WEBVTT - What is colorblindness? 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.560 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from how Stuff Works 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:14.040 dot Com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, 0:00:14.120 --> 0:00:17.160 and there's Charles W Chuck Bryant, there's Jerry over there. 0:00:17.200 --> 0:00:23.800 So this is stuff you should know about color blindness, 0:00:24.120 --> 0:00:28.920 that's right, which I didn't know a lot about. No. 0:00:29.040 --> 0:00:31.120 I guess I didn't either. It's one of those things 0:00:31.200 --> 0:00:32.839 you just kind of assume you do, but there's a 0:00:32.920 --> 0:00:35.440 lot more to it than you realize, right. Yeah. I 0:00:35.479 --> 0:00:38.159 kind of wondered about myself though, because Emily is always 0:00:38.159 --> 0:00:41.960 telling me that I'm getting colors wrong. So I took 0:00:41.960 --> 0:00:44.480 a I took an online test. I did too. How'd 0:00:44.479 --> 0:00:48.600 you fare normal color? Did you? I? I? I took 0:00:48.640 --> 0:00:52.080 one of those um oh, what's it called the scope? 0:00:52.080 --> 0:00:55.720 One anomalous scope. I took one of those online, and 0:00:56.280 --> 0:00:59.960 I said I had just very weak um color blindness, 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:02.360 which I wasn't very surprised by because dark colors are 0:01:02.400 --> 0:01:05.640 kind of hard for me to differentiate. Sometimes they said 0:01:05.720 --> 0:01:09.320 that you don't see black or white. You're like Michael Jackson, right, 0:01:11.200 --> 0:01:14.160 that's right, man. I've always said that. No one ever 0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:18.200 listened until now, until I proved it on the on 0:01:18.240 --> 0:01:22.720 the Internet, and thank out for the Internet. So, um, 0:01:22.880 --> 0:01:25.520 you want to talk a little history, because believe it 0:01:25.600 --> 0:01:28.360 or not, there is color blindness history. And I should 0:01:28.360 --> 0:01:32.040 say also, Chuck, I looked up the more politically correct 0:01:32.240 --> 0:01:37.880 term for color blindness and there really isn't one. Oh yeah, 0:01:38.040 --> 0:01:41.440 well that's great. Yeah, so you can feel free to 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:47.800 use color blind in good conscience. Okay, fantastic. So um 0:01:47.840 --> 0:01:53.080 back in s John Dalton, who came up with atomic theory. 0:01:53.760 --> 0:01:58.000 He was a pretty important, um early scientist. He presented 0:01:58.000 --> 0:02:02.360 his first scientific paper and was on color blindness. Did 0:02:02.360 --> 0:02:05.600 you know that I never heard of the guy? Yeah, 0:02:05.720 --> 0:02:10.000 so um. He his first It was, from what anybody 0:02:10.040 --> 0:02:13.600 can can tell, the first scientific paper on color blindness, 0:02:13.639 --> 0:02:16.000 and he wrote it about himself. He and his brother 0:02:16.120 --> 0:02:21.600 were both color blind, and he posited that he had 0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:24.680 some sort of blue fluid in his eye that was 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:27.480 affecting his color vision. And he willed that when he 0:02:27.560 --> 0:02:32.120 died his ib dissected and when they did, um they 0:02:32.120 --> 0:02:34.320 found that no, it was pretty normal. There was no 0:02:34.400 --> 0:02:37.160 blue fluid in there. And later on they preserved his 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:42.720 eye tissue and was diagnosed with something called um dudinopia. 