10 October: World Sight Day

The second Thursday in October is World Sight Day, so here are ten things you might not know about the sense of sight.

1. It is your Brain, rather than your eyes, which does the seeing. The eye acts like a camera, sending an image to the brain. The image projected onto the back of the eye is upside down, and the brain turns it the right way up.
2. In fact, vision is so important to us that 50% of our brain is taken up with processing it.
3. The human eye can actually only see three colours - red, blue and Green. All other colours are combinations of those three. Our eyes can also distinguish 500 (not merely 50) shades of Grey. However, we are said to be able to distinguish more shades of green than any other colour.
4. There are also colours humans can't see because they are too complex for our cone cells to pick up. However, there are ways to see them, by looking at special templates.
5. Newborn babies can only see Black, white, grey and red. It takes a few weeks for the photoreceptor cells which distinguish other colours to develop.
6. Being shortsighted or nearsighted is down to the length of your eyeball. A millimetre can make all the difference. Nearsighted people's eyeballs are slightly longer than average and farsighted people have eyeballs that are slightly shorter.
7. In optimal conditions, the human eye can see the light from a candle 14 miles away.
8. Pirates used to believe that wearing gold earrings improved their eyesight.
9. The human eye has a blind spot, the place in the retina where the optic nerve attaches. We don't notice this as a rule because the two eyes and the brain work together to compensate.
10. Owls are the only bird which can see the colour blue.

NEW!

Obsidian's Ark

Teenage years bring no end of problems. Daniel Moran's include getting hold of computer games his parents don't think he should have; a full blown crush on the beautiful Suki from Zorostan; maintaining his status as a prefect and getting his homework done. He must also keep from his parents and sister the fact that he is a superhero with a sword from another world.

Trish wonders how to get science whizz Tom to notice her; how to persuade him that the best way to stand up to the school bully is to fight back. She doesn't want her friends, especially not Tom, to know she is a genetic variant with superpowers. Little does she know that Tom has secrets of his own.

Suki struggles to make friends at school when she cannot understand everyday cultural references, and they all suspect her of being a terrorist. She, too, has a secret, but is it what her classmates assume?

When Daniel stumbles upon a plot by an alliance of supervillains to plunge the world into war, he tries to alert the established superheroes, but none of them believe him. When the Prime Minister's only daughter, Yasmin Miller, is abducted, Daniel knows the villains' plan is underway. It seems humanity's only hope may be Daniel and the ragtag bunch of teenage superheroes he recruits. Can he pull together, not only his own team, but the older heroes as well, in a bid to save the Earth from a devastating war?

Themes: 

Superheroes; Coming of age; Leadership; Kidnap and rescue; Aliens; Friendship and rivalry; Terrorism; Secrets.

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