MAPBM Seminar with Douglas Kahn: Solarception: Not seeing blue in a second sense in the eye

Name: MAPBM Seminar with Douglas Kahn: Solarception: Not seeing blue in a second sense in the eye
Start: 2025-09-05T07:30:00+10:00
End: 2025-09-05T09:30:00+10:00
Location: Wentworth Falls School Of Arts

Schedule

Fri Sep 05 2025 at 07:30 am to 09:30 am

UTC+10:00

Location

Wentworth Falls School Of Arts | Wentworth Falls, NS

'Solarception: Not seeing blue in a second sense in the eye', presented by Douglas Kahn.
'A major discovery in sensory physiology has gone virtually unnoticed. It involves a very thin slice of blue synching humans and other mammals with the Sun. Blue isn't seen but sensed by a third retinal cell. Rods and cones have been around forever, but it was not until the 1990s that intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs) became known. They function as nothing less than a second sense in the eye, which joins the ear in harbouring two senses. Because ipRGCs dies on the tongue, I call them solar retinal cells or solar retinals, and their corresponding sense, solarception... What naming might do, why it has to be ecological, and how Plato's extramission, the eye emitting light, helps, will be discussed.'
Tickets $10 including a donation for one free refreshment.
This session is part of the Public Program for the MAPBM Aerie Exhibition at Wentworth Falls School of Arts, supported by the Blue Mountains City Council and the Blue Mountains City of the Arts Trust.