Half an Eye
An open book on the evolution of the eye

Half an Eye

Every stage between a light-sensitive patch and the eye you are reading this with is still in use somewhere in the animal kingdom. This book walks through them, with the evidence for each.

See the contents
420 nm · 498 nm · 534 nm · 564 nm: the peak sensitivities of the four kinds of human photoreceptor, one for each part of the book.

Contents

Part I 420 nm

Foundations

  1. 1What an eye does · coming
  2. 2The toolkit · coming
  3. 3The physics of seeing · coming
Part II 498 nm

From light patch to image

  1. 4Step by step · coming
  2. 5Eyes in stone · coming
  3. 6Our eyes · coming
  4. 7Again and again · coming
Part III 534 nm

The diversity of eyes

  1. 8Camera eyes · coming
  2. 9Compound eyes · coming
  3. 10Mirror eyes · coming
  4. 11Vision without eyes · coming
  5. 12Colour · coming
Part IV 564 nm

Imperfection and trade-off

  1. 13The inverted retina · coming
  2. 14No perfect eye · coming
  3. 15Losing eyes · coming
  4. 16When human eyes fail · coming

Chapters are published one at a time, as each is checked against its sources.