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Bill Nye the Science Guy wants Kids to Know that Eyes are Cool!
Nationally recognized science guru Bill Nye the Science Guy is working with VSP and talking about the importance of children receiving regular exams. Nye is concerned that a high percentage of children never see an eyecare professional – like an optometrist or an ophthalmologist - before entering school, leaving many to struggle with undetected vision problems.
The Science Guy recently chatted with VSP about vision and why the eyeball is so cool.
| VSP: |
How complex is our vision system? |
| Bill Nye: |
It is so complex that some people like to think of the eye as part of your brain. Like an extension of your brain. And if you want to throw words around and act like you’re really cool, you can say your eye is the only part of your brain you can see when you look in a mirror. The amount of adjustment your eyes are able to make to focus rays of light is on the order of billionths of a meter, thousands of a millimeter or if you will, thousandths and thousandths of inches. It's really hard to believe but it works. You can see for yourself! I’ll tell you one more interesting thing -- the image that lands on the back of your eye is upside down. Your brain learned how to turn the image right side up in the first few months after you were born. |
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| VSP: |
Do carrots really improve your vision? |
| Bill Nye: |
Yes! It’s not a myth; carrots and other vegetables high in vitamin K are very good for your eyes. |
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| VSP: |
What influences eye color? |
| Bill Nye: |
The same thing that makes your skin light or dark creates eye color. This thing that causes the color is called melanin. It's a protein made in your skin and also made in your eyes. Now you might say, “Wait a minute Bill, some people have light brown skin and some people have dark brown skin so how does someone end up with blue eyes? That's crazy!" Well, light travels in waves through the part of your eye that is clear and part of your eye that has melanin or pigment. Sometimes the distance between the pigmented and clear part of the eye creates blue waves causing blue eyes and sometimes it creates green waves causing green
eyes. Some people have so much melanin in their eyes like for example me; my eyes are brown all the time. It's cool and it's all done with molecules!
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The Disney series, “Bill Nye the Science Guy,” ran for eight years and won five Emmys.
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