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Science

Island Tribes Develop Superior Underwater Vision 50

Posted by timothy from the superhero-powers dept.
Artifice_Eternity writes "I found this Washington Post article fascinating. A tribe of skilled divers known as "sea gypsies" have developed a previously unknown physiological adaptation that gives them better vision underwater. Most humans see poorly underwater, because water has a similar refractive index to the fluid inside the eye, making it difficult to focus incoming light. But children of the Moken tribe compensate by shrinking their pupils (the same way photographers reduce a camera's aperture size to increase sharpness). Their underwater visual acuity is more than double that previously thought possible in humans. The article also describes other adaptations discovered in recent years that challenge our understanding of what the human body and brain can do." (Painless non-registration demographic click-through required.)
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Island Tribes Develop Superior Underwater Vision More

Island Tribes Develop Superior Underwater Vision

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  • 'Physiological Adaptation' (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Hellraisr ( 305322 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @01:03PM (#6331857)
    This is more of a "training your eyes" by changing the pupils. I wouldn't call it a major breakthrough or anything of that nature, as I imagine anyone could do it after years of practice like these tribesman have had.


    To me this sounds like learning to play a musical instrument or learning a new skill.

    • Re:'Physiological Adaptation' (Score:4, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 30, 2003 @01:18PM (#6331989)
      True. We Americans have been training ourselves for years to be blind to the damage we are causing the rest of the world, and I must say it is working exceptionally well.
    • it is a major break through. this is a form of proof that evolution is indeed possible, and at rates much faster then origionaly thought.

      • Re:'Physiological Adaptation' (Score:4, Insightful)

        by FroMan ( 111520 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @01:36PM (#6332119) Homepage Journal
        That suggests the Moken learn the skill in childhood and do not simply inherit it as an inborn reflex.

        Not evolution: (from the article) That suggests the Moken learn the skill in childhood and do not simply inherit it as an inborn reflex.

        This is a form of adaptation to their environment.

        Evolution is a trait that is passed on through genetics from one generation to another.

        Personally I see evolution and survival of the fittest as two separate catagories though. Evolution is mutations (which add to the set of genes), where survival of the fittest is removal of the "bad" (genes which leave the carrier at a disadvantage, which can be localized to area though) genes from the gene pool.

        • Re:'Physiological Adaptation' (Score:4, Insightful)

          by paulthomas ( 685756 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @08:46PM (#6335670) Journal
          You are a little off.

          Evolution (macroevolution specifically) is the emergence of desirable traits for a specific environment due to differential reproductive success, more commonly known as natural selection.

          Natural Selection occurs when any or all of the rules of Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium are broken.

          Essentially, when something is less fit for an environment it is less likely to live long enough to reproduce. What makes up these genetic differences to begin with include Mutations, Genetic Drift, and Migration, among other factors.


          Competition for limited resources is the key.

          A nice google search [google.com] for your learning pleasure.
          • in the end, it's whatever gets you laid that's important ... seriously, that's the only way your genes are going to get passed on ... you could have the best underwater eyesight or whatever, but if you can't get any, it's not going to do your species any good ...
        • The Nature (or was it Science) Article that this is based off was unable to determine whether this was a truly learned behavior, a physiological differance, or both.
    • John McPhee, in his book A Sense of Where You Are [amazon.com], a biography of former Senator Bill Bradley during his days shooting hoops for Princeton, Bradley describes his childhood attempts to enhance his peripheral vision.

      McPhee took him to an optometrist to measure Bradley's vision -- Bradley's experiments apparently worked, as his field of vision was somewhat greater than average.

  • Learned? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by crisco ( 4669 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @01:04PM (#6331873) Homepage
    I found it interesting that this was a physiological adaptation that could be at least partly learned by the tourist children that were used as a control for the study.

    So could we create superhumans by rigorously teaching children all these different tricks instead of genetic engineering?

    • Re:Learned? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Sherloqq ( 577391 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @02:01PM (#6332334)
      ...could we create superhumans by rigorously teaching children all these different tricks...

      Reminds me of an older martial arts movie in which a teacher plants a small tree, then tells a small child to jump over it day in, day out, and as the tree and the child grow, the child is able to jump really high into the air.
      • Reminds me of an older martial arts movie in which a teacher plants a small tree, then tells a small child to jump over it day in, day out, and as the tree and the child grow, the child is able to jump really high into the air.

        More likely is that at about age 15 the child will for once fail to jump high enough, falling down wrong and killing himself. But, that would not make a very good movie.
      • Greek myth too. May have been Heracles but I'm not sure--anyway, the main character carried a newly born calf 20 miles every day, until eventually he was carrying a fully grown cow 20 miles.


      • > Reminds me of an older martial arts movie in which a teacher plants a small tree, then tells a small child to jump over it day in, day out, and as the tree and the child grow, the child is able to jump really high into the air.

        On Krypton they start with small buildings.

  • In other news... (Score:3, Funny)

    by lightspawn ( 155347 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @01:56PM (#6332276) Homepage
    Professional atheletes develop superior muscles, professional musicians develop superior hearing, and video gamers develop superior hand-eye coordination.

  • Survivor! (Score:3, Funny)

    by AtariAmarok ( 451306 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @02:08PM (#6332417)
    Island tribe members have better underwater vision?

