Join More Than 6,500 Curious Brainiacs!

Get the twice-a-week newsletter that delivers mind-bending facts from across the world directly to your inbox in an easily digestible format.

    We won't send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time.
    Customize Consent Preferences

    We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

    The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

    Always Active

    Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

    No cookies to display.

    Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

    No cookies to display.

    Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

    No cookies to display.

    Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

    No cookies to display.

    Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

    No cookies to display.

    The rare genetics that allows 100 Million Color perception

    Date:

    Share post:

    The rainbow spectrum of hues bathing our world holds beauty and mystery. Yet for a rare fraction of people, that palette appears far wider and richer. Thanks to quirks of genetics, some humans receive enhanced color vision known as tetrachromacy, a true superpower allowing people to distinguish 100 million shades โ€“ 100 times more than the rest rest of us.

    A Numbers Game in Our Eyes

    To perceive color, our eyes rely on cone photoreceptor cells tuned to red, green and blue wavelengths. The combination of signals from these three cone types underpins normal human color vision. This tri-chromatic vision provides the capacity to discern around one million distinct hues.

    However, mutation can grant some people an extra type of cone cell sensitive to different wavelengths. Possessing four cone varieties instead of three boosts color perception exponentially in these lucky tetrachromats.

    A Female Phenomenon

    Tetrachromacy only manifests in women, as cone genes reside on the X chromosome. If a woman inherits normal and mutated cone genes on separate Xโ€™s from each parent, she gains tetrachromatic potential. Men receiving just one X chromosome have no such redundancy, so anomalous cone genes cause color blindness instead. Overall, roughly 12% of women carry tetrachromatic genetics. Of those, a small fraction tap into enhanced color sensing.

    Visions of Vibrant New Palettes

    Whatโ€™s seeing through tetrachromatic eyes really like? These exceptional observers describe palettes alive with hues we utterly miss. Artist Concetta Antico calls it โ€œmore intense,โ€ saying โ€œI see colours in other coloursโ€ฆSo white is not white; white is all varieties of white.โ€ Leaves, shadows and human skin all reveal secret shades. However overwhelming at times, tetrachromacy lets Antico produce artworks with depth we barely perceive.

    For now tetrachromacyโ€™s rarity means most of us remain tri-chromatic. Yet perhaps through advancing genetics we may all one day access the brilliant extra richness tetrachromats enjoy. Until then, we must close our eyes and envision the dazzling world apparent to those gifted with natureโ€™s true technicolor vision.


    Join More Than 6,500 Curious Brainiacs!

    Get the twice-a-week newsletter that delivers mind-bending facts from across the world directly to your inbox in an easily digestible format.

      We won't send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time.

      Join Now

      Get the twice-a-week newsletter that delivers mind-bending facts from across the world directly to your inbox in an easily digestible format.

      โ€‹

        We won't send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time.

        spot_img

        Related articles

        Salvator Mundi: The Most Expensive Painting Ever Sold

        In November 2017, the art world was stunned when an enigmatic painting of Christ called Salvator Mundi sold for a record-shattering $450 million at auction.

        How the Eiffel Tower Was Built: The Marvel of 1889

        In the winter of 1887, Parisian journalists gathered at a curious construction site on the Champ de Mars. There, amid wooden scaffolding and the rhythmic clang of hammers, they witnessed what one reporter would describe as men "reaping lightning bolts in the clouds."

        Alan Smithee: The Worst Director in Hollywood

        For over 30 years, one name appeared again and again as the director of some of the worst movies ever made - Alan Smithee. But Alan Smithee wasn't a real person. He was a pseudonym used by Hollywood directors who wanted to disavow their finished films.

        Emmanuel Nwude: The Man Behind the $242 Million Nigerian Airport Scam

        In the late 1990s, a brazen fraudster named Emmanuel Nwude pulled off one of history's most outrageous cons - selling a fictional airport to a gullible Brazilian bank director for a whopping $242 million.
        0