polarized light
grrlscientist | July 8, 2009tags: dragonfly vision, facets, opsin, compound eyes, insects, dragonflies, Dennis Paulson, David O'Carroll, Robert Olberg
Male Megaloprepus caerulatus, PANAMA, Rio Chico Masambi, near Gamboa,
11 August 2005; photo by Julie Craves, a Natural Science Research Associate
at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.
Color vision in humans depends upon three light-sensitive proteins, called opsins, that are present in our retinas. Each type of opsin absorbs one color of light in the spectrum. In humans, the colors absorbed by these opsins are red, green or blue. The many wavelengths of light…