Cracking the Colour Code - SBS 8:30 Tonight

[snowyskiesau]

Thought this might be of interest to an astronomy group, especially the photographers.

Part 1 of a 3 part series.

[Glenhuon]

"Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection" :)
Seriously, thanks for the heads up, will make a point of watching.

Cheers
Bill

[avandonk]

Colour does not exist! It is merely the the brains interpretation of luminance differences produced by the receptors in your eyes that are sensitive to different spectral bandwidths. The so called colour receptors.

Bert

[spacezebra]

Thanks for the heads up!

Cheers Petra d.

[h0ughy]

watching it now - hey fred watson is in it

[MrB]

Thanks!

[Omaroo]

How well presented is this? It's so refreshing to have a calm and collected narrator with a smooth and authoratative voice without it being rammed down your throat ala. Discovery Channels' "listen to me or you're going to die" sensationalism.

Great to see Fred Watson doing what he does best - educating. :)

One of the best documentaries I've seen in a long, long time!!!

[Robert9]

This was a very interesting program. Particularly impressed by the experiment with the monkey, genetically altering some of its colour-receptors in the eye to give it full tri-colour vision. If only it were possible to genetically change human colour sensitivity such that we had coloured night vision. It would give a new dimension to observational astronomy - colour!

[Enchilada]

There is one possibility. Colour genetic defects in women may mean they can be so-called tetrachromatic or have tetrachromatic vision . These are likely women who have had sons who are “dichromats”. (Jordan, G, Mollon, J.D. “A study of women heterozygous for colour deficiencies.”, Vision Research, 33, 1495-1508 (1993)) It involves switching on both XX-chromosomes. Here, they would mismatch the common colours we all see, but they have slightly better capabilities in separating the wide range of red to orange colours. However, such women are presently literally one-in-a-million.
If you could change this permanently it would cause a serious ethical problem, because all women could have the "improvement", but unfortunately no any men!! :sadeyes:
Sadly changing us humans altogether would be interesting, though we might be considered a different species with such modifications. I.e. Homo Novas. Natural selection seems to have no real need for us to see colours at night, because we are meant to sleep at night and we have our circadian rhythms fixed to the rise of the sun each day. Break that and it might make us all psychological a little out of whack! :eyepop:

Nice idea though! :thumbsup:

Look forward to the other two parts of the series!

[Enchilada]

Just a short reminder. Part 2 of this wonderful series will be shown tonight on SBS ONE at 8:30 pm.

Worthy to watch and fascinating insight whether you are serious about astronomer or not. Must see TV. (Can't wait.) :thumbsup:

Comment; A useful review of this Series on DVD is at;
http://www.sbs.com.au/shop/product/category/DVDs/182/Cracking-the-Colour-Code The on-line price at Dymocks is $24.95, which I have one on order, but it wasn't in stock when I went to the store.

[Jen]

:doh:Oh bugger i missed the last one will try to remember tonight :thumbsup:

[MrB]

oops, I recorded last weeks episode but haven't watched it yet...
It clashes with Spicks & Specks on ABC1, so will have to record all future episodes too. It's going to chew up a bit of my lappies HDD space :/

[Omaroo]

Great second episode. What a truly wonderful series.

[Enchilada]

Just a very gentle reminder, Part 3 "The Power of Colour" - the final episode of this fantastic series is on 8.30pm on SBS ONE or SBS HD.

Don't miss it. Apparently it is the best one of the three...

Can't Wait! :)

[Enchilada]

So far, it absolutely reminds me of the introduction to a Colour Course I once did. Seventeen females, one male (me) - so it was, of course, more fashion and cosmetics based. :sadeyes:

Goes well with my favourite Sigfrid A. Forsius (1611) quote;

“The form is the body of the colour, the colour is the soul of the form.”

(Pity the show this on the same night of State of Origin. They would have of something out of it, though, because it explained the perceptions of the 'blues' and the 'reds'!)

Only negative, though. Wish the more technical aspects of colour were covered. I.e. hue, saturation and brightness. They bandied the terms but never explained them.

[DJDD]

interesting - the bit about painting prisons pink and getting inmates to wear pink clothes.

[rogerg]

I only saw this for the first time last night. It was really interesting!

It got me thinking about my workplace. I sit in an office which is underground, with a charcoal coloured desk, charcoal coloured office partitions, and black PC & keyboard. Black pen holder too! Medium quality fluro lighting. I usually don't leave the office between 8am and 4:30pm. The show really got me thinking about the effect of all that - if that's one reason my sleep patterns aren't brilliant and why I often find it hard being alert at work. Compare that to when I work from home and I'm much more alert. I thought it was the fresh air, but now I'm wondering if it's as obvious as the lighting. It's like night time in my office!

Roger.