May 31, 2007
-
Sweeping Conclusions of Grandeur
I read an article today on page 14 of the May 15, 2007 issue of REVIEW OF OPTOMETRY summarizing an intriguing experiment published in the journal SCIENCE involving the color perception of mice. The REVIEW OF OPTOMETRY article "These Mice Are Seeing Red--Literally" says:"Mice are dichromats that only possess short- and medium-wavelength-sensitive cones. They don't see red light; they only see blue and green light, similar to a person with red-green color blindness. The researchers took human long wavelength-sensitive cones, which enable reception of red light waves, and inserted them into the retinas of mouse embryos. Researchers found that the brains of the mice immediately incorporated the 'upgrade' and efficiently processed the additional sensory information; they were able to distinguish among a broader spectrum of light waves."
The article goes on to conclude:
"These findings may help explain the evolution of color vision and color blindness. 'What we are looking at in these mice is the same evolutionary event that happened in one of the distant ancestors of all primates and that led ultimately to the trichromatic color vision that we now enjoy,' the researchers say."
It clearly took a lot of skill, ingenuity, and creativity to perform that experiment. I find it truly amazing and interesting that the brains of mice were able to so quickly adapt to the human cones inserted into their retinas and effectively improve their color discrimination.
But even more shocking is the researchers' discovery (re-read the emboldened texts above) that someone inserted long-wavelength human cones into the embryo retinas of one of our own distant mammalian ancestors to provide us modern-day humans with enjoyable trichromatic color vision! The million dollar question is who? Who could have had the technology to do such a thing in prehistoric times? I've never been one to shy away from controversy, so I ask you to ponder the following questions: Was it aliens? Or were the dinosaurs smarter than we give them credit for? My money is on both, especially since we have no conclusive proof that the dinosaurs themselves were not descended from space aliens who deposited their criminals upon the earth as members of a sort of penal colony* before zipping off to starry realms beyond the Milky Way. These brilliant dinosaur criminals, perhaps out of scientific curiousity or perhaps merely boredom with this terrestrial prison we call Earth, began to perform genetic experiments on themselves and their co-existent flora and fauna. But ah, how sadly myopic of these dinosaur pioneers not to foresee that their rogue genetic experiments would ultimately bring about not only their own destruction but the creation of another race (humans) that would one day supplant them as rulers of the planet (at least in our own minds)! Oh wise, noble space-faring ancestors of the dinosaurs, will you ever return to our galaxy and our humble planet? Will we even recognize you as members of the dinosaur family? Only evolution can say.
* much like the British colonization of Australia in human history
Recent Comments