you wish), your brain wouldn't perceive it (you'd see either something messed up or the same things as always). That would require to modify your brain, which is something genetic engineering won't be able to successfuly do in quite a while.
you ruined my life :(
Bobcat1939 I don't get why people like masansr have to be so mean and ruin people's life with realistic science..
Bobcat1939 Don't worry. You never know what science might have in the next corner, so be optimistic.
Man our eyes suck.
***** my bird has seen it with my laptop
Gabrielus LOL :D
***** Lol but so did I
*****
I know what you were getting at and you failed at it spectacularly. Seeing the adromeda galaxy while nice and all has no practicle applications for life here, where as seeing the earth's magnetic field, long range vision and close range vision at the same time, and ultraviolet light, among other things could very useful in the here and now.
Fair enough, looking back that andromeda remark wasn't the best response, that was just what popped into my head as an example. I guess better examples would be binoculars, night vision goggles, microscopes or infrared scopes. Those definitely have more practical uses in the "here and now"
I always find it hilarious when those creationists claim humans are the crown of creation, created in the image of gods. Oh really? That's probably the reason why pretty much all of our senses are comparatively lame, our pancreas likes to explode from time to time and our wisdom teeth mess up our dentition. Sooo perfect!
As Neil Degrasse Tyson once said; It's not Intelligent Design, it's actually pretty Stupid Design! (Paraphrasing, can't remember the original quote.)
Arthur Dent
I agree. If life didn't evolve and was designed then that creator would be quite incompetent in many respects.
*****
I'm not trying to demote god, I'm just demoting the idea that he literally created us in his image. If there is a god I don't think we can even begin to understand his complexity and power (since he's supposed to be omnipotent, omnipresent and eternal) but yet the bible portrays him as person, looking vaguely human-like, because that's the logical consequence if we were created in his image. So if anything, a literal interpretation of the bible is what's demoting god in my opinion.
Also the idea that animals can't adapt to their environment and always stay the same as they have originally been created would be very unintelligent design. There are many believing Christians who accept evolution and see is as even greater proof for god's brilliant plan for life on earth. Even the pope says this. I don't understand why so many protestant Christians in America still cling to the genesis story even though we know it is scientifically impossible and can't be true. That being said, yes, humans are special, we are the most intelligent creatures on earth. That's something, but we don't excel in any of the other categories, we just have large brains, that's it. I don't think that makes us any more god-like than any other life form on this planet.
Attention: You are entitled to your opinion as well and I don't see why merely stating your beliefs in a well-mannered and respectful fashion as you just did would offend anybody. I'm not offended for once, I just fail to understand why you think rejecting science is required to be a "good Christian".
***** The mistake of one or two humans should not effect billions of people to come. Eating an apple, and in return we get diseases, pain, natural disasters, death, etc.? Not only does that sound like a fairy tale, it sounds immorally wrong and degrading to "god's" almighty intelligence. I also don't see why, if humans are his primary life forms that he likes to have control of and tamper with, he would give benefits to other life forms.
If your great-great-great-great grandpa was arrested for drinking a glass of orange juice when someone told him not to, wouldn't you be quite mad if you were then arrested and tortured the instant you were born?
Why trust a book written by primitive goat-herders rather than modern mathematical, and trustable examination of the universe? Isiah 45:7 states that all evil is a result of god, so don't go putting the blame on humans, in this case.
Keep in mind I don't believe in the bible, due to logical reasons, I'm just using it as a basis for my argument. God could apparently end all suffering and pain with the snap of his magical fingers, but does he? No, probably because he just might not exist.
Have not seen scishow in a while. Loving the anglerfish in the intro!
In the beginning, God created birds' eyes. But that left him tired and lazy, so then he created humans' eyes.
And then he moved on to the nether-regions, and decided, "Hey, can't they just pee out of the same hole so I don't have to make another?"
IceMetalPunk meh, why not. It conserves space and energy, and urine is sterile enough, most times.
9Mystere9
Well, I was going to make a better point with eating, drinking, and breathing from the same tube, but I figured the birds also have that problem.
