vision

Topic description and stories

Detect. Lock on. Intercept. The remarkable hunting ability of the robber fly

09 Mar 2017

A small fly the size of a grain of rice could be the Top Gun of the fly world, with a remarkable ability to detect and intercept its prey mid-air...

Believing is Seeing: a Cambridge Shorts film

09 Nov 2016

Imagination is where ideas start: in the mind’s eye. The ability to think creatively – to dream the impossible – is behind the technological...

‘Red gene’ in birds and turtles suggests dinosaurs had bird-like colour vision

03 Aug 2016

A gene for red colour vision that originated in the reptile lineage around 250m years ago has resulted in the bright red bird feathers and ‘painted’...

Advisory Cycle Lanes and Pavements Being Abused On Parry's Lane (cropped)

At the edge of vision: Struggling to make sense of our cluttered world

25 Nov 2015

As you’re driving to work along a busy road, your eyes on the traffic lights ahead, hoping they won’t turn to red, you pass signs warning of...

Zebras on the run can razzle-dazzle their enemies

Motion dazzle: spotting the patterns that help animals outsmart predators on the run

09 Sep 2015

A new online game is helping researchers explore whether high-contrast patterns during motion, such as stripes and zigzags, help to protect animals...

Just made coffee while chatting to a friend? Time to thank your ‘visuomotor binding’ mechanism…

14 Mar 2014

Experiments have identified a dedicated information highway that combines visual cues with body motion. This mechanism triggers responses to cues...

Birds of a feather display only a fraction of possible colours

23 Jun 2011

Research reveals plumages exhibit less than a third of possible colours birds can see.

Secret to night vision found

17 Apr 2009

The night vision abilities of nocturnal animals such as mice is down to the unconventional way that DNA is packaged within the nuclei of specialised...

Guiding the light

01 Sep 2007

Pioneering research shines new light on our understanding of the way we see the world. Optical fibres have now been found to exist in vertebrate eyes...