Let me rephrase the question – Do we call the Visible Spectrum that because that’s what we can see or is there something different about that part of electromagnetic spectrum (ES) that allow vision to occur. Alternately, If light is dual in nature, being both a wave and a particle, is that the same for other parts of the ES?
Which brings me to the question that I’m most curious about; would it be possible for a creature exist that can see, the same way we see, but using frequencies from other areas of the ES?
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Visible light isn’t really different from other parts of the EM spectrum.
It is just the part that our eyes can see.
There are animals which can see other parts of the spectrum. It is all mostly centered on the same part we can see and extends further in one direction or other, because that part is good for seeing things in the world we live in.
Birds tend to see more in the ultra-violet range than we do and some insects and arthropods can see a lot more with their eyes than we do. Mantis shrimp are often held up as example of just how much it is possible to see (mantis shrimp can also punch hard enough to plasma burst from cavitation not unlike a Street Fighter character, they are weird).
As far as sensing em waves not with eyes goes. Some snakes have infra red sensing organs. It is not really “seeing” but they can sense things that give of infrared waves and thus can find prey that is warmer than the surroundings.
Biological receptors too far from visible light would be both complicated and relatively useless to have under most circumstances but probably not impossible.
It’s the section bordered by heat which wouldn’t be much good, as if you could see body temperature, you’d either get a constant glow from the heat of your eyeballs or have to have eyes cooler than the rest of your body.
The other end is UV, which gets into the damaging range so your eyes filter that part out.
There are boundaries, eg, sunglasses to cut out even more UV, someone decently famous had a cataract taken out and could apparently see more into UV.
It’s the section bordered by heat which wouldn’t be much good, as if you could see body temperature, you’d either get a constant glow from the heat of your eyeballs or have to have eyes cooler than the rest of your body.
The other end is UV, which gets into the damaging range so your eyes filter that part out.
There are boundaries, eg, sunglasses to cut out even more UV, someone decently famous had a cataract taken out and could apparently see more into UV.
It’s the section bordered by heat which wouldn’t be much good, as if you could see body temperature, you’d either get a constant glow from the heat of your eyeballs or have to have eyes cooler than the rest of your body.
The other end is UV, which gets into the damaging range so your eyes filter that part out.
There are boundaries, eg, sunglasses to cut out even more UV, someone decently famous had a cataract taken out and could apparently see more into UV.
All electromagnetic radiation is the same phenomena. There’s nothing special about visual light. It’s just what our eyes are adapted to see of the entire spectrum. Light isn’t dual in nature. Light is light and we just don’t have a good explanation for it currently and depending on the specifics it’s sometimes preferable to talk about it as either a wave or a particle but light is its own thing.
The answer to your question is yes. As long as the creature in question has some kind of sensory adaptation for a specific frequency of electromagnetic radiation then they will sense it. Technically you can sense infra red light. That’s why you feel hot on a sunny day or infant of a fire. Heat is just infrared light.
All electromagnetic radiation is the same phenomena. There’s nothing special about visual light. It’s just what our eyes are adapted to see of the entire spectrum. Light isn’t dual in nature. Light is light and we just don’t have a good explanation for it currently and depending on the specifics it’s sometimes preferable to talk about it as either a wave or a particle but light is its own thing.
The answer to your question is yes. As long as the creature in question has some kind of sensory adaptation for a specific frequency of electromagnetic radiation then they will sense it. Technically you can sense infra red light. That’s why you feel hot on a sunny day or infant of a fire. Heat is just infrared light.
All electromagnetic radiation is the same phenomena. There’s nothing special about visual light. It’s just what our eyes are adapted to see of the entire spectrum. Light isn’t dual in nature. Light is light and we just don’t have a good explanation for it currently and depending on the specifics it’s sometimes preferable to talk about it as either a wave or a particle but light is its own thing.
The answer to your question is yes. As long as the creature in question has some kind of sensory adaptation for a specific frequency of electromagnetic radiation then they will sense it. Technically you can sense infra red light. That’s why you feel hot on a sunny day or infant of a fire. Heat is just infrared light.
I think some of the posts miss a few details about why 100s of nanometres is a good place to be able to “see”.
Any shorter and we’re in the ionising range, any longer and proteins would have to be too large to detect them (and photon energies would be too low).
Thankfully the atmosphere allows only light (and a little UV and IR) through so that’s what evolution has worked around. Proteins are just the right size to work as detectors.
Alien planets using familiar carbon based life could evolve around longer wavelengths for “sight”, but something needs to block ionising radiation.
I think some of the posts miss a few details about why 100s of nanometres is a good place to be able to “see”.
Any shorter and we’re in the ionising range, any longer and proteins would have to be too large to detect them (and photon energies would be too low).
Thankfully the atmosphere allows only light (and a little UV and IR) through so that’s what evolution has worked around. Proteins are just the right size to work as detectors.
Alien planets using familiar carbon based life could evolve around longer wavelengths for “sight”, but something needs to block ionising radiation.
I think some of the posts miss a few details about why 100s of nanometres is a good place to be able to “see”.
Any shorter and we’re in the ionising range, any longer and proteins would have to be too large to detect them (and photon energies would be too low).
Thankfully the atmosphere allows only light (and a little UV and IR) through so that’s what evolution has worked around. Proteins are just the right size to work as detectors.
Alien planets using familiar carbon based life could evolve around longer wavelengths for “sight”, but something needs to block ionising radiation.
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