Excellent book about vision systems: "Eyes to See"

[rjlittlefield]

I've recently finished first pass on a new book, "Eyes to See: The Astonishing Variety of Vision in Nature", by Michael Land (2019), https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0198747713 .

If you're interested in the anatomy and functioning of eyes, this is well worth the time and (quite modest) cost.

I learned a LOT about how insect eyes work, and that's just one chapter.

The book starts with a discussion of scallops' eyes, which I knew nothing at all about. Turns out, they use a concave mirror at the back of the eye to form an image on a retina in the middle of the eye, with an oddly shaped lens in front whose function seems to be correcting aberrations. Crazy stuff!

On a related note... Land's book doesn't have much on aquatic mammals, which have some interesting mechanisms for getting clear vision both below and above water. But I tracked down an article about that: "Adaptive Features of Aquatic Mammals' Eyes", by Mass and Supin (2007), in Anatomical Record 290(6):701–715, currently available for free at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/ful ... 2/ar.20529 .

--Rik

Edit: typo, convex --> concave

[BugEZ]

Thanks Rik! I have ordered a copy.

His previous book, Animal Vision was excellent!

https://www.amazon.com/Animal-Eyes-Oxfo ... 157&sr=8-3

Keith

[BugEZ]

One more thought on animal vision books. Visual Ecology is excellent. A bit pricy though.

https://www.amazon.com/Visual-Ecology-T ... oks&sr=1-1

Keith

[BugEZ]

I have finished reading “Eyes to See” and agree with Rik that it is a worthwhile read. I particularly enjoyed the final chapters about human vision. These have no overlap with the previous “Animal Vision” book by Michael Land, the author.

In the bits about stereoscopic vision were of interest as we consider some of our own stereo images.

Keith