The Invisible Beauty of Evening Primrose

[AryaUnderfoot]

I understand that the wavelength of UV is too short to be absorbed by our cone cells, but I've came across 2 photos of evening primrose, which to our eyes are a dull yellow, but to insects (can see the UV light), it has a special pattern. My question is, I thought we're not able to see it. but how can we know it's it from the photo

 

[ZapperZ]

I understand that the wavelength of UV is too short to be absorbed by our cone cells, but I've came across 2 photos of evening primrose, which to our eyes are a dull yellow, but to insects (can see the UV light), it has a special pattern. My question is, I thought we're not able to see it. but how can we know it's it from the photo

You want us to explain what you see in the photo without us actually seeing the photo?

You might want to re-read your post again, because I don't quite understand what you're asking.

Zz.

 

[AryaUnderfoot]

You want us to explain what you see in the photo without us actually seeing the photo?

You might want to re-read your post again, because I don't quite understand what you're asking.

Zz.

Umm, my English is not good..but I'll try. So there were 2 photos of the same evening primrose. One showed it as the way we normal human will see it--yellow and without pattern; the other one showed it as the way bees see it--with special pattern. It is known that bees can see into UV range while human can't, so we shouldn't be able to see that pattern--it was not meant for us. My question is, how come we can see it from the photo? I mean, like for a color-blind person, they cannot see color even though we present them with colored photograph.

 

[ZapperZ]

Umm, my English is not good..but I'll try. So there were 2 photos of the same evening primrose. One showed it as the way we normal human will see it--yellow and without pattern; the other one showed it as the way bees see it--with special pattern. It is known that bees can see into UV range while human can't, so we shouldn't be able to see that pattern--it was not meant for us. My question is, how come we can see it from the photo? I mean, like for a color-blind person, they cannot see color even though we present them with colored photograph.

You DO know that (i) we have sensors that can detect UV light, or sensors that have a wider range than our eyes; and (ii) these sensors can then "translate" these varying frequencies into color scales that we can see?

I mean, what do you think is happening in infrared goggles that allows us to see at night?

Zz.

 

[AryaUnderfoot]

You DO know that (i) we have sensors that can detect UV light, or sensors that have a wider range than our eyes; and (ii) these sensors can then "translate" these varying frequencies into color scales that we can see?

I mean, what do you think is happening in infrared goggles that allows us to see at night?

Zz.

Ahh I never knew! What does this sensor call? I tried to google it but I can't find its principle. I'm interested to know if we can (or already did?) fit that in the fluorescent or uv microscope to observe the patterns that are normally invisible to us.

 

[berkeman]

Ahh I never knew! What does this sensor call? I tried to google it but I can't find its principle. I'm interested to know if we can (or already did?) fit that in the fluorescent or uv microscope to observe the patterns that are normally invisible to us.

http://www.hamamatsu.com/jp/en/4005.html

 

[Andy Resnick]

I understand that the wavelength of UV is too short to be absorbed by our cone cells,

Not exactly- UV light is absorbed by other parts of your eye, depending on the wavelength. Don't look at UV sources, you will damage your eyes.

but I've came across 2 photos of evening primrose, which to our eyes are a dull yellow, but to insects (can see the UV light), it has a special pattern. My question is, I thought we're not able to see it. but how can we know it's it from the photo

There's a guy who does really nice UV and IR photography:

http://www.naturfotograf.com/index2.html

He explains a bit about assigning color to the UV and IR, but since those parts of the spectrum have no color (because of the way 'color' is defined), it's easy to assign false colors or some other palette as you see fit.

 

[A.T.]

There's a guy who does really nice UV and IR photography:

http://www.naturfotograf.com/index2.html

He explains a bit about assigning color to the UV and IR,...

Nice pictures, but his website palette makes me want to see less colors, not more.