0:02:43.800 --> 0:02:46.400 So he was a duduran in the parliance of people 0:02:46.440 --> 0:02:51.600 who are color blind, meaning that he lacked um functioning 0:02:52.240 --> 0:02:57.239 green cones or medium wave cones in his eye. Interesting, 0:02:58.760 --> 0:03:00.760 So he was the first, dude, Huh, he was the 0:03:00.800 --> 0:03:02.840 first one to write a scientific paper on it, at 0:03:02.919 --> 0:03:09.760 least good for him and bad for him. Well, yeah, 0:03:10.040 --> 0:03:13.160 I think so too. I don't want to like overstate 0:03:13.240 --> 0:03:16.679 how bad I feel for people who have color blindness, 0:03:16.680 --> 0:03:19.800 because I know they're like living life and enjoying it 0:03:19.800 --> 0:03:22.280 and everything. But I would not want to be color 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:26.600 blind if I had my druthers, you know, no, And 0:03:26.639 --> 0:03:28.839 I'm sure most people who are color blind would feel 0:03:28.880 --> 0:03:31.840 the same way. Uh. You know, John Fuller used to 0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:33.799 work with us. I believe he has some sort of 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:38.480 color blindness or maybe calling it color vision deficiency. I 0:03:38.520 --> 0:03:41.560 saw that is a better term because color blind. A 0:03:41.560 --> 0:03:44.320 lot of people that don't know anything about it might think, well, 0:03:44.360 --> 0:03:46.400 if you're color blind, then you see in black and white, 0:03:46.800 --> 0:03:49.400 which is a form of color blindness. But that's the 0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:54.320 most extreme form. There's definitely a gradient, appropriately enough, between 0:03:54.720 --> 0:03:59.720 full color vision, which is called trichromacy, and complete color blindness. Yeah, 0:04:00.480 --> 0:04:03.880 let's get into the vision a little bit. Um, have 0:04:04.000 --> 0:04:07.000 we done one on the eye? Dude? I was like 0:04:07.080 --> 0:04:09.160 a lot of this sounds kind of familiar, and I 0:04:09.200 --> 0:04:11.720 looked high and low and could not find anything on 0:04:11.880 --> 0:04:16.760 vision on seeing on the eye. Nothing. So I don't 0:04:16.800 --> 0:04:18.800 know if we did like maybe a video on this 0:04:18.920 --> 0:04:22.200 once or something, but but it's some of it seemed familiar, 0:04:22.240 --> 0:04:25.440 but I couldn't find an episode on Alright, So we 0:04:25.520 --> 0:04:28.120 have a retina in our eye. Uh, like everyone knows 0:04:28.320 --> 0:04:31.920 the retina. Since this light deals with color and vision, 0:04:33.240 --> 0:04:35.960 and there are rods and cones. These are they're called 0:04:36.040 --> 0:04:37.760 rods and cones because of their shape. They look like 0:04:37.800 --> 0:04:41.279 cones or rods. So rods help you see in low light, 0:04:41.680 --> 0:04:44.960 and the cones are what where the detail and the 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:49.440 color come from. So the cone mauthfunctioning or not being 0:04:49.480 --> 0:04:51.360 there at all if you don't have three cones, and 0:04:51.400 --> 0:04:53.599 you have to have at least two to see in 0:04:53.640 --> 0:04:57.039 any color. But if one of those cones of the three, 0:04:57.440 --> 0:05:00.600 if you do have three, is malfunctioning, then you will 0:05:00.640 --> 0:05:05.240 fall somewhere on the scale of color vision deficiency. Right right, 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:09.360 So there's like, um something called so like I said, 0:05:09.440 --> 0:05:12.920 if you have normal color vision, you have trichromacy. If 0:05:12.960 --> 0:05:16.559 you have anomalous trichromacy, it means that one of those 0:05:16.640 --> 0:05:21.560 cones is not functioning properly, although they all still work there, 0:05:21.600 --> 0:05:26.000 it's just out of alignment a little bit. Yeah. And 0:05:26.120 --> 0:05:28.440 the way that it can get out of alignment is 0:05:28.440 --> 0:05:33.240 is those cones, each of them has UM a chromos 0:05:33.400 --> 0:05:36.080 chromophore I think is what it's called, which is like 0:05:36.279 --> 0:05:40.800 a little molecule that is attuned to a certain type 0:05:40.960 --> 0:05:46.480 of UM, a certain wavelength of the visible spectrum, and 0:05:46.520 --> 0:05:50.160 those wavelengths that it picks up kind of overlap depending 0:05:50.200 --> 0:05:53.279 on the cone. Like red and green cones what they 0:05:53.360 --> 0:05:56.120 what they pick up on the visible spectrum overlap big time. 0:05:56.760 --> 0:05:59.120 Green and blue kind of overlap, and then red and 0:05:59.160 --> 0:06:03.360 blue overlap least. But if the if the alignment of 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:06.680 the wavelength to the visible spectrum within that cone is 0:06:06.720 --> 0:06:09.000 just a little bit off, you're not going to see 0:06:09.040 --> 0:06:11.600 colors like other people see colors, but you're still going 0:06:11.640 --> 0:06:16.120 to see something, right, And that's called anomalous trichromacy. Yeah, 0:06:16.160 --> 0:06:21.239 And there are well, I mean, there's so many different subcategories. 