• Question: can there be a colour that has not been seen yet by the human eyes.

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      Asked by farhaan$ to John, Laura, Luke, Rob, Ruth on 17 Jun 2016.
      • Photo: Laura Finney

        Laura Finney answered on 17 Jun 2016:

        I don’t think so. We know the colours of visible light based on the wavelength of the light and account for the whole region of visible light in the electromagnetic spectrum. If a wave was detected in that region that no one could see, I would be very surprised. Some animals can see into the UV region though which we can’t see at all! UV light canbe seen by some birds and fish.

      • Photo: Luke Williams

        Luke Williams answered on 19 Jun 2016:

        As Laura has said, some animals do have better vision than us humans. Some have abilities that we can only guess at, including my new favourite animal as I have found use for this comic all over these questions:

        http://theoatmeal.com/comics/mantis_shrimp

        All hail the mantis shrimp!

      • Photo: John Fossey

        John Fossey answered on 20 Jun 2016:

        we see only a small portion of the electromagnetic spectrum as visible light. There are wavelengths of EMR just beyond our reach – but some animals can detect them.

        Very interestingly some people have studied how the language you use can alter your perception of colour
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity_and_the_color_naming_debate

        there are also very interesting examples of how the context of the colour changes your perception
        jump to fig 2 here http://mindsonline.philosophyofbrains.com/2015/session2/colour-layering-and-colour-relationalism/

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