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SUMMARY:Spatial polarization vision in crustaceans - Dr Martin How\, Brist
 ol University
DTSTART:20161110T160000Z
DTEND:20161110T170000Z
UID:TALK68342@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Maria Schacker
DESCRIPTION:Imagine life without colour. Many of the rich layers of inform
 ation in our visual world would disappear and simple tasks\, such as findi
 ng a red apple in a tree\, would be far more difficult. There are many exa
 mples of animals in nature that do not have colour vision\, yet some have 
 managed to develop high-performance eyes that\, in some respects\, far sur
 pass our own visual capabilities. One of the ways that animals have achiev
 ed this is to make use of the polarization of light\, rather than colour.\
 n\nScientists have been interested in how animals see and use the polariza
 tion of light ever since the early studies of Karl von Frisch in the 1940s
 \, which demonstrated that bees can use the polarized sky pattern to navig
 ate. Almost all work since then has focussed on understanding the intricac
 ies of polarized light navigation using non-imaging parts of the eye. Rece
 ntly\, it has become clear that some animals\, such as fiddler crabs\, man
 tis shrimps\, and cuttlefish\, have high-performance polarization vision a
 cross the image-forming parts of the eye\, which they use to detect object
 s and\, in some cases\, hidden communication signals. This is comparable t
 o the discovery that some animals can see ultraviolet colours beyond our o
 wn human visual spectrum\, thus opening up a new layer of information in t
 heir visual world.
LOCATION:Hodgkin Huxley Seminar Room\, Physiology Building\, Downing Site
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