0:06:21.279 --> 0:06:24.640 I guess we should go through some of these. UM. 0:06:24.680 --> 0:06:29.400 If you have that analomus, uh, trichromacy. Some of the 0:06:29.440 --> 0:06:32.400 stuff is so hard. You do have your cones, so 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:35.000 that means you have three cones, but one of those 0:06:35.040 --> 0:06:40.520 cones is defective. So if you have the do deuteronomally, 0:06:42.400 --> 0:06:46.280 it's gonna be a funmany. No, wait, that's a Bible book, right, 0:06:46.640 --> 0:06:49.680 What is it do to randomally? That's right, it just 0:06:49.680 --> 0:06:54.720 sounds weird. Yeah, I think I'm really bad with amalies. 0:06:55.920 --> 0:06:57.960 I think you just nailed it, man. Yeah, but it 0:06:58.080 --> 0:07:01.560 was it was clumsy, but that's fine. Do to anomaly, yeah, 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:07.200 dou to anomaly, it's it's an anomaly of your duds, 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:11.200 that's right. So that do to anomaly you're just talking about. 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:17.280 That's if your green cones are out of alignment, all right, 0:07:17.840 --> 0:07:21.960 and there's pro to anomaly or protnomally, and that's your 0:07:22.040 --> 0:07:25.920 red cones being out of alignment. And then tried anomaly 0:07:26.120 --> 0:07:29.280 is blue all right. So if you're missing a cone altogether, 0:07:29.320 --> 0:07:32.080 that's for malfunctioning. You have three, but one of them 0:07:32.080 --> 0:07:35.560 doesn't work quite right. If you're missing one altogether, you 0:07:35.640 --> 0:07:39.160 have dichromatic vision. Uh. And then we said, of course 0:07:39.240 --> 0:07:43.360 that the worst is monochromacy. That's that's if that's basically 0:07:43.360 --> 0:07:45.600 seeing in black and white and sort of shades of gray. 0:07:46.600 --> 0:07:49.240 But if you are a dichromat or a person with 0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:53.280 dichromatic vision, maybe that's the PC distinction. It's to not 0:07:53.320 --> 0:07:58.280 call someone a dichromat. Maybe you think maybe I saw 0:07:58.440 --> 0:08:04.119 UM depending on your your condition, they're like abbreviated terms 0:08:04.160 --> 0:08:06.960 for it. But I saw people being referred to as 0:08:07.000 --> 0:08:09.720 dichromats all the time. But it really flies in the 0:08:09.720 --> 0:08:12.720 face of that whole thing of describing people by their 0:08:12.760 --> 0:08:16.360 condition rather than like a person with dichromacy, you know 0:08:16.360 --> 0:08:19.520 what I mean. Yeah, Well, within the dichromat though, there 0:08:19.560 --> 0:08:22.320 are the three different subtypes, which are the du to, 0:08:22.560 --> 0:08:26.440 the proto, and the trita. That's the easiest way to 0:08:26.480 --> 0:08:29.360 say it, right, So that's what those fall under. Yeah, 0:08:29.440 --> 0:08:36.800 And so the big difference between UM anomalous trichromacy and dichromacy. 0:08:36.880 --> 0:08:39.680 Dichromacy says it all is. It means you have two 0:08:39.760 --> 0:08:44.000 functioning cones and because of all that overlap, chuck with 0:08:44.040 --> 0:08:47.280 all of the wavelengths that the different pigments and your 0:08:47.280 --> 0:08:52.959 cones catch, that's a huge pellette of colors that are 0:08:53.040 --> 0:08:56.760 produced in the human brain when we look around. But 0:08:56.840 --> 0:08:59.160 if you remove one of those cones, there's an enormous 0:08:59.200 --> 0:09:03.800 reduction in colors. Supposedly, each cone multiplies the number of 0:09:04.280 --> 0:09:07.360 colors by a hundred. So if you start out with 0:09:07.480 --> 0:09:10.560 just one cone, let's say you can see a hundred shades. 