Abstract
The ability to make out an image using the visual system has developed in almost all species of the animal world. It is believed that all eyes have a common origin—a proto-eye, formed about 540 million years ago. Evolution has diversified the visual system by providing specific properties to the different species. This chapter examines the characteristics of the vision in humans and in some animals and the use of light by the plant world, a phenomenon essential to all forms of life.
“The happiness of the bee and the dolphin is to exist. For man it is to know that and to wonder at it.”
Jacques-Yves Cousteau, researcher and oceanographer
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© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
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Bisi, O. (2015). Light and Life. In: Visible and Invisible. Astronomers' Universe. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09825-8_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09825-8_4
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Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-09824-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-09825-8
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