Do you envy animals' 360-degree vision, night sight or richer perception of colours? We're building gadgets that will give us their powers
Most of us don't think of ourselves as colour-blind. But compared to the many animals blessed with superior colour vision, that's exactly what we are.
Strictly speaking, colours do not exist. Our brains generate the perception of colour by comparing the responses of colour-receptor cells in the eye tuned to different wavelengths. People with mutant receptors – which are surprisingly common – perceive light of a specific wavelength very differently.
What's more, the number of different colours we can distinguish depends on how many types of colour receptors we have. Early fish had four, which is why they and most of their descendants – including amphibians, reptiles and birds – have excellent colour vision. But during the many millions of years that ...
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