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:13.720 Just by adding a second cone, you can now see 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:16.880 ten thousand different colors, and by adding a third cone, 0:09:17.080 --> 0:09:20.280 you can now see a million different colors. Right, So 0:09:20.320 --> 0:09:23.480 if you remove one of those cones, you're suddenly down 0:09:23.520 --> 0:09:27.200 to ten thousand colors. That's a significant difference. And that's 0:09:27.200 --> 0:09:31.000 the thing about dichromacy is it's not that your your 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:34.160 cones are misaligned. One of your cones just is not 0:09:34.360 --> 0:09:37.880 producing at all, and so you're lacking a whole range 0:09:37.960 --> 0:09:41.240 of colors that that other people with all three functioning 0:09:41.280 --> 0:09:44.920 cones can see. Right. And like I said earlier, with monochromacy, 0:09:45.080 --> 0:09:48.360 that's when you see basically in black and white and gray. 0:09:48.520 --> 0:09:52.520 And there are two types there, rod monochromacy and cone type. 0:09:53.280 --> 0:09:56.480 And if you have the Rod type, you also have 0:09:56.600 --> 0:09:59.800 very poor vision and you're very sensitive to light. Uh 0:09:59.800 --> 0:10:03.959 In you might also have something called uh nystagmus, which 0:10:04.120 --> 0:10:06.160 that is when you have they call it dancing eyes. 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:09.520 That's when um, there's a horizontal version, which means your 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:12.480 your eye basically darts back and forth to the left 0:10:12.480 --> 0:10:16.160 and to the right constantly. Like prove Taylor Vince does 0:10:16.200 --> 0:10:21.760 he have that? You'd recognize him? And and like, uh, 0:10:21.880 --> 0:10:24.240 he's just well known for he's the actor with Oh 0:10:24.240 --> 0:10:26.160 I know him. I just never noticed his eye. Oh 0:10:26.320 --> 0:10:29.800 really yeah, yeah, he Like you can tell the directors like, 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:33.120 all right, let's let's really get that going for this scene. Okay, wow. 0:10:33.600 --> 0:10:41.600 So when you think about the color wheel red, orange, yellow, blue, indigo, green, violet, 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:43.559 I said them out of order. I don't know what 0:10:43.600 --> 0:10:46.640 that would spell. It doesn't spell roy g bib though. 0:10:47.920 --> 0:10:50.640 But if you're color blind, like everyone wants to know, like, 0:10:50.720 --> 0:10:53.480 what does it look like if you're color blind? Um? 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:55.800 And it's a little hard to describe because it's very 0:10:55.800 --> 0:10:59.360 subjective when you think about how each person sees color, 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:02.280 because imagine everyone sees things a little bit differently. But 0:11:02.800 --> 0:11:06.280 if you're color blind, that palette is just not as varied. 0:11:06.320 --> 0:11:11.360 It's more muted, Yeah for sure, because again those different 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:15.280 cones are interacting, they're overlapping to produce a huge palette 0:11:15.320 --> 0:11:18.120 of colors. It's not like we just see everything in red, green, 0:11:18.160 --> 0:11:21.960 and blue. There's those those things mixed together and interact 0:11:22.040 --> 0:11:25.400 to produce colors beyond those three. So yeah, if you're 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:27.679 missing one, you're you're missing a lot more than just 0:11:27.880 --> 0:11:31.240 green or just red or just blue. Yeah, and things. 0:11:31.320 --> 0:11:33.640 You know, it doesn't mean it's altogether gone either, because 0:11:33.640 --> 0:11:36.240 it's on a spectrum, and it depends what kind you have, 0:11:36.360 --> 0:11:40.640 Like it could be reddish but very muted, or green 0:11:40.720 --> 0:11:44.200 could look a more green gray. But it's just not 0:11:44.360 --> 0:11:47.839 that sort of robust standard color wheel that that you're 0:11:47.920 --> 0:11:50.160 used to seeing with. Uh what what I guess you 0:11:50.160 --> 0:11:53.760 would consider normal color vision for sure. And like if 0:11:53.800 --> 0:11:56.960 you have one of the opius, if you have like proteonopia, 0:11:57.200 --> 0:12:00.319 which is um, your red cones don't function it all. 