Rethinking the Process of Vision

I have been taken to task by a correspondent (”your work is garbage!”) for not accepting the currently in-vogue genetic explanation that “the gene has been identified that codes for blue sensitive cones… you really don’t have to worry about it anymore…” such nonsense! Following from my thought that we must stop believing that the receptors of the eye are “totally self-contained laboratory spectrometers”, even such an idea, if one thinks about it, is absurd! At the very least that implies some super “intelligent design”. What I propose is that nature accomplishes the task of differentiating wavelengths in the eye in a much simpler and more elegant manner. She uses simple geometry and the recognition of this will hasten our understanding of the processes of evolution! Wavelength differentiation on the retina is accomplished simply by varying the physical dimensions of the protein that forms the inner segments of the receptors! In agreement with the findings of George Wald, there simply are no “blue sensitive” cones. Blue sensitivity (in fact, the precise short wavelength end of the visible spectrum) is determined by rod-rod apposition dimensionality, which, in turn, is determined by the dimensionality of the inner segment of the rod receptor. I do not know how I can make this clearer.

The above mentioned correspondent assumes (or implies) that a direct link has been shown to exist between a specific gene and the formation of the entire structure of a blue sensitive cone entity. Again, when one thinks about it this is nonsense! In searching the literature and talking with friendly geneticists I cannot find that such a direct, all-encompassing linkage exists at all. What genetic connections that have been made seem to involve an indirect link between the genetic apparatus with the broad condition of color blindness or sensitivity (or lack thereof) to blue wavelengths. This is not a direct link at all and could very well follow from my explanation regarding an inner segment dimensionality effect. If I am wrong in this I await someone to enlighten me!

We must stop using and accepting facile statements such as the purely quantum physics construction that “a photon interacts…” (It must be clear that I do not refute this statement but the interaction should properly be termed “a quantum interaction occurs between a light wave and a quantized electron”..that says the same thing but leads somewhere) and the currently fashionable idea that the invocation of genetics “explains” everything. Of course, the fundamental basis for any biological structure is genetic… but the functioning of that structure… the mechanisms involved… in getting from beginning to end - must still be explained. And… the answer seems to be, again quoting Einstein, a matter of simple GEOMETRY.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 18th, 2005 at 3:36 pm and is filed under Color Vision, Genetics, Retina, Rods and Cones, Running Commentary . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.