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In chemistry we are taught that colors are created bydifferent wavelengths of light hitting the retina. The different colors arecreated by excited electrons releasing energy as they fall to lower energystages. I never thought that there was any difference between the way in lightin produced and the way in which the human perceives color. When I look at arainbow it seems impossible that a very limited types of cones are actuallyinterpreting all the colors that I perceive. This concept is akin to the brainactually seeing all objects as the boundaries of edges.

Again, I was also surprised by how much the brain just“makes up” as it goes. The fact that humans have two eyes is veryevolutionarily favorable because it allows humans to have better depth perceptionand a better range of vision. But, on the other hand, the fact that we have twoeyes means that the brain has two conflicting views of the world every secondof the day. Because of the conflicting views that the two eyes present, we haveto make a view of the world that is the “best” compromise. The most frustratingpart of this is that we will never know what reality really looks like.

I’m also interested in what makes certain colors moreappealing to people. For instance, I’ve heard that American’s prefer the colorblue. Is color favoritism simply a cultural phenomenon? (the colors of the USAare red, white, & blue) Or is there a neurobiological component to this?