Episode guide
Sight: How the World Gets Inside Your Head
Light bounces off everything and pours through two small windows, and your brain builds the whole world from it. This episode follows a beam from lamp to mind.
The science, gently
- You see when light reflects off things and lands on the retina at the back of your eye.
- The picture arrives upside down, and your brain calmly turns it over.
- Your eyes detect three colors of light; your brain mixes millions from them.
Wonder together
- What is the most beautiful thing your eyes carried in today?
- How do you think the brain knows to flip the picture?
- What do you see with your eyes closed?
Tonight's calm-down
Close the two windows. The seeing part of your brain gets the night off, and the remembering part takes over, replaying the good frames slowly, dimmer and dimmer, until the reel runs out.