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:05.600 The reds are brownish, the purples are bluish, Your yellows 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:09.920 totally normal. Um. But the green is also kind of 0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:14.680 like a weird kind of khaki brown itself. And that 0:12:15.120 --> 0:12:19.360 um that really overlaps with do to in opia too. 0:12:19.760 --> 0:12:24.200 The big difference between those is that you're um, your 0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:28.280 red what would look like a dark dark brown too. 0:12:28.320 --> 0:12:30.959 A protein ope, uh for doo to and open, it 0:12:31.040 --> 0:12:33.360 would look kind of like a kind of a drab, 0:12:33.480 --> 0:12:36.480 brownish olive, which is not what you want to see 0:12:36.520 --> 0:12:40.600 when you look at like a bright red apple. Yeah, 0:12:41.000 --> 0:12:45.080 look at that huge olive right, looks delicious And then 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:46.959 you take a bite and you're like, that's no olive. 0:12:47.960 --> 0:12:52.080 So uh, let's take a break, has some olives, and 0:12:52.120 --> 0:12:55.200 we'll talk about animals and testing for color blindness right 0:12:55.240 --> 0:13:18.560 after this. All right, So, I think a lot of 0:13:18.559 --> 0:13:22.079 people have always uh heard growing up on the playground 0:13:22.080 --> 0:13:25.120 that animals see in black and white, especially dogs and 0:13:25.160 --> 0:13:28.559 cats see in black and white. Some animals see in color, 0:13:28.679 --> 0:13:31.280 some see in black and white. It kind of depends. Um. 0:13:31.320 --> 0:13:34.360 Dogs and cats they actually do see color, they just 0:13:34.400 --> 0:13:37.360 don't see the whole roy gb of color spectrum that 0:13:37.400 --> 0:13:41.440 you and I know. Um apparently apes and monkeys see 0:13:41.480 --> 0:13:44.560 the same way we do. Then you have really color 0:13:44.640 --> 0:13:49.120 blind animals like black and white types like raccoons, seals, whales, 0:13:50.080 --> 0:13:54.920 uh black and white types, and then birds apparently see 0:13:55.280 --> 0:13:58.680 uh seed more color than we do. Yeah, and there's 0:13:58.760 --> 0:14:01.640 you know, there's other um animals that see things like 0:14:01.760 --> 0:14:05.400 ultra violet, like there's a visible spectrum, but that's what 0:14:05.840 --> 0:14:09.079 we humans see where Technically, if you had like some 0:14:09.120 --> 0:14:12.400 sort of chromophore and an option that work together in 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:15.400 a cone to to produce the red, green, or blue, 0:14:15.720 --> 0:14:18.360 if you had when that was a tuned to gamma 0:14:18.440 --> 0:14:21.280 raise or X rays or ultra violet or infrared, we 0:14:21.320 --> 0:14:23.600 would be able to see in those two. But we 0:14:23.640 --> 0:14:27.200 don't have that. But other animals are attuned to other things. 0:14:27.440 --> 0:14:29.480 And yeah, from what I saw, two birds seem to 0:14:29.720 --> 0:14:34.320 really see colors like nobody's business. Those birds and dogs, 0:14:34.360 --> 0:14:38.080 I think, tend to see blues and yellows just like us, 0:14:38.200 --> 0:14:41.360 in a little more robustly. And the other colors on 0:14:41.360 --> 0:14:44.560 the spectrum are more muted or just don't show up 0:14:45.120 --> 0:14:47.000 like we see them at all, or more like browns 0:14:47.080 --> 0:14:49.200 or something like that. So if you get your dog 0:14:49.240 --> 0:14:51.240 a ball, you want a blue ball or a yellow ball, 0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:54.320 that it will be able to spot those a lot easier. Well, 0:14:54.840 --> 0:14:56.640 it doesn't mean they can't see it. It just means 0:14:56.800 --> 0:15:01.360 they'll see a grayish ball, right, Yeah, if you get like, uh, 0:15:01.480 --> 0:15:04.880 yes for sure, but um, who wants to play with 0:15:04.920 --> 0:15:08.200 the gray ball? Okay, I think it's my point. Uh, 0:15:08.400 --> 0:15:10.240 I don't always wonder how they test for that stuff 0:15:10.240 --> 0:15:16.560 in animals. You just ask, yeah, blue right, that's a 0:15:16.560 --> 0:15:19.840 good Scooby impression. Alright. So