Blue Field Entopic Phenomenon - see the white blood cells in your retinal capillaries

[drlava]

I noticed this effect tonight as I was looking at the surface of a glass of hazy water with 1.7W of 445nm shining through. It's kind of a shocking thing to see at first.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_fi...tic_phenomenon

There are tiny blood capillaries in your eye that, due to red blood cells, have been occluding blue light slightly since you were born. Your brain has learned to ignore them. White blood cells are less common in the blood than red cells and don't block as much blue light. When you look at an evenly lit bright blue surface, you can actually see the white blood cells swirling around! This looks different from 'seeing stars' or dehydration spots, they actually look more like single celled organisms swimming around. Freaky!

[-bart-]

Mystery finally solved !

I see this phenomenon when looking at a bright blue sky, since I were a kid.
Never know it had a name ! I guess peoples brains 'compute' this out of their vision, like the blind spot.

Wait, I'll post a movie of it...err...seems like my bio-hardware has no composite out, too bad !

[badger1666]

Cool I always wondered what that was. I have seen this a few times over years, at random times and without lasers just bright light and watery eyes.
Its very freaky, just like looking at an active plate under a microscope.
Its amazing what you can see with your eyes at times,
thanks

[Doc]

Yeah, I always see this looking at a bright sky.

EDIT: Thanks for finding the name for the phenomenon.

[mixedgas]

Thank you!

Steve

[mikkojay]

When I was a kid I swore I could see germs! That might have even been my superpower had the Hall of Justice needed a "Germ Seeing Boy"
Thanks!

[Lexat8]

"I noticed this effect tonight as I was looking at the surface of a glass of hazy water with 1.7W of 445nm shining through. It's kind of a shocking thing to see at first."

And i thought it was just doing this kind of thing! We should both get out more! Glad i'm not alone =)

cheers


lex

[ckilgore1]

When I was a kid I swore I could see germs! That might have even been my superpower had the Hall of Justice needed a "Germ Seeing Boy"
Thanks!

When I was about ten years old I noticed the same thing and also thought I was seeing germs (thinking that somehow there was some form of natural magnification). I remember thinking this was really cool, but soon learned (sadly) that telling other people was not a good idea. Everyone thought I was crazy. Mine actually turned out to be what is known as "floaters". Many years later mine developed into an extreme vision problem which required three surgeries on one eye and two on the other. The last surgery on each eye was a vitrectomy in which the fluid in the eyeball is removed and replaced. Incredible procedure which didn't even require overnight stay. The two surgeries were spaced six months apart for safety. No pain whatsoever and full visual recovery in about two weeks. You do have a phenomenal black eye for several weeks which gives a great opportunity to make up a macho tale. I found it more fun to tell people, "there's an amazing story behind this black eye . . . I just haven't had time to make it up yet".

Visual phenomena have always amazed me. . . blind spot, persistence of vision and the many other optical illusions. Life is full of amazement of all manner.

Chuck

[QUAZAR]

Aah, that explains the "eye worms".

[cyberb0b]

The first thing i thought when i saw the topic title was the movie Dune