Re: Request for Assistance: Trilobite Eyes

Steven L. wrote:
Robert Carnegie wrote:
On Jun 28, 5:47 pm, SkyEyes <skyey...@xxxxxxx> wrote:
I've recently crossed swords with a fundy creationist over on my home
group, alt.atheism, and am holding my own, generally. He simply
parrots stuff that his handlers have taught him. However, yesterday
he challenged me to explain how and why trilobites had the most
complex eyes that have ever been observed. (He seems to think this
falsifies evolution.)

Noting that this question is kind of over, but it isn't "complex" but
"irreducibly complex" where an evolutionary explanation can't be
simple. It's where an organ not only is complicated, but also loses
most of its "function" if it's incomplete. So how did the pieces come
together. For instance - those funky little bones inside your ear.
(A worked example.)

Also, "complex" doesn't mean "good". Evolution can find its way to
some precarious highly engineered "solution" where a designed shortcut
would be "better".

The human lens, for example, filters out ultraviolet light. Even though our retina can detect it, we can't see in the ultraviolet because the lens filters it out. Patients who have had cataracts and had their lenses removed are now actually able to see ultraviolet light with the aid of artificial corrective lenses, something the rest of us cannot.

The evolutionary tradeoff in the eye was that each separate color (wavelength) is refracted slightly differently. Thus any lens can only focus a finite range of colors (wavelengths) without suffering from chromatic aberration. The human eye-lens evolved to see longer wavelengths with high acuity: red and not ultraviolet. (With mice eyes, it's the other way around.)



Actually, some people can see a bit into ultraviolet and infrared. As an example, I can usually see two color bars on a rainbow that most people can't. Past violet, I see a color band that looks like yellow with a green tinge. Below red, I see a distinct brown band. I can see light from some types of infrared remotes, though faintly, that people around me can't.

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Request for Assistance: Trilobite Eyes
    ... falsifies evolution.) ... Even though our retina can detect it, we can't see in the ultraviolet because the lens filters it out. ... Patients who have had cataracts and had their lenses removed are now actually able to see ultraviolet light with the aid of artificial corrective lenses, something the rest of us cannot. ... Thus any lens can only focus a finite range of colors (wavelengths) without suffering from chromatic aberration. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Request for Assistance: Trilobite Eyes
    ... falsifies evolution.) ... The human lens, for example, filters out ultraviolet light. ... wavelengths with high acuity: red and not ultraviolet. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Request for Assistance: Trilobite Eyes
    ... lens filters it out. ... lenses removed are now actually able to see ultraviolet light with the ... aid of artificial corrective lenses, something the rest of us cannot. ... focus a finite range of colors (wavelengths) without suffering from ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Superman vs. Global Warming
    ... pretty much unquestioned canon that Superman's powers are directly ... The thinning ozone layer allows more ultraviolet light to get ... red suns do not produce as much ultraviolet as yellow ones. ...
    (rec.arts.comics.dc.universe)
  • Re: Superman vs. Global Warming
    ... So if there is no global warming on "his" earth which of the 52 earths are ... The thinning ozone layer allows more ultraviolet light to get ... red suns do not produce as much ultraviolet as yellow ones. ...
    (rec.arts.comics.dc.universe)