What Do Blind People See?

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Boing Boing's Science Question From a Toddler series is fascinating because it provides surprisingly detailed answers to seemingly obvious questions. In this week's installment, Maggie Koerth-Baker explains what blind people actually see.

While most people assume that the blind see the same semi-darkness that we see when we close our eyes, this level of sight loss is actually very uncommon. In most cases, blind people can see some shapeless bits of light, and very few see in color. The reason behind this reduced clarity and lack of color vision comes down to how our eyes work.

What's really interesting in the article is how scientists are using gene therapy to correct some of these problems. One boy in New York went from being legally blind to just-another-kid-with-glasses thanks to the therapy.

[Image courtesy of Bogenfreund's Flickr stream.]

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January 4, 2010 - 4:20am
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