Podcast Blog

In the radiolab podcast, they talked a lot about the colors that people can see and how it is possible for organisms to see color. They discuss the differences in how different animals and organisms see color. For example, humans have three color receptor rods, and see variations of red, blue and yellow. Humans see the colors on the ROYGBIV scale. For example, dogs only see blues, greens, and yellows. Butterflies have more color receptor rods that humans. different animals have a different amount of color receptor rods and therefore see different variaions of colors and in a different amount of detail. 

They talked about how they did experiments on monkeys. They took red pigments from something and put it into the eyes of the monkeys. At first, the monkeys saw no differences, but about twenty weeks in, the monkeys started to be able to see the difference between the colors, and could then see the red colors. This is interesting to think about. After a little while, the monkeys could see the single color that was different from all of the others and clearly point it out. It shows how much the eye can change how you look at something. Colors have so many layers to them, but certain eyes can only see some layers of colors, while others can see color in so much detail. 

It depends on what the animals and organisms perceive as the colors. There was one woman who they were testing to be a "tetrochromad, " which means that she can see many more colors than the normal human eye can. The could tell the different color in the set of three colors every time. The control for this experiment, however, was a male painter, so he could not be a tetrochromad. This man saw all of the colors and got all of the answers correct, as the woman did. The man must have also been a tetrochromad as well. On the other hand, when the people involved in the experiment all looked at the sky, the woman said she saw pink in the sky, where everyone else saw a deep, turquoise blue. She saw the pigments of red and pink in the sky, which is interesting and could also prove that she is a tetrochromad.