Introducing the eye (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, April 02, 2021, 15:16 (1113 days ago)

Its complexity is equal only to our brain:

https://uncommondescent.com/evolution/from-philip-cunningham-the-human-eye-like-the-hum...

"The human eye consists of over two million working parts making it second only to the brain in complexity.

"The retina covers less than a square inch, and contains 137 million light-sensitive receptor cells. The retina possesses 7 million cones, which provide color information and sharpness of images, and 120 million rods which are extremely sensitive detectors of white light.

"There are between seven to ten-million shades of color the human eye can detect.

"The rod can detect a single photon. Any man-made detector would need to be cooled and isolated from noise to behave the same way.

***

"The eye is so sensitive that it can, under normal circumstances, detect a candle 1.6 miles away,

"But if you’re sitting on a mountain top on a clear, moonless night you can see a match struck 50 miles away.

"It only takes a few trillionths of a second, (picoseconds), for the retina to absorb a photon in the visible range of the spectrum.

"The inverted retina, far from being badly designed, is a design feature, not a design constraint. Müller cells in the ‘backwards’ retina span the thickness of the retina and act as living fiber optic cables to shepherd photons through to separate receivers, much like coins through a change sorting machine.

"The eye is infinitely more complex than any man-made camera.

"The eye can handle between 500,000 and 1.5 million messages simultaneously, and gathers 80% of all the knowledge absorbed by the brain.

"The brain receives millions of simultaneous reports from the eyes. When its designated wavelength of light is present, each rod or cone triggers an electrical response to the brain, which then absorbs a composite set of yes-or-no messages from all the rods and cones.

"There is a biological computer in the retina which compresses, and enhances the edges, of the information from all those millions of light sensitive cells before sending it to the visual cortex where the complex stream of information is then decompressed.

"This data compression process has been referred to as “the best compression algorithm around,”.

***

"In an average day, the eye moves about 100,000 times, and our mind seems to prepare for our eye movements before they occur.

"In terms of strength and endurance, eyes muscles are simply amazing. You’d have to walk 50 miles to give your legs the same workout as the muscles in one of your eyes get in a day.

"The brain exploits a feedback system which produces phenomenally precise eye movements.

"The human is the only species known to shed tears when they are sad.

"Tears are not just saline. Tears have a similar structure to saliva and contain enzymes, lipids, metabolites and electrolytes.

"And, tears contain a potent microbe-killer (lysozyme) which guards the eyes against bacterial infection.

"The average eye blinks one to two times each minute for infants and ten times faster for adults.

"This blinking adds up to nearly 500 million blinks over an average lifetime."

Comment: No need to comment on the need for a designer. Not by chance development from ancient eye sports