Eyes: 11 Fun Facts You Probably Don’t Know

Take a look around you right now. Take in all the colors, the shadows, the shapes, and the movements. The sense of sight is pretty amazing and most of us don’t give our vision a second thought until something goes wrong. So in showing some respect for our eyes, here are some fun facts about eyes.

• From the day you are born, your eyes stay the same size throughout your life.
• Some evolutionary protectives traits that humans have developed are that our eyes are positioned in hollowed eye sockets to help protect from trauma, our eyebrows keep sweat away, and our eyelashes keep dirt and small particles out.
• The development of eyes in living organisms can be traced back 550 million years to single-celled organisms that had photoreceptor proteins as “eyes”.
• An eye cannot be transplanted due to the large number of nerve fibers that connect it to the brain.
• The human iris has 256 unique characteristics making retinal scanning popular for security.
• Corneas are the only tissue in the human body that are not connected to the blood supply.
• Heterochromia is the condition in which an individual has two different colored eyes.
• The human eye can distinguish between more than 10 million colors.
• Babies are unable to produce tears until they are between 4 and 13 weeks old.
• Blinking occurs about 12 times per minute.
• Over half of the brain is involved in processing what we see.

For the second most complex organ in the human body, the eyes are capable of some pretty extraordinary things. Take the time to appreciate your vision and how much your eyes play a role in your everyday life!