Maybe the exo-beasts wear tin foil helmets to shield themselves.
Answer that one Phlogistian!
Answer that one Phlogistian!
Chief exorcist says Devil is in Vatican
- Thread starter common_sense_seeker
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How does a warm eyeball detect warmth, without detecting itself?
How do you separate the signal from a 10micron wavelength photon from the ambient noise of the body that is trying to detect it?
So you understand how E=hf affects the energy in the 10micron photon, compared to visible light? Do you understand how the sensitivity of our eyes varies with wavelength?
Funnily enough there was a BBC1 programme on it last night. The kestrel can see in UV and can spot the scent trails left by doormice. The reason the light doesn't permanently damage the bird's eye is due to it's short lifespan. Human couldn't see in UV because it would burn and eventually do serious damage. There IS an animal which can see in IR, a beetle they mentioned. Okay, anyway, now I've reconsidered I think that it's more likely to be a large eye which amplifies via starlight. The reddening of a 'beast's' eyes at short range is presumably due to blood vessel dilation or something similar in order to see more clearly as Captain Kremmen said.
Edit http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00rqgh4/Richard_Hammonds_Invisible_Worlds_Out_of_Sight/ (16 min X-ray video)
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Buprestid beetles of the Melanophila genus need freshly burnt wood to develop their larvae, but neither olfactory nor auditory senses are used to detect forest fires. A study found that their pit organs respond to infrared radiation, providing evidence of an insect infrared receptor, which could be used in the identification of infrared emissions from a forest fire. The study used electrolytically sharpened tungsten electrodes to record activity of the sensillum, located at the bottom of each pit. It also found that the beetle's infrared receptors responded to mechanical deformation.
Read more: http://www.faqs.org/abstracts/Zoolo...n-the-low-energy-beta-deca.html#ixzz0j5cfGWlu
You have to pay for the rest, so I'll give it a miss.
Insects are cold blooded I think.
Read more: http://www.faqs.org/abstracts/Zoolo...n-the-low-energy-beta-deca.html#ixzz0j5cfGWlu
You have to pay for the rest, so I'll give it a miss.
Insects are cold blooded I think.
Humans can see in UV. The only problem we have is that the lens of our eye absorbs much of it, so little falls onto the retina. Our retinas seldom get sun damaged do they,.... near UV would not be a problem for us.
Yes, and snakes can detect IR too, although not with their eyes. Notice something about snakes, and beetles? Neither are warm blooded.
Bush babies have big eyes, as do owls, and wolves use a reflective retina to give light a second chance of striking a nerve.
If an animal was trying to see in near IR (ie, longer wavelength red light) it might evolve a reflective coating to give that wavelength a 2nd chance, like wolves eyes do, and therefore the eyes would appear red. This would only work for near IR though, not body heat wavelengths, so wouldn't be anywhere near as good as the detection capabilities of snakes, and would only slightly extend the range of perception of the animal, it wouldn't be much of an advantage at all.
Thanks guys, I really feel like I've learnt something new for the first time. Collective ball bouncing works. I wish you could see the footage of the new x-ray HD High Speed video cameras. Perfect for cryptids. They showed a rat climbing a huge iron chain. The x-rays showed that the rat flexed its spine for additional leverage. Amazing stuff, worth paying for btw.