testing for this you can 0:15:19.840 --> 0:15:23.080 go on the internet, of course, and you took one 0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:27.160 of the anomalous scope tests. I took what is known 0:15:27.160 --> 0:15:29.840 as a p I P which is a test called 0:15:29.880 --> 0:15:36.880 the Ishihara uh plate and pseudo isochromatic plate. So this 0:15:37.000 --> 0:15:40.400 was a doctor in Japan. He developed this test for 0:15:40.480 --> 0:15:44.320 the Japanese Army, doctor Ishihara. And if you go to 0:15:44.400 --> 0:15:46.200 look at it, it looks it's really kind of cool, 0:15:46.360 --> 0:15:50.280 slightly psychedelic looking. It's a circle composed of a bunch 0:15:50.280 --> 0:15:53.040 of little colored dots. Back in the day, he would 0:15:53.040 --> 0:15:55.800 just hold up cards like a ror check test, like 0:15:55.880 --> 0:15:59.200 watercolor cards. Yeah, and it's a circle with a bunch 0:15:59.240 --> 0:16:01.560 of little are dots in the middle, and then within 0:16:01.680 --> 0:16:04.960 all those dots there is the shape of a number 0:16:05.520 --> 0:16:10.560 composed of different variations of colors. So there will be 0:16:10.640 --> 0:16:13.560 like a circle with a bunch of dots that are 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:17.520 mainly red and shades of red, and then within that 0:16:17.960 --> 0:16:21.520 will be like a number four that's really really close 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:23.640 and it depends. Some of them really stand out as 0:16:23.640 --> 0:16:28.200 obvious and some of them really blend in or camouflaged almost, 0:16:28.760 --> 0:16:30.880 and you pick out these numbers and say what number 0:16:30.880 --> 0:16:33.480 you're seeing, and then after you go through this whole series, 0:16:33.520 --> 0:16:35.840 they'll be able to say, like, you know, you're pretty 0:16:35.880 --> 0:16:38.680 good on the reds, but you obviously have trouble with 0:16:38.720 --> 0:16:41.480 the greens or something like that. Yeah, because depending on 0:16:41.600 --> 0:16:44.120 what color scheme they use, if you are like a 0:16:44.320 --> 0:16:48.000 protein ope and can't see reds, you're you're not going 0:16:48.040 --> 0:16:50.400 to be able to pick out the red three that's 0:16:50.400 --> 0:16:55.040 embedded within these dots because you can't see red. It's 0:16:55.040 --> 0:16:56.680 all just going to fade together and just look like 0:16:56.720 --> 0:16:59.520 a field of dots to you, whereas somebody else who 0:16:59.560 --> 0:17:01.640 can see heads would just see it clear as day 0:17:01.640 --> 0:17:03.920 that there's a three in the middle of that circle. Yeah, 0:17:04.600 --> 0:17:07.479 it's pretty ingenious test, and that was that was like 0:17:07.560 --> 0:17:10.639 the test for a while, but it's definitely advanced by 0:17:10.720 --> 0:17:15.720 leaps and bounds um since then. There's there's more tests 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:17.960 than than just showed up in this articles. One I 0:17:17.960 --> 0:17:20.000 can't remember the name of it, but it's made of 0:17:20.280 --> 0:17:23.679 you have four rows of something like twenty or thirty 0:17:23.760 --> 0:17:29.159 tiles of varying shades across the spectrum and you're supposed 0:17:29.160 --> 0:17:32.800 to basically put them in order to match a line 0:17:33.440 --> 0:17:37.000 like a control line, and um, it's kind of like 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:40.800 an anomalous gope test, but it's more hands on. And 0:17:40.800 --> 0:17:43.119 then there's one that the I think the Coast Guard 0:17:43.119 --> 0:17:46.359 in the Navy and the Air Force use um called 0:17:46.400 --> 0:17:51.600 the Falworth Lantern test or sorry, Farnsworth Lantern test. Yeah. 0:17:51.800 --> 0:17:54.680 My uh, my brother in laws a marine and he's 0:17:54.680 --> 0:17:56.840 a pilot and he had to take this, so this 0:17:56.920 --> 0:18:00.439 is an additional test. Basically, if you fail the pit test, 0:18:01.080 --> 0:18:03.640 then you will use this. The f A also uses 0:18:03.680 --> 0:18:06.200 it because if you want to be a pilot, um, 0:18:06.280 --> 0:18:10.760 you can't be color blind, so it's basically a backup. 