this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2024
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Science Memes

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[–] stephen01king@lemmy.zip 11 points 3 months ago (1 children)

By your logic, light isn't a useful sense to possess since it's everywhere all the time thanks to sunlight and moonlight, is that correct?

Actually, since ultraviolet radiation and light are both electromagnetic waves, they should be treated the same, shouldn't they? It's as if there could be a different reason why we can detect one but not the other.

[–] chatokun@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Yes, and some animals (mostly birds iirc) do see UV. Boring brown/black birds aren't so boring in UV. I don't know the evolutionary pressure necessary for UV, but it could have developed. Red, for instance, is believed to have been useful for us to pick out berries. Wolves, being carnivorous, wouldn't necessarily need it, so see in yellow blue... or so I read as a theory a while ago.

[–] daddy32@lemmy.world 8 points 3 months ago

Bees see UV too, it supposedly helps them navigating around flowers.