9Mystere9 some birds like seagulls have such a good digestive system that don't shit. they only pee, which usually come out as a white paste.
And lets not forget it's all in their own image...
This is so cool! I work at a Veterinary Ophthalmology clinic and I'm going to post this on our facebook page. You explain all this brilliantly. I would love to see one for cats and dogs as well!
So if they see so well, why do they keep smashing into my windows?
the only rational explanation is that your windows are too clean
Love SciShow, especially for these videos on subjects that nobody really thinks to make videos about. Keep em coming!
Hank, did you know that we humans actually DO have the ability to see UV light? To a certain degree of course.
But the reason why we aren't seeing it is because a layer of our ocular lens filters it away so it doesn't blast onto our retinas.
But, we also don't entirely need that unless we're sensitive to sudden bursts of light, so out biology just keeps it there in case.
But, not everyone needs one, so you can actually have it surgically removed, if you have the time and money for it I'm told. I'm not 100% sure on this, because I don't trust the internet too much, so I'm just sorta saying it's possible....
And could still be inaccurate. I'm just not sure.
This might have been the coolest episode of Sci Show yet. Thanks guys!
i'm gonna have to get some chicken at the deli to even the score.
I got a rosie bourke parakeet 3months ago, I have not been able to eat chicken since, I know it's silly, but I just can't bring myself to do it.
Never done that blood vessel trick before, now I'm completely fascinated!
You forgot about one obvious thing - most birds cannot rotate their eyes, like humans, dogs, even fish. They have to move their entire head.
This episode was sweet!
I would love to see you all do a video about the cat's eyes.
Title did not really seem interesting but still clicked on it cause SciShow is awesome :)
Could you do an episode on why the primary colors of light are red, blue, and green, while the primary colors of pigment are red, blue, and yellow?
The first one is called "addition of colors" while the second is called subtraction of color.
It's to do with both the way pigments work and the way your eyes work.
*First, eyes.*
When light hits your eyes, it'll activate different cones depending on its wavelength. This is a vast simplification but all you really need to know is humans have 3 cone types: one for red light, one for green light and one for blue light.
If, for example, light halfway between red and green hits your eyes, you'll see it as yellow. Importantly, you'll also see it as yellow if equal amounts of red and green light hit your eyes. Your brain has no way of telling the difference between light which is actually yellow and light which is half red and half green. We use this to make RGB displays that trick you into seeing a whole range of colours while only having to produce those three colours (red, green and blue) in various amounts.
That's why the primary colours of light are red, green and blue.
We call this "additive colour" because you start with black (no light) and add different wavelengths of light to produce different colours.
*Now, to pigments.* ("Subtractive colour")
The colour you see a pigment as is the colour of light which it reflects; that is, the part of the spectrum it's not absorbing. When you mix another pigment with it, that other pigment will absorb different colours of light, so what you get reflected will be different.
Now say you add cyan ink to your white paper; it will mostly absorb red light, so what reflects back is cyan (a mix of blue and green). Now if you mix in an equal amount of yellow ink, which absorbs blue light, you'll end up with something which is absorbing the red light and the blue light, leaving only green light, so it looks green.
We call this "subtractive colour" because you start with white (all the wavelengths of light) then absorb (subtract) different wavelengths of light to produce different colours.
Ben Rowe Exactly
Would that mean that yellow paint looks yellow to our eye, because it absorbs all other colors except red and green, and that red and green light that reflects off the paint hits our eyes, and we see it as yellow?
Grant Volker It absorbs all of the wavelengths that aren't that color. Yellow is roughly half-way between red and green so a yellow light will slightly activate your red cones and slightly activate your green cones. Your brain correctly interprets this as yellow. Just as it would incorrectly interpret red and green lights, very close together as yellow.
The paint, however IS yellow, while the tiny dots on your screen are not. This is why mixing together your crayons makes black (eventually all the wavelengths are absorbed) but shining a red, a green, and blue light at the same spot is white. (Adding all the colors activates all three cones equally and your brain thinks "white")
It occurs to me that if we human beings often need glasses for poor eyesight, is it possible that any other animals might also have faulty vision? And if so, would glasses or contact lenses be able to correct that vision for them?
