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‘I’m really just high on life and beauty’: the woman who can see 100 million colours
The Guardian ^ | 29 Jan 2022 | Bronwyn Adcock

Posted on 01/30/2022 6:51:34 PM PST by DUMBGRUNT

“It’s not just an affectation and it’s not artistic licence,” says Antico. “I’m actually painting exactly what I see. If it’s a pink flower and then all of a sudden you see a bit of lilac or blue, I actually saw that.”

Antico is a tetrachromat, which means she has a fourth colour receptor in her retina compared with the standard three which most people have. While those of us with three of these receptors – called cone cells – have the ability to distinguish around one million different colours, tetrachromats see an estimated 100 million.

According to Dr Kimberly Jameson, a University of California scientist who has studied Antico, just having the gene – which around 15% of women have – is not alone sufficient to be a tetrachromat, but it’s a necessary condition. “In Concetta’s case … one thing we believe is that because she’s been painting sort of continuously since the age of seven years old, she has really enlisted this extra potential and used it. This is how genetics works: it gives you the potential to do things and if the environment demands that you do that thing, then the genes kick in.”

(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Science
KEYWORDS: colorreceptors; conecells; retina; tetrachromat
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To: Deaf Smith

—”Nothing was ever the right color or matched, even what she picked out.”

I’m now thinking of my wife’s sister also?

They went out shopping and the sister selected a dress $$$.

And at some event, realize it was the wrong color.

Jeans simply start dark and lighten then get some holes and become shorts.


41 posted on 01/30/2022 8:06:34 PM PST by DUMBGRUNT ("The enemy has overrun us. We are blowing up everything. Vive la France!"Dien Bien Phu last message)
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To: algore

—”I cannot see the difference between a 720p vs a 4k tv at a few feet away.”

Haven’t shopped for a TV in years.
But at the time someone told me to stand WAY BACK and compare them.

At that time the expensive one kind of jumped out at you?

So I spent the extra bucks.


42 posted on 01/30/2022 8:10:15 PM PST by DUMBGRUNT ("The enemy has overrun us. We are blowing up everything. Vive la France!"Dien Bien Phu last message)
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To: lee martell

When I had my first cataract surgery a year ago, I felt like I saw a new universe of colors in that operating room. So I think I understand the phenomenon without ever having hallucinogenic drugs. It really blew me away for a few minutes. I wonder if that’s the kind of color this woman experiences regularly. If so, quite a gift.


43 posted on 01/30/2022 8:17:46 PM PST by FamiliarFace
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To: algore

—” (Homer describes the “wine-dark sea” in Odyssey)”

Just recently read the Emily Wilson translation; highly recommended for readers everywhere.

That was in the footnotes.

“Linguists argue that ancient Greeks perceived blue in a similar way. Greeks certainly could see the color blue, but they didn’t consider it separate from other shades, like green, complicating how exactly they perceived the hue.”

https://t.ly/Voze


44 posted on 01/30/2022 8:21:06 PM PST by DUMBGRUNT ("The enemy has overrun us. We are blowing up everything. Vive la France!"Dien Bien Phu last message)
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To: NWFree

I was wondering what she uses to paint colors that other people can’t perceive.


45 posted on 01/30/2022 8:22:46 PM PST by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: DUMBGRUNT

As in really dumb.


46 posted on 01/30/2022 8:27:10 PM PST by Bethaneidh
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

What do I win, Wink?


47 posted on 01/30/2022 8:28:58 PM PST by Salamander ("Salamander has barbaric tendencies" /Gundog)
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To: Fungi

;)


48 posted on 01/30/2022 8:30:08 PM PST by Salamander ("Salamander has barbaric tendencies" /Gundog)
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To: DannyTN

I spent the last year and half in high school with elective courses and chose 90% art stuff.

My art teacher kept “correcting” my palette when I was painting.

He couldn’t see the colors I was choosing and now I reckon no one else did, either.

:\


49 posted on 01/30/2022 8:33:21 PM PST by Salamander ("Salamander has barbaric tendencies" /Gundog)
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To: DUMBGRUNT

They have smart phone apps that let you see what animals do and they’re awesome.

Critters live in a much cooler visual reality than we do.


50 posted on 01/30/2022 8:35:26 PM PST by Salamander ("Salamander has barbaric tendencies" /Gundog)
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To: lee martell

“Tetrachromatism. I learned a new term today.”

I have another for you: mountebank


51 posted on 01/30/2022 8:35:41 PM PST by TexasGator (UF)
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To: Salamander

That’s terrible.


52 posted on 01/30/2022 8:38:10 PM PST by DannyTN
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To: TexasGator

That (mountebank) is a very dignified sounding word for a pickpocket or a Snakeoil Salesman.


53 posted on 01/30/2022 8:39:04 PM PST by lee martell
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Umm. Does anyone know where I can get a guide dog, cup, and cane really cheap?


54 posted on 01/30/2022 8:39:32 PM PST by j.havenfarm (21 years on Free Republic, 12/10/21! More than 5000 replies and still not shutting up!)
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To: FamiliarFace

I remember reading a book by a photographer; if I recall correctly, he was speaking about photography becoming a ‘new way to see’.

In the discussion, he mentioned the Homer quote about a ‘wine dark sea’, and suggested that maybe some people back then didn’t see colors the same way that modern people do.

I don’t think evolution is done; and maybe there ARE people who can see colors beyond what most of us do.


55 posted on 01/30/2022 8:41:00 PM PST by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: NWFree

25% of the population are tetrachromats. We can see all the colors she paints.


56 posted on 01/30/2022 8:41:06 PM PST by Valpal1
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To: lee martell

Yep.


57 posted on 01/30/2022 8:43:05 PM PST by TexasGator (UF)
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To: j.havenfarm

54. Singing “I Can See Clearly Now”!!


58 posted on 01/30/2022 8:44:33 PM PST by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper (Figures )
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To: Salamander

Lots of farmers I know talk about what’s going on in their fields by color.


59 posted on 01/30/2022 8:46:19 PM PST by Valpal1
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To: DUMBGRUNT

She may have just been a original Karen.


60 posted on 01/30/2022 9:02:23 PM PST by Deaf Smith (When a Texan takes his chances, chances will be taken that's for sure.)
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