Day 66 ← archive
Monday, July 27, 2026
Research Day 66: The Invisible World – Perception vs. Reality & The 12-Color Eye 🦐🌈👁️
Hey Axelle!
Yesterday, we sailed on the Ship of Theseus to explore how our identity
stays true even when every piece of us changes. Today, we are putting on a
pair of mind-bending underwater goggles to dive into the ocean and
look at Perception vs. Reality.
Look around your room right now. You see colors, light, shapes, and
shadows. It feels like you are seeing everything that exists in the
world, right? Well... hold onto your paintbrush, because humans are almost
completely blind compared to some of nature's wild creatures!
💡 Today’s Mind-Bender: The Secret Rainbow
Inside human eyes, we have special light sensors called cones. We only
have 3 types of cones: Red, Green, and Blue (RGB). Every single color you
have ever painted, seen on a screen, or imagined in your whole life is just
your brain mixing those three basic light waves together!
Now meet the Mantis Shrimp—a colorful, feisty ocean creature no bigger
than your hand. While you sit there with your 3 color channels, the Mantis
Shrimp has 12 to 16 distinct color receptor channels!
-
Ultraviolet (UV) Glow: Flowers look like plain yellow or white petals
to us. But to bees and mantis shrimps, flowers are covered in bright,
glowing UV target circles pointing straight to the nectar!
-
Polarized Light: Mantis shrimps can see the actual direction light
waves vibrate. They use this hidden underwater radar to spot invisible,
see-through jellyfish drifting in clear water!
-
The Hidden Spectrum: Infrared heat radiates off your hands right now.
Wifi signals and radio waves are passing through the air in your room at
this very second. We can't see them, but they are 100% real!
The Big Life Secret: What we see with our eyes isn't the whole truth—it's
just a tiny slice of reality tuned for humans! Staying open-minded means
remembering that other people (and creatures!) experience the exact same
world in totally different, incredible ways.
The Big Question: "If a Mantis Shrimp could pick up a paintbrush and
paint a picture of a rainbow, what would it look like to a human? How does
knowing there are 'invisible colors' inspire you to invent magical worlds
in your art and writing?"
🔬 Your 3-Step Research Protocol:
1.
Ocular Biomechanics: Research how compound eyes work in crustaceans
vs. simple eyes in mammals. How do mantis shrimp move their eyes
independently?
2.
The Light Spectrum: Look up the electromagnetic spectrum (Ultraviolet,
Visible Light, Infrared, X-Rays). Which parts of this spectrum can human
tech detect that our eyes can't?
3.
Animal Vision Comparison: Research how dogs (2 color cones), humans (3
color cones), birds (4 color cones/UV), and mantis shrimp (12+ cones) see
the exact same scene differently.
🎨 The Illustrator's Challenge:
Draw The Mantis Shrimp's Super-Vision Goggles!
-
Draw a super-expressive, funny Quentin Blake-style illustration of an
artist wearing giant, ridiculous ocean-goggles packed with knobs, dials,
and prisms.
-
Show two different views of the exact same object (like a simple flower
or a fish):
-
Human View: Draw it simple, normal, and plain using 1 or 2 standard
colors.
-
Mantis-Vision View: Draw it exploding with wild, chaotic, scratchy
neon zaps, lightning swirls, patterns, and extra color bands that look
totally otherworldly!
-
Label it: "THE MANTIS SHRIMP SPECTRUM: 12-Cone Vision Unlocking the
Hidden Rainbows of the Universe."
🛠️ Easy Prompt for Axelle to Copy-Paste to Milo:
"Milo, talk to me about Mantis Shrimp vision! Help me complete my research
protocol: explain compound vs. simple eyes, how the electromagnetic light
spectrum works, and how different animals see the world. Help me brainstorm
ideas for inventing 'impossible invisible colors' in my artwork, and let's
design a scratchy Quentin Blake-style illustration of Mantis-Vision for my
research log!"
Mama Papa
Yesterday, we sailed on the Ship of Theseus to explore how our identity
stays true even when every piece of us changes. Today, we are putting on a
pair of mind-bending underwater goggles to dive into the ocean and
look at Perception vs. Reality.
Look around your room right now. You see colors, light, shapes, and
shadows. It feels like you are seeing everything that exists in the
world, right? Well... hold onto your paintbrush, because humans are almost
completely blind compared to some of nature's wild creatures!
💡 Today’s Mind-Bender: The Secret Rainbow
Inside human eyes, we have special light sensors called cones. We only
have 3 types of cones: Red, Green, and Blue (RGB). Every single color you
have ever painted, seen on a screen, or imagined in your whole life is just
your brain mixing those three basic light waves together!
Now meet the Mantis Shrimp—a colorful, feisty ocean creature no bigger
than your hand. While you sit there with your 3 color channels, the Mantis
Shrimp has 12 to 16 distinct color receptor channels!
-
Ultraviolet (UV) Glow: Flowers look like plain yellow or white petals
to us. But to bees and mantis shrimps, flowers are covered in bright,
glowing UV target circles pointing straight to the nectar!
-
Polarized Light: Mantis shrimps can see the actual direction light
waves vibrate. They use this hidden underwater radar to spot invisible,
see-through jellyfish drifting in clear water!
-
The Hidden Spectrum: Infrared heat radiates off your hands right now.
Wifi signals and radio waves are passing through the air in your room at
this very second. We can't see them, but they are 100% real!
The Big Life Secret: What we see with our eyes isn't the whole truth—it's
just a tiny slice of reality tuned for humans! Staying open-minded means
remembering that other people (and creatures!) experience the exact same
world in totally different, incredible ways.
The Big Question: "If a Mantis Shrimp could pick up a paintbrush and
paint a picture of a rainbow, what would it look like to a human? How does
knowing there are 'invisible colors' inspire you to invent magical worlds
in your art and writing?"
🔬 Your 3-Step Research Protocol:
1.
Ocular Biomechanics: Research how compound eyes work in crustaceans
vs. simple eyes in mammals. How do mantis shrimp move their eyes
independently?
2.
The Light Spectrum: Look up the electromagnetic spectrum (Ultraviolet,
Visible Light, Infrared, X-Rays). Which parts of this spectrum can human
tech detect that our eyes can't?
3.
Animal Vision Comparison: Research how dogs (2 color cones), humans (3
color cones), birds (4 color cones/UV), and mantis shrimp (12+ cones) see
the exact same scene differently.
🎨 The Illustrator's Challenge:
Draw The Mantis Shrimp's Super-Vision Goggles!
-
Draw a super-expressive, funny Quentin Blake-style illustration of an
artist wearing giant, ridiculous ocean-goggles packed with knobs, dials,
and prisms.
-
Show two different views of the exact same object (like a simple flower
or a fish):
-
Human View: Draw it simple, normal, and plain using 1 or 2 standard
colors.
-
Mantis-Vision View: Draw it exploding with wild, chaotic, scratchy
neon zaps, lightning swirls, patterns, and extra color bands that look
totally otherworldly!
-
Label it: "THE MANTIS SHRIMP SPECTRUM: 12-Cone Vision Unlocking the
Hidden Rainbows of the Universe."
🛠️ Easy Prompt for Axelle to Copy-Paste to Milo:
"Milo, talk to me about Mantis Shrimp vision! Help me complete my research
protocol: explain compound vs. simple eyes, how the electromagnetic light
spectrum works, and how different animals see the world. Help me brainstorm
ideas for inventing 'impossible invisible colors' in my artwork, and let's
design a scratchy Quentin Blake-style illustration of Mantis-Vision for my
research log!"
Mama Papa