Yep. Except animals with faulty vision DIE!
Natural selection at work there...
aismartie14 Hmm.I hadn't thought of that. What about domestic pets, though?
Other animals can *definitely* get faulty eyesight. Unfortunately...they don't speak English, so it would be hard for them to tell their eye doctor which image is crispest.
I vaguely remember a story about a horse with glasses.
TheCycloneRanger
Optician: Okay, now: Five, or six? Five, or six?
Mr. Snuffles: Meow...
A butterfly has 5 base cones and a mantis shrimp has 16. 16. Imagine what a rainbow looks like to them, if they were ever to see one.
Isn't it amazing that a shrimp sees more color than we do? I'm envious.
Whole new meaning to 'birds eye view'
This is one of the best SciShow episodes ever!
Whoa, looking through a hole and jiggling it allows you to see all of the blood vessel shadows. That's awesome! I'm pretty sure I can see a hole near the middle. Is that my fovea, or my blind spot???
Great info, great delivery. (I'll have to watch it again!) Some youtube vids , at times talk nonsense, or are too slow to get to the point. I'm very impressed about the birds eyes. Wish all animals could, at least, see the world as we do.
Being a bird would be pretty cool until you look at a public swimming pool or the ocean. Not to be specific, the amount of glowing water would be horrifying...
Fun act: Rods are concentrated around the fovea, not in it. So if you're stargazing, try looking right by a dim star, not at it, at it will appear.
Downside is, of course, that with all those fancy gadgets in their eyes, the eyes themselves can't actually move... And if you're, say, perched on a swaying branch and trying to focus on something that's sitting still on the ground, and you can't rotate your eyeballs to constantly be facing it, you're not gonna find much luck. That's why birds keep their entire heads as still as they can, as often as possible!
(Gosh, these comments by the way... You know breasts were nicknamed after bird types, not the other way around...)
+Roxfox hahaha checkmate avains can you move your eyes like a mammal!?
Yeah, raptors like owls need to turn their heads to look at something. Their eyes are larger in proportion to the size of their heads than most other animals.
Excellent, thank you for linking the articles in the description also :)
No ways you can see the blood vessels in your... \*does the thing\* WHAAAAAAAAAAT??!
Didn't work for me ;_;
You can find the blind pot in your eyes as well. Vsauce brought it up in a fairly recent video
Karl Ramstedt If you try it, make sure you keep your eye still and focus on a light source like your computer screen, and when you gently shake your hand, you should see faint darker lines show up while you shake the hole, with a kind of clear blur around them, those are your blood vessels.
Edit: It kind of looks like flashes of lightning on the computer screen, you have to shake your hand quite alot so that your vision of the screen is blocked and returned each time.
What? All i see is noise similar to old TV screens with nothing on
I was gonna try it until he said what would happen, and then I didn't do it because the thought of it freaked me the hell out.
Really well done on this one, I actually hadn't of heard anything from this video before watching it!
This doesn't necessarily pertain to birds but I've always wondered why nocturnal hunters don't have receptors for the infrared part of the spectrum. It would seem an incredible advantage to see as well as you might if you had night vision goggles on. And to see the warm glow of a mammal would make a snake's vision that much easier....
maybe the ancestors for all life currently on earth just didn't have the...capabilities (or whatever term is appropriate) to make such receptors
Just because it would be a good advantage doesn't mean it will happen. Evolution doesn't work that way.
Yanfang Qi interesting, or maybe the ancestors of birds after they branched off? I don't know, just speculating
I believe some snakes can detect / sense infrared.
Also; infrared is nice to detect mammals or other animal with high internal temperature, but may not be the best for other preys... I don't know...
Because the animals that do have infrared receptors only have it because of a chance mutation that stuck because it made them more fit for their daily life. If life was created by intelligent design, then maybe tools that all animals need and tools that are useful would have evolved for all, but alas it is not to be.
Birds could really see the world, but can birds really see why kids love the taste of cinnamon toast crunch?