    This must explain the increase of those "voted off the island" being hired for full-pool emergency maintenance calls.

  • Diving mask. (Score:3, Informative)

    by xluap ( 652530 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @02:19PM (#6332530)
    Cool the human body can do this. However, using a diving mask gives the best sight.

    I am short-sighted, so i put a pair of glasses without the legs in the diving mask.

  • How learning can guide evolution (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Cowdog ( 154277 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @02:20PM (#6332535) Journal
    There is a widely cited paper on the topic of how learning can guide evolution. Abstract here:

    How learning can guide evolution [complex-systems.com]

    Can anyone find an online version of the full article?

  • Nice theory, but... no. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Peter T Ermit ( 577444 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @02:39PM (#6332728)
    I did a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation last month when I saw a piece about this in Science. There's no way that a mere 22% change in dilation can't double your acuity; the pinhole effect isn't *that* strong. So I'd bet that most of the improvement has to come from "accommodation" or some other effect.
    • I wonder if it is possible that the brain is retrained that when the pupils go to that level of dilation, it triggers an alternately-learned method of processing the information the eyes give it.
    • not impressed. get back to me when they've devloped sonar and gills. that'll be something!

    • (Not just 22%) and Better Vision Without Glasses (Score:5, Interesting)

      by obtuse ( 79208 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @05:07PM (#6333980) Journal
      I think you used the wrong data for your calculation. 22% is only the difference between the underwater dilation of the Sea Gypsies and the normal European minimum. But the article also mentions that most people's pupils dilate when they go underwater, so other people's eyes aren't anywhere near their minimum. The difference is much larger than 22%. Besides, they aren't acheiving perfect focus, only better focus.

      A 2mm pinhole seems big, but it is enough to make a significant difference in acuity. I'm pretty blind without my glasses, but I can significantly improve my resolution by making a crude pinhole lens by circling my index finger to a near pinhole of a few millimeters. Try it, if you wear glasses. It's surprising how well it works, especially considering how large the aperture is, and how far it is from circular. Looking through my imaginary monocle also makes me look extra strange.

      I wonder if this explains some of the believers in the Bates Method of vision improvement. They believe that you can learn to see better without your glasses, although Bates' original model of the eye is mechanically wrong. Perhaps they aren't completely wrong. They also recommend gazing at the sun as sunbathing for the eyes. That could initiate the dilation. Unfortunately, UV exposure also causes cataracts.

      I'm curious as to whether this phenomenon appears anywhere else. It seems to me that families of pearl divers or people who dive for food in other parts of the world should display this too. If not, I'd wonder why.

      • I'm pretty blind without my glasses, but I can significantly improve my resolution by making a crude pinhole lens by circling my index finger to a near pinhole of a few millimeters. Try it, if you wear glasses.

        Cool, thanks! This really works. I took off my glasses (I'm near-sighted), and moved my head so I could read your post. I was about 4 inches from the monitor.

        Then I tried your index-finger trick, and moved back until I could just barely read the text. I was almost 2 feet away before I coul

      • I'm pretty blind without my glasses, but I can significantly improve my resolution by making a crude pinhole lens by circling my index finger to a near pinhole of a few millimeters.

        Glad to know I'm not the only person walking around with their hand in front of their eye. I use a three-finger approach. I touch my middle finger with my thumb (kind of like an "OK" gesture, but with the middle finger instead of the index finger). In between the thumb and middle finger is where I put my index finger. As a chi
  • I haven't been able to read any washington post articles since they started doing the demographic collector thing. (I used to often follow links to it from news.google.com)

    I fill it in, and it sends me back to the same page.

    I am using mozilla 1.4b, and it happened with previous versions.

    I do not have cookies blocked for washingtonpost.com.

    Any idea what I need to do to get by this thing?

  • trying it at home (Score:3, Insightful)

    by chloroquine ( 642737 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @05:52PM (#6334337) Journal
    As a curious person (who wishes that she too had the "flexibility of a salamander"), I'm tempted to go home and try this all out in the bathtub. But I'm not sure how I could measure the diameter of my own pupil.

    It does strike me that the article initially tries to persuade one that this is a genetic trait, and then sneaks in the possiblity of a learned behavior. I think that this is a little cheap.

    And that is why when the post asks me who I am, I am a 57 year old man from Washington DC. 20002 is my favorite made up zipcode.


    • > As a curious person (who wishes that she too had the "flexibility of a salamander")

      Ummm, what application of this talent did you have in mind, precisely?

      • Besides doing a lot of slithering?
        I just thought it was a whack turn of phrase. So I was sitting there trying to think of an animal that would fit the phrase "flexible like a [X]" and nothing really came to mind. And then I started wondering how flexible salamanders really are. And is this a property that one could quantitate? And then I remembered that I was at work and that we have all these measuring devices ... but no salamanders.

        And at the end of it all, I decided that this series of thoughts

  • Message to tribe: patent it quick (Score:4, Funny)

    by dubStylee ( 140860 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @07:28PM (#6335096)
    This idea, with obvious commercial applications, and clearly not in use anywhere else, should be patented by the Moken tribe. Otherwise, some industrialized country will patent it and sell it to the grandchildren of the current Moken. The U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity supports the idea that indigenous people should be able to patent their discoveries. Go for it!

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