These days, each sunrise seems to invent a new way to deteriorate our world. Yearlong wars continue, human trafficking worsens (1), and a quarter of people in developing countries struggle with extreme poverty. (2)
In these times of darkness, the easiest effective thing to do is to look at the bright side.
One in a Trillion
After the brain, eyes are considered the most complex organ in the human body, yet most of us take them for granted. In fact, you might not know how lucky it is to even have functioning eyes.
“The human eye is so complicated. Trillions of trillions of cells have to line up perfectly for visual signal capturing and interpretation. If any of those cells get out of line, the person will be born blind.” – Dr Ming Wing, graduate of Harvard and MIT. (3)
Fun Fact
Our bodies developed eyelashes to protect our sensitive eyeballs from dust. These lashes shed every 5 months as part of their natural growth cycle. In the average person’s lifespan, one can shed over 98 feet of eyelashes! That’s around the maximum size of a blue whale. (4, 5 )
In the Eyes of Scientists
Despite its size, the eye is no small deal. It is one of the few areas that have immune privilege, meaning that the immune system doesn’t trigger immune responses such as inflammation. Inflammation can easily cause blurriness or damage vision.
Thanks to mild resistancy, this makes the eye a cooperative subject to research and therapy. It’s also relatively easy to observe its internal structure. These factors have led to discoveries of promising vision loss treatments such as LASIK, PIR and SMILE. (8 )
Windows to the Soul
More than 30% of our brain power is dedicated to letting us see, half-explaining why around 65% of the population are visual learners. Evidently, the brain is heavily related to our eyes. (7)
As emotions are processed in the brain, it’s actually possible to see that reflection through our eyes. Attraction and excitement release dopamine, dilating your pupils. In parallel, fight or flight responses activate adrenaline, also dilating your pupils.
Tears are used as the body’s way to regulate intense overwhelming emotions, such as sadness or happiness. Isn’t it interesting how opposite emotions have the same optical reactions? ( 6 )
TL;DR
Eyes are complex organs that serve in our everyday lives in ways more than just vision.