When we are children, we are asked almost weekly “What’s your favorite color?”. Many of us answered blue, others answered red, but not a single child would answer “ultraviolet”. That is because ultraviolet is one of the many colors that the human eye is unable to see. The rainbow doesn’t just stop with what you see, it keeps going, even if we are unable to perceive it.
Some animals are able to see these colors, such as insects and tigers, but not us. The reason we are unable to do so is because of our retinas. Retinas in the eye have cells that are unable to process some color combinations because of them having light frequencies that cancel each other out. Examples would be red-green and yellow blue. There was at one point a study done in the 80s to see if we could combine the colors by looking at them side by side long enough, but many scientists dismissed it until 2006 when a team from Dartmouth led a new experiment. The results eventually showed the existence of a new color.
Another way a “forbidden color” can be seen is through a television remote. If you look at the top of your remote, you will see a black plastic piece. When you press the buttons, the piece remains black, but if you see it through a digital camera, you will see that new color, ultraviolet. Click on my link to see a video tutorial on it.
Seeing color all revolves on the wavelengths that go through our eyes, sometimes certain frequencies just don’t match up with our brains. However, technology is able to be used to detect many of these colors, such as ultraviolet , as stated before, and infrared. Infrared can be detected by many animals at night, but we need special cameras in order to detect it.
No color revolves around a specific wavelength, you can actually perceive different wavelengths at the same time. When these wavelengths do not agree, we are unable to see that color.
In the future, technology may allow us to see these impossible colors through special goggles that we would wear, very similar to night goggles. One day humans may even evolve to the ability to literally see all the colors of the rainbow, but until then, we will just have to settle for being able to taste the rainbow.
Knowing which color is your favorite is an essential piece of knowledge when a person is a kid. Sharing the same favorite color as someone else basically formed an instant friendship. It is hard to imagine there are other colors in the rainbow because kids are often drilled into knowing the ones of the rainbow and the other basics such as black and brown. I would definitely be willing to splurge on those googles because I think that would be pretty cool to see colors in which I have not fathomed exist. I think it is odd how animals are able to see these colors despite humans not being able to. I have always heard dogs have poor vision and can only see in black and white. Apparently, animals such as dogs do have poor vision but animals such as owls have exceptional vision. Here is a link revealing the colors different animals can see:https://askabiologist.asu.edu/colors-animals-see
Very clever ending- it made me chuckle. Also I totally geeked out and tried that whole camera and the remote trick to see the ultraviolet lights….SO COOL! I never put much thought into the rainbow and the spectrums on either end that we cannot see. And I never knew that insects and tigers could actually see colors that we cannot. I think that it would be awesome if humans ever evolved their sight to be able to see these “forbidden colors”, I wonder if any researchers have ventured to estimate when such an evolution might occur.