Radiolab Colors
9 snips
May 21, 2012 
James Glick, author and commentator who opens with Newton's prism story, guides a whirlwind tour of color. They examine whether color lives in objects or minds. They explore how different animals see color, experiments that add color cones, and strange histories behind pigments and the word for blue.
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One Extra Cone Multiplies Colors
- Different species experience rainbows differently because of varying photoreceptor sets.
- Adding one cone dramatically multiplies perceivable shades via combinatory mixing.
Monkeys Gained Red Vision After Gene Therapy
- Jay Neitz injected a human red-cone gene into colorblind monkeys and tested them daily with a color task using grape juice reward.
- After ~20 weeks the monkeys began reliably detecting red, appearing to gain a new color sense.
Tetrachromacy Depends On Use, Not Just Genes
- Some women may carry a fourth cone gene on one X chromosome, potentially making them tetrachromats.
- Most carriers can't use it because cultural and environmental exposure rarely stimulates that extra channel.
