Name: The evolution of the human eye
Uploaded: 2019-04-05T19:55:28Z
Duration: 4 min 28 s
Description: The human eye is an amazing mechanism, able to detect anywhere from a few photons to a few quadrillion, or switch focus from the screen in front of you to the distant horizon in a third of a second. How did these complex structures evolve? Joshua Harvey details the 500 million year story of the human eye. [Directed by Artrake Studio, narrated Addison Anderson, music by Bojana Vunturišević].

Joshua Harvey: The evolution of the human eye

The evolution of the human eye

The human eye is an amazing mechanism, able to detect anywhere from a few photons to a few quadrillion, or switch focus from the screen in front of you to the distant horizon in a third of a second. How did these complex structures evolve? Joshua Harvey details the 500 million year story of the human eye. [Directed by Artrake Studio, narrated Addison Anderson, music by Bojana Vunturišević]. 

The human eye can shift focus from a screen to the horizon in just a third of a second and detect everything from faint photons to blazing sunlight. Its evolution began with a simple light-sensitive spot in single-celled organisms over 500 million years ago. Through incremental changes—like the development of a lens and the support of the brain—these primitive structures became the complex eyes we have today. Even now, remnants of this stepwise evolution, like our inverted retina and blind spot, are visible in the human eye.