When will we invent Geordi's Star Trek visor vision so we can experience these sights for ourselves?
Thank You I've learned a BUNCH from your knowledge in mere minutes!!! Stay Cool Dude!!!!
I guess the bird's eye view have a merit after all.
first sci show iv'e seen and i'm really impressed so far
10/10 featured a bird called "Blue Tit".
I presume you know of the blue footed booby?
Efferan Know of it? I am an expert on all animals with names that contain words that mean "breast".
I also remember reading somewhere that some birds have oil-drop cells in front of their cones that expand and contact to change tints and contrast levels.
so in other words, if we put uv lights in windows birds would see them and nor fly into them?
Thanks v much :) I'm discovering more about the many local birds here daily & I wondered how they found my fruit so easily from the air. Now I know the slightest bit of colour on ripening fruit must have an invitational glow! Best wishes & health & happiness to you & yours in 23 :)
Ok, I'm hearing how awesome animals are, and that always makes me ask "How are humans as awesome as this, other than our super-brains?"
We do have some awesome abilities other than our brains. I think most would agree we have the best hands in the animal kingdom. We are also superb long distance runners.
bw0n6 Hmmm, ok--I'll take that.
If we are as awesome as some animals are, we would never have been killed enough times to evolve the traits that we have which make us so powerful, i.e. our brains, our ability to communicate via speech, and our hands to make tools with. Let's just say the ridiculously well adapted animals such as the chameleon or the octopus will never invent a toaster that burns the pattern of the day's weather onto the bread, or bread for that matter.
aaron4820 Huh, I never thought of that. I'll keep that in mind. Thanks!
Hmm, but I could imagine the octopus eventually evolving the ability the display discrete patterns on its skin.
The large "fovea" of the sea birds is technically not a fovea (and you can find similar strutures on other animals that lives in environment dominated by a strong horizon line). It is what is called an area centralis where the density of photoreceptors and ganglion cells (which are the nervous cells that collects information from photoreceptors) is the highest. For the area centralis to become a fovea you need to have a depression on the retinae which is how, for example, birds of prey have a up to 3 times zoom in their eyes (this is the effect of the depression that acts like a convex lens). Human fovea is not as marked and the depression is not big enough to allow the "zoom effect".
bird eye sight my be awesome but they cant make pizza
we still better
Lol
Saying the things that matter.
And we can see glass.
It makes sense that birds have such well developed eyes since they've evolved much longer with eyesight being the most important sense. We on the other hand, are mammals and we descended from animals that were mostly nocturnal and relied mostly on their hearing and sense of smell. Many mammals are still mostly nocturnal and most have only 2 types of cones for colour vision.
im so jealous of birds right now
+morgan unfading You should check out mantis shrimp, they can see a bunch of different areas of the spectrum. They have 50 something cones in their eyes
If only we could see all of the colors. It's so hard to think of a new color. It's probably the hardest thing to think about besides what you're going to do for eternity. There has to be more than ROYGBIV. So many mind explosions.
I learn so much on this channel then I learn in schoool
***** Too bad that this channel doesn't teach english.
***** hahaha
Hank, you've just inadvertently answered a question I've had forever. I've always wondered what those squiggly lines are that sometimes appear on my vision. Blood vessels! Mind blown.
Someday, in the future, we will have eye implants/replacements to see the world like this...
Yep and your most likely only going to see the world like blue glasses.
My bird woke up from his nap, turned his head to look at my screen, and actually watched the whole video. Bird Stamp of Approval 🐦
Man... I WANT bird eyes.
Science /snaps fingers/ ...have it done by tuesday!
Ok if you want bird eyes you must be extra careful because they can’t see glass
"They can see more colors then us, those colors look brighter, they can see electromagnetic fields and their eyes have more camera settings then my PHONE!" I couldn't help but to replay that over and over.
are the magnetic fields actually seen via the birds eyes or is it more of an extra sensory visualization type thing?