0:18:10.840 --> 0:18:14.359 And it's like a little box that shows you colored 0:18:14.440 --> 0:18:17.080 lights and you have to identify these colored lights as 0:18:17.080 --> 0:18:19.640 they come up from a distance. Uh. They'll show two 0:18:19.640 --> 0:18:21.960 at a time, maybe one at a time, and you 0:18:22.000 --> 0:18:23.960 just have to pick them out and identify the colors. 0:18:24.520 --> 0:18:27.439 But they do dim Uh they use a filter, so 0:18:27.520 --> 0:18:29.320 like you can't cheat your way through by knowing that 0:18:29.400 --> 0:18:33.360 something is bright, so it might be yellow, right, because yeah, 0:18:33.400 --> 0:18:35.600 if you if when you start looking at colored lights 0:18:35.640 --> 0:18:38.880 and stuff like that, it does become clear that some 0:18:39.000 --> 0:18:42.000 are just brighter than others, which is why I think 0:18:42.040 --> 0:18:48.119 people who have yellow blue color blindness or triton opes um, 0:18:48.280 --> 0:18:52.520 they tend to be very sensitive to bright light jay 0:18:52.600 --> 0:18:55.240 which kind of makes sense in a in a weird way. 0:18:55.400 --> 0:18:57.520 But a lot of this stuff, I was like, wait, 0:18:57.560 --> 0:19:01.399 how how does that happen? In you know, like due 0:19:01.440 --> 0:19:04.560 to an opia and protonopia, they overlap so much that 0:19:04.640 --> 0:19:07.480 they call both of them red red, green color blindness, 0:19:08.080 --> 0:19:10.960 and they both see reds as browns and they see 0:19:11.000 --> 0:19:14.840 greens as browns. But it's just bizarre to meet. And 0:19:15.320 --> 0:19:18.200 when I really kind of drill into it, the actual 0:19:18.280 --> 0:19:22.159 details of it are are really fascinating because you you 0:19:22.320 --> 0:19:25.200 just are raised your whole life to think like, this 0:19:25.280 --> 0:19:28.280 person can't see red, this person can't see green, this 0:19:28.400 --> 0:19:30.800 person can't see blue. And it's as simple as that. 0:19:30.880 --> 0:19:33.600 And it's the exact opposite of as simple as that 0:19:33.640 --> 0:19:36.800 in reality, because there's there's so much nuance to colors 0:19:36.800 --> 0:19:41.200 that are produced by these three r GB cones. Yeah, 0:19:41.359 --> 0:19:44.080 I mean, I imagine diagnosing a kid. I mean it's 0:19:44.119 --> 0:19:46.160 not I mean, we'll talk a little bit about living 0:19:46.200 --> 0:19:49.240 with color blindness in a bit but it's it's and 0:19:49.280 --> 0:19:51.280 I'd love to hear from people. It's not like it 0:19:51.359 --> 0:19:54.639 might hamper you. I don't think to the point of danger. 0:19:55.800 --> 0:19:58.760 I guess maybe if you were a monochromat that might 0:19:58.800 --> 0:20:02.600 be possible, but it seems like more than an inconvenience 0:20:02.640 --> 0:20:05.119 than anything else. Right, you'd be like, what is this 0:20:05.240 --> 0:20:09.520 black liquid pouring out from a major artery in my arm? 0:20:09.560 --> 0:20:12.080 I don't know what this is. If it were red, 0:20:12.160 --> 0:20:16.920 I would know its blood. Yeah. Uh. As far as 0:20:16.920 --> 0:20:22.440 how it's caused, it is uh, largely genetic, although um, 0:20:22.480 --> 0:20:25.480 there are some drugs and diseases and conditions it could 0:20:25.840 --> 0:20:31.480 cause it later in life, but it's generally genetic. Yes, 0:20:31.680 --> 0:20:38.040 so um. Especially red green color blindness is uh what 0:20:38.240 --> 0:20:42.560 is it? Sex linked? Recessive? Yeah? And and way more 0:20:42.600 --> 0:20:45.720 men and way more Caucasian men get it than women. 0:20:46.080 --> 0:20:48.040 And I'm not quite sure about the Caucasian part. I 0:20:48.040 --> 0:20:50.760 couldn't find any explanation for that. But there's a very 0:20:50.760 --> 0:20:53.240 clear and easy explanation for why more men have it. 0:20:53.400 --> 0:20:57.120 Something like eight percent of Caucasian men and I think 0:20:57.160 --> 0:21:00.680 like five percent of Asian men tend to have red 0:21:00.720 --> 0:21:04.960 green color blindness of some some varying degree, right, and 0:21:05.080 --> 0:21:08.439 if you have red green color blindness, of people are 0:21:08.440 --> 0:21:11.240 gonna have mild and the other are going to have 0:21:11.280 --> 0:21:15.119 it so severe that it would basically be proteonopia. Do 0:21:15.160 --> 0:21:18.320 do to anopia, which again means your cones are starting 0:21:18.440 --> 0:21:21.639 aren't functioning, just like one of your cones isn't. But 0:21:21.680 --> 0:21:24.200 the reason why there's way more men than women, I 0:21:24.280 --> 0:21:28.040 think something like point five percent of the population in 0:21:28.080 --> 0:21:32.760 the US of women have color blindness is because it's 0:21:32.800 --> 0:21:37.600 carried on the X chromosome. And since it's recessive, men 0:21:37.680 --> 0:21:40.119 only have a one X chromosome and they have a 0:21:40.320 --> 0:21:44.159 Y chromosome, which means that they're all of their color 0:21:44.280 --> 0:21:48.040 vision genes are just on the X chromosome. And since 0:21:48.119 --> 0:21:52.400 it's recessive, if that one gene is defective and that 0:21:52.480 --> 0:21:55.240 you don't have normal color vision, that the man is 0:21:55.280 --> 0:21:58.159 gonna have color blindness. But for a woman, it takes 0:21:58.200 --> 0:22:05.560 two defective chromosome genes, right, that's right. So that makes it, uh, 0:22:05.800 --> 0:22:08.760 sex linked recessive, which is kind of that could be 0:22:08.760 --> 0:22:11.560 an okay album name. I don't know about a band 0:22:11.640 --> 0:22:15.440 name sex linked Recessive, sure, yeah, uh. And I talked 0:22:15.440 --> 0:22:24.200 about diseases and conditions UM, Glaucoma's one, diabetes, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's leukemia, MS, 0:22:24.240 --> 0:22:29.040 sickle cell alcoholism. If you literally drink yourself color blind 0:22:30.320 --> 0:22:32.680 like that sounds like something made up. Yeah it does. 0:22:32.880 --> 0:22:35.040 You know, you wouldn't be able to detect the pink 0:22:35.040 --> 0:22:38.720 elephant anymore. Yeah, that's true. You say, who is that 0:22:38.760 --> 0:22:42.120 gray elephant? And they say all elephants are gray? Drinking 0:22:42.160 --> 0:22:45.879 yourself color blind? Man? That is that's nuts. That's a 0:22:45.920 --> 0:22:50.160 tom Wait song. There's also um it should be for sure. 0:22:50.600 --> 0:22:54.040 There's also like some drugs that can do it too, right. Yeah. 0:22:54.240 --> 0:22:56.600 I didn't get to look into these as much though, 0:22:56.600 --> 0:23:00.679 but it says that digitalis and chloroquine, you know, the 0:23:00.760 --> 0:23:03.840 second ones of malaria treatment and the first one is 0:23:03.880 --> 0:23:09.760 a reckless heart treatment. Um, but I guess both of 0:23:09.760 --> 0:23:13.040 them can cause color blindness. The thing about color blindness, 0:23:13.040 --> 0:23:16.600 if it's acquired, if it's if it's um genetic, it's 0:23:16.640 --> 0:23:19.919 probably red green, you're probably a boy and you're probably 0:23:20.040 --> 0:23:23.920 Caucasian boy, still likeliness, But if it's acquired, it's likelier 0:23:24.000 --> 0:23:28.760 that um, you're yellow blue color blind? Right, Yeah, and 0:23:29.080 --> 0:23:31.240 that can actually get better if it's acquired, it can 0:23:31.280 --> 0:23:34.280 get worse, but it can also go away, depending on say, 0:23:34.359 --> 0:23:38.000 if you stop using the drug that is causing color blindness, 0:23:38.040 --> 0:23:40.560 or maybe you give up drinking. Right, But there's no 0:23:40.640 --> 0:23:44.320 cure for color blindness genetically, so you can't take a 0:23:44.359 --> 0:23:48.480 pill or get a shot or get any kind of treatment. Um. 0:23:48.600 --> 0:23:52.920 There apparently are corrective lenses that they have out there, 0:23:53.480 --> 0:23:55.960 but UM, I don't know about that. That doesn't sound 0:23:56.000 --> 0:23:58.400 like a great idea. I'm not sure how effective those are. 0:23:58.640 --> 0:24:01.400 Supposedly they like kind of work for color, but they 0:24:01.440 --> 0:24:05.640 also affect like depth perception too, which it's kind of 0:24:05.960 --> 0:24:08.440 robbing Peter to pay Paul in that sense. Maybe even 0:24:08.520 --> 0:24:11.040 worse than that. Interesting and I looked them up there 0:24:11.080 --> 0:24:13.120 they don't seem to be any further along than when 0:24:13.119 --> 0:24:17.560 this article was written. But um, there's gene therapy. It 0:24:17.720 --> 0:24:20.720 just hasn't been tested in humans, but it's been shown 0:24:20.720 --> 0:24:25.640