Color My World

A simple explanation of tetrachromacy is the opposite of color blindness. It is fairly common in birds,insects and some fish but much more rare in humans,and almost exclusively found in females. A tetrachromat when looking at a rainbow will see hundreds of distinct colors rather than the six to eight most people see. Most people have three types of cone cells (trichromats) with the color blind (dichromats) the number of cone cells are more limited,perceiving only blue and red or blue and green. Tetrachromats are believed to be able to see thousands if not millions of different color shades and to differentiate between subtle tones. Some tetrachromats may also be able to see ultra-violet and infrared,like insects and fish. There are some doubting biologists that don't believe the existence of tetrachromacy,and those who do concede it is exceedingly rare with as few as 0.25% of the population having the ability. Others suggest it is a somewhat common mutation,and that 2-3% of women possess it,but no men.