They can't perceive magnetic fields without light falling in their eyes so yeah, it's really part of their vision.
mikkel larsen Nope, the whole beak magnetite thing is busted. Turns out that's part of their immune system.
mikkel larsen Very recently actually so the information of your professor wasn't outdated by much. Here are some papers a quick search turned up. Sorry I don't have to time to do a proper research about who found out what first.
www.nature.com/nature/journal/v484/n7394/abs/nature11046.html
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959438812000074
www.nature.com/nature/journal/v471/n7340/abs/nature09875.html
It's all research from the last couple of years.
hey cool thanks guys, you're both awesome ^_^
Suggestion for an episode: Clinical trials and participating in them
I can actually focus on both words, and read them, I tried this with both eyes. OH GOD IM A BIRD.
I was wondering the same thing, until I attempted to fly. Ouch, It still hurts.
Maybe you are a bird. But also consider that the test is subject to the size of your video screen and the distance you are from your monitor.
You can test to see if your a bird by trying to grip tree limbs with your feet
I tried, I blend in with the birds. Day four, they think I'm one of their own.
I thought we would get to see the world from a birds eye perspective.
I would love to see what it would look like for a bird diving down from high altitude onto a target. Not just a camera strapped on it's back but an actual birds eye perspective with all the UV light highlighted, all the traits before and after the birds eye.
Can you do an episode about the permafrost feedback loop and/or climate change feedback loops in general please?
"lights up like a christmas tree" hank this is the last video i'd have guessed i would go into and end up crying over augustus waters
Hey @SciShow, so, let's say if we can artificially install birds' cones and vovea, can human brains handle (correctly interpret) the signals from the neurons?
All I can think while reading your comment is Wtf.
Mя. Sharkie Why? You mean we've already had the answer? Or it's too much for our existing science to handle this question?
Most likely not, and if it were to work, it would have to be implemented while the brain and eyes develop.
jmcwd um, do you mean neurosurgically or by genetic engineering?
+李立峰 GE better, I don't think neuro would work as well
Even more reasons why birds are amazing.
1:40 Ive just cheated with my mobilephone :D
More episodes like this! This was great! :D
How can people think God isn't apparent in all this complicated beauty.
Thanks for the video!
T...troll? Or just....someone who thought it would be smart to bring up religion on a science video on the Internet?
*****
I mean, he's infinitely complex. Something like that must need a VERY powerful creator, right?
Well, in that case:
Dear God,
fuck you very much for giving birds the far superior eyes. And cephalopods. And those can change color, too. That's just great. Why should the crowning achievement of your precious creation get any of that, huh? Also, back in the beginning, instead of doing it right after you realized you had screwed up our moral compass, you threw those two suckers out of paradise, waited a couple of generations, then killed all of us because you realized humans still sucked somehow (from which we got an Emma Watson movie so thanks for that actually but then when I come to think of it, why exactly can't we all look that great?) except for a few who inherited the crappiness of the human species and now we've long been back to where we started, killing each other and, more recently, screwing up the planet because driving a big car is more important to us than leaving a functioning biosphere for our grand-children. And now tell me you didn't see it all coming, you omniscient fuckface. But then again, what do I expect of someone who is a monotheistic god with balls and a penis. Stupidest thing ever. Anyway, fucks again for the world we live in, yours truly,
Penny
mikkel larsen
Yep. The "argument" of irreducible complexity totally fails unless at some point, something less complex created something more complex. And if that's the case...the requirement for a god in this argument disappears. In fact, it supports evolution, because evolutionary theory is that complexity is a result of evolution from simpler organisms as shaped by reproductive pressures.
So... TL;DR: The argument of "this natural thing is too complex, so it must have a creator" eventually leads to the conclusion that the creator is simpler than the natural thing, and thus not any definition of god most people ever claim.
I like how when anyone brings up God, people assume that it's trolling. As if science and religion doesn't mix.
this just opens up millions of new questions about dinosaurs as though I didnt already have enough
Wait. You never really explained how they can see magnetic fields. And how do they perceive the magnetic fields visually?
think that seeing magnetic fields is still a theory.
And he mentioned it and I want to know more about it.
Somethingafw Stop using the word theory like that, when you're talking science.
Science is always just a theory until proven.
Somethingafw No, there is no "theory until it's proven".
