Master of the Obvious

We talked about cones and rods in anatomy class yesterday. Rods see black-and-white and degrees of light. Cones see color and are only activated in light, which means you can’t see color in the dark.

What? You can’t?

I had never ever noticed that you can’t see color in the dark. At first I didn’t quite believe our teacher, despite his MD/PhD in neuroscience and his acupuncture degree.

After dark, at home, I looked around. Sure enough, no color. Had my mind been imposing color all along? Or had my consciousness not bothered to note something so obvious? I’ll never know; I feel like I’ve been startled out of a dream that is now half-lost forever.

Meanwhile, a woman in my class actually CAN see color in the dark. Turns out she’s a hair away from glaucoma, which means more blood pressure to the eyes, which means her cones are more sensitive.