Browse Search Feedback Other Links Home Home The Talk.Origins Archive: Exploring the Creation/Evolution Controversy

Index to Creationist Claims,  edited by Mark Isaak,    Copyright © 2007
Previous Claim: CB921   |   List of Claims   |   Next Claim: CB921.2

Claim CB921.1:

What use is half an eye?

Source:

Paley, Richard, 2000. The eye. http://objective.jesussave.us/eye.html

Response:

  1. Half an eye is useful for vision. Many organisms have eyes that lack some features of human eyes. Examples include the following:
    Visual prosthetics (bionic eyes) with as few as 16 pixels are found to be very useful by people who had become blind (Wickelgren 2006, Fildes 2007).

  2. Humans themselves have far from perfect vision:


    If you want to know what use is half an eye, ask yourself how you survive with much less than half of what eyes are capable of.

Links:

Bahar, Sonya, 2002. Evolution of the eye: Lessons from freshman physics and Richard Dawkins. The Biological Physicist 2(2): 2-5. http://www.aps.org/units/dbp/newsletter/jun02.pdf

References:

  1. Fildes, Jonathan. 2007. Trials for 'bionic' eye implants. BBC News, 2/16/2007. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6368089.stm
  2. Gislén, A. et al., 2003. Superior underwater vision in a human population of sea gypsies. Current Biology 13: 833-836. http://www.current-biology.com/content/article/abstract?uid=PIIS0960982203002902 See also Pilcher, Helen R., 2003. How to see shells on the sea floor, http://www.nature.com/nsu/030512/030512-14.html
  3. Kreimer, Georg, 1999. Reflective properties of different eyespot types in dinoflagellates. Protist 150: 311-323. http://www.urbanfischer.de/journals/protist/content/issue3/Pro0021.pdf
  4. Wickelgren, Ingrid. 2006. A vision for the blind. Science 312: 1124-1126.
  5. Zimmer, Carl, 1996. The light at the bottom of the sea. Discover (Nov.): 62-66,71-73.
  6. Zorpette, Glenn, 2000. Looking for Madam Tetrachromat. Red Herring (4 Dec.), http://www.redherring.com/mag/issue86/mag-mutant-86.html (registration required)

Previous Claim: CB921   |   List of Claims   |   Next Claim: CB921.2

created 2003-8-13, modified 2007-2-18