Plate tectonics is a theory, how gravity works is a part of the theory of special relativity, the heliocentric solar system is a theory.
Being a theory is the highest you can achieve in science, there is nothing better than that. Facts and laws are things that happen, theories explain why. Facts and laws are of no use without a theory.
I am so blown away by this information right now
I have a good one, Why do we close our eyes when we sneeze? please cover this :)
On TV other day not so eye sockets break, and did not know reason why!
:OO
Could you do an episode on why people love certain type of music, or how we come about choosing our favourite songs?
This might be a stupid question, but would it be possible to somehow extract the lens of the birds and attach it to our lenses? To see the same view like a bird's?
Its not the lens in the bird that lets them see well. The video talked about the bird's retina, which is a thin layer in the back of the eye. Id imagine it would be extremely difficult to put that into a human and make to work cause you would need to hook it up to the brain and it might not even work that well
It's not a stupid question. Don't be afraid to ask questions! It would in theory be possible to extract the lens of a bird, but we don't have the same "wiring" as birds do, so you would probably end up blind. As stated in the video, their blood vessels are arranged differently and they have multiple fovea, or their fovea are shaped differently. I suppose you could take out the whole eyeball, but you would need a brain that can interpret the signals from the eye. Our brains didn't evolve to see out of bird eyes. I hope that helps a little. Maybe someone else has more insight into this. I would love to hear more thoughts.
If you can hook up their retinas to our optic nerve, give them a pathway into the brain, and then train the brain to interpret that data....then sure. But those are all so difficult as to be impossible right now (actually, the brain-training is the easiest part of the three). We're better off using inorganic technology to do this for us.
mikkel larsen
Unless you genetically engineered the bird's eye's cells to express your own eye's proteins...not easy, but hypothetically possible.
Being human and being bird two quite different aspects of life. Say impossible to implant.
U are explaining shit so good man. You keep it intresting. Love your videos
And my eyes start failing me with quality after about two feet.....
I'm in the same boat, dude. Thank goodness humans don't follow survival of the fittest anymore, because I would be nine kinds of hosed!
Amelia Bee Tell that to the millions of people still living tribal and have to hunt for food.
cortster12 I think its implied that he means First World humans
cortster12 millions? I really doubt that.
Contacts' case says -3.25 for me... I can't even do my homework without my glasses or contacts :/ woohoo
"[Birds] eyes have more camera settings than my phone." -Hank
Why do birds get all the cool features?
do you mean feather ?
Because dinosaurs lost a lot of awesome shit but the few remaining in their era who were bird like and kind of technically dinosaurs went on to get fabulous prizes personally delivered by insanely long periods of time to emerge cool stuff via adaptations,... Or dinosaurs decided to do this in a mysterious plan David Icke will unveil when the time is right.
id take thumbs and a super smart brain over good eyesight any day.
evilyig
If you think of it, dinosaurs were the most complex evolved creatures at the time so they had a good headstart advantage against us. Those few dinosaurs that didn't die out then of course how to have super-awesome adaptations, I wouldn't expect any less of them. A shame they never got human-like brainpower though. I wonder if any bird species ever will, maybe in a few million years from now, who knows...
War Rock Because they need them to survive, we have survived just fine with our ordinary eyes, for example; we weren't "supposed" to move at high speeds by ourselves, only with the aid of technology and by the time that came around Natural Selection and Evolution for humans had become pretty much non-existent anyway.
I read them. It says "You're Reading Me, Aren't You", and "Eyes On Hank!"
Birds don't have orgasms.
Humans win.
Sources?
Illuminati.
Birds do it, Bees do it .....
Lol illuminati
This...
Being a bird owner, this video is very interesting. I never knew my little Odin had such cool sight!
We should splice genes from eagles into human DNA so we can appreciate current and future advances in TV and other visual displays. Because we now have display resolutions that exceed our capacity to differentiate with our standard human eyes, what's the point of increasing display resolutions if your eyes can't tell the difference. Making our senses superior would I think, encourage the brain to advance even faster. Because it would need to develop the capability to process more complex information.