Eyewear has always carried both positive and negative consequences for those who wear it either out of necessity or fashion. This article from March 11, 1911 gives a bit of background on one of the more prevalent eyewear options of the time, the monocle: "The ridicule which was cast upon the wearers of spectacles and [...]

Editor’s Note: Julie Huang is an undergraduate geophysics major at the University of Chicago. She is working as a summer intern with the Stramski lab at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif., and is currently on board the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System research vessel New Horizon. This is her first experience at [...]

I can’t count the number of times I have been asked by patients if carrots really can improve their eyesight. I think some are looking for carrots to be a magical cure for their refractive error. They want to eliminate their need for glasses and want carrots to give them perfect 20/20 vision. While proper [...]

The psychedelic-looking peacock mantis shrimp (Odontodactylus scyllarus) has a decidedly non-peacenik way of getting a meal: clubbing it. This small (3 to 18-centimeter-long), solitary stomatopod wields two dastardly hammer-like appendages. At just 5 millimeters wide, each dactyl club can generate a force of 500 Newtons. That’s enough punch to shatter the glass of a standard [...]

Giant and colossal squid can grow to be some 12 meters long. But that alone doesn’t explain why they have the biggest eyeballs on the planet. At 280 millimeters in diameter, colossal squid eyes are much bigger than those of the swordfish, which at 90 millimeters, measure in as the next biggest peepers. “It doesn’t [...]

To figure out how far away our dinner plate is our brain melds the slightly different images coming from our two eyes. Other creatures, including many insects, move their heads to glean how far a piece of food might be. But jumping spiders (Hasarius adansoni) don’t seem to possess either of these abilities. So how [...]

Go ahead, give the video below a spin—pun fully intended. Focus on the white dot in the middle. Did the dots appear to stop changing color when they began to rotate? If so, give the animation another look: the dots change color throughout, but their spinning motion somehow suppresses the viewer’s ability to detect those [...]

After decades of development and years of clinical trials, an optical prosthesis capable of restoring at least partial vision to those suffering from retina-damaging diseases will hit the market. Second Sight Medical Products, Inc., said Wednesday that its Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System has been approved for sale throughout most of Europe. Sylmar, Calif.–based Second [...]

Debate about older adults’ driving skills often touches on obvious impairments, such as failing vision and heavy medication use. But a new study suggests a deeper neurological explanation for why seniors have a hard time spotting obvious objects on the road: They might actually just be better at perceiving large-scale movement in the background, an [...]

Our eyes swivel restlessly in their sockets during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, an aptly named period of intense dreaming that makes up 20 to 25 percent of total sleep time. Whether this fidgeting is random or serves a function has never been clear, but a new study suggests that our eyes shift their gaze [...]

NEW YORK—When ancient denizens of central France painted leaping horses on the cave walls at Lascaux, they might not have had the late Renaissance understanding of how to illustrate perspective and three dimensions. But they did, with simple black lines, give the implication of depth, showing the far pair of limbs behind the closer pair. [...]

Ever wish you had a secret code that you could use to communicate with a select few? Researchers have found that one little breed of fish actually has one. The Ambon damselfish (Pomacentrus amboinensis) can see detailed ultraviolet (UV) patterns on their fellow fishes—and detect the lack of these lines in other similar species, according [...]

Elderly people with untreated poor vision are significantly more likely to suffer from Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia than their clear-sighted counterparts, according to a study published online February 18 by the American Journal of Epidemiology. What’s more, the study suggests that vision problems may be a contributing factor in the development of [...]

Octopuses that live in the deep open ocean are difficult enough to find. But try locating a “glass” octopus, which is nearly transparent. Floating in the dim midwaters, this gelatinous octopod looks almost like a be-suckered jellyfish. Rather than camouflaging like most known octopus species, the Vitreledonella richardi has taken this alternative approach to hide [...]

The diminutive blue-ringed octopus (Hapalochlaena lunulata) looks like a sweet, possibly even fantastical creature. Often measuring less than 20 centimeters long and covered with dozens of bright blue rings, it spends most of its time hiding out in shells or rocks near the beach. But don’t be fooled—this little cephalopod is trouble. One small nip [...]

Octopuses are purportedly  colorblind, but they can discern one thing that we can’t: polarized light. This extra visual realm might give them a leg (er, arm) up on some of the competition. And a team of researchers has created a new way to test just how sensitive cephalopods are to this type of light. Their [...]

Happy holidays! As the year draws to a close, one thing I’m celebrating is the fun I’ve had helping put together the magazine I edit, Scientific American Mind. I am looking forward to working on new articles and projects in 2013. (We have some surprises in store.) I’m pleased about my growing and attentive audience [...]

“Big” me. “Little” me. Watch these two versions of me–which are really the same size–explain why I appear petite in one place on screen and large in another. The reason, in short, is that I have been trapped in a clever visual illusion, one invented 78 years ago by American opthalmologist Adelbert Ames Jr. In [...]

A few years ago, James Gurney, a celebrated artist and author, stood before his easel to paint a deli in Poughkeepsie. Surveying the scene before him, he was immediately overwhelmed with literally millions of details. People strolled by. Insects fluttered overhead. Signs poked out from the store and up from the street. Every tree had [...]

In our introductory post, we wrote “let’s face it. We’re visual beings.” Here’s proof:

If Mark Changizi (web, blog, twitter, G+) is right, you don’t have to go see The Avengers in theaters to be impressed by superheroes and their super abilities. Instead, just consider the human eye. That’s right: your visual system contains superhuman powers! X-ray vision? No problem. Color telepathy? Sure. The ability to see into the [...]

Vision is arguably our most (consciously) utilized sensory system, so its pretty important to figure out how it works. And it’s what David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel set out to investigate starting in the late 1950s. Ultimately, their work would get them a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, in 1981.