I LOVE MY RODS AND CONES

The ability to see, and appreciate a sun rise, is due to photoreceptors in your retina of your eye.  The retina is a thin layer that lines the back of they eye.  It contains two types of photoreceptors (literally light receptors!).  These are the rods and cones that I love.  Rods work in low light conditions but do not help with detecting colors.  The cones are the color detectors and they come in three types: blue, green, and red.  Each rod and cone have a nerve connection that transports the information picked up by the rods and cones to the optic nerve and to the brain for interpretation.  Even though we humans only have three types of cones, each cone detects a range of colors.  These work together along with the brain to detect the colors of the world around us… including a sunrise.

For more information and groovy graphics, visit https://askabiologist.asu.edu/rods-and-cones