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Chinese Boy Claims To Have Cat-Like Night Vision
Oswald McWeany writes "Reports swirling around the Internet are that a boy in China may have cat-like night vision. The boy with eerie blue-eyes was able to fill out a questionnaire in the dark and his eyes reflect like a cat's when a light is shined on them. No reports yet if he marks his territory or is litter box trained."
Blue eyes? He just uses prescience to find if the answers he's about to write down are correct, much like Paul Muad-Dib the God-Emperor did later in his life. Nothing new here
It is entirely within the normal operating parameters of a cat to have been litter box trained, and also occasionally mark it's territory.
I though I would offer this, as many readers of the summary might assume otherwise.
And there you were complaining about all the toxic waste that cheap manufacturing and lax environment laws in China.
We could have blue-eyed sightseeing children here in the US, but, OH NO, you had to have cheap iPhones!!
From an evolutionary standpoint, I would think such a radical mutation impossible, unless his family has been selectively breeding for night vision for thousands of years.
I suspect instead this is just sensationalism and the boy has moderately better vision in low light, without the reflective light collection mechanisms that exist in other animals.
while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
OMG, this is older than numa numa guy meme.
He had a surgical shine job.
I still have very good night vision, but as I age it's not as effective as it was when I was a teenager. I have above average visual acuity, which I think is the basis of it. Having blue eyes I can't see as being relevent or even reflecting eyes (hay, anyone ever hear of red eye?) His irises are simply able to dilate enough to let in more of the limited light available and has sensitive Rod cells.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
He doesn't even actually have blue eyes and this is an old story.
So many are missing is that evolution tends to jump like this. As such, the implication is not that radiation does it, but that life borrows from each other. We will find a number of virus in the future that are asymptomatic, but are carrying genes from one species to another.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
If there is one probability P among all human races for such a thing to happen, then China would be a place where Math.floor(P * population) just became > 0
There's got to be a ceiling cat / nyan cat joke in here somewhere.
or he'll be screwed.
Do creepers flee when he is near?
Service guarantees Citizenship! Questions Guarantee GITMO.... Amerika Uber Alles!
...to anyone with blue eyes. People with lighter eye color tend to have more sensitive eyes. When in bright light without sunglasses, I tend to walk with my eyes closed, only looking out every couple of seconds to make sure I won't trip, and as I live in southeast Texas, that's pretty often.
http://health.msn.com/health-topics/vision/eye-care-the-causes-of-light-sensitivity
Despite the claims that his eyes have a retroreflective tapetum lucidum, they can't capture it on camera:
http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/2115-china-cat-eyed-boy-night-vision.html
In the footage, Nong's teacher claims the boy's eyes flash when shined with a flashlight in the dark, but the reporters don't seem to be able to catch the effect on camera. When Nong's eyes are illuminated in the dark, they appear normal. James Reynolds, a pediatric ophthalmologist at State University of New York in Buffalo, noted, "A video could capture [eyeshine] easily, just like in nature films of leopards at night."
I can't seem to take a flash photo of my dog without seeing her eyes shine back at me, so I don't see why they can't capture the effect in this boy if it exists.
I think he's just a blue-eyed chinese boy (which is unusual but not unheard of) with exceptionally good low-light vision, but I don't believe he's developed the same low-light vision adaptation that some animals have.
Yeah, I know that cats aren't completely color blind, but they only have about a tenth the density of cones in their eye as a human with normal vision does, and to us, such imagery would look highly desaturated.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
How is there no X-Men reference anywhere in the article or the comments? Are we afraid of copyright lawsuits for uttering the brand? :)
Bow before me, for I am root.
Looking for some authentication here...
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
Does he know the lyrics?
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
My brown eyed wife sees worse in the dark than me.
And I have blue eyes.
Two cases in a row, out of 7,000,000,000 people!
I, for one, welcome our new Atreides overlords.
Scientifically not likely. A working tapetum lucidum doesn't just appear in a mutation. I think those are contacts anyhow.
Jack: Where the hell can I get eyes like that?
Riddick: Gotta kill a few people.
Jack: 'Kay, I can do it.
Riddick: Then you got to get sent to a slam, where they tell you you'll never see daylight again. You dig up a doctor, and you pay him 20 menthol Kools to do a surgical shine job on your eyeballs.
Jack: So you can see who's sneaking up on you in the dark?
Riddick: Exactly.
But prescient vision. His eyes are actually blue-in-blue.
I have red/green colour blindness, and I know I see better in low light than people with normal vision.
According to New Scientist (sorry, can't find the reference), people with colour blindness have the same total number of light-collecting cells in their retina, as people with normal vision - but with a different mix of colour-sensitive cells versus light-shade sensitive cells. The light-sensitive operate down to much lower light levels ("at dusk, all cats are grey").. So the colour-blind person has more of the sensitive cells than a normal-sighted person, and sees better in the dark as a result.
This guy is perhaps an example of an unusual retina - either more cells than usual, or at least more of the light-sensitive cells.
Might I remind you of the phrase "You are what you eat!" It's no wonder a Chinese boy developed a cat-like ability!
It's possible he just has rods, no cones. Is he colorblind to all or most shades of color?
I think it happened because, when I was in gradeschool, my theoretical bedtime was 8pm, but I was allowed to read as long as I could do so by the light coming in the window. By the time I was in junior high, I could read by starlight during a new moon.
The downside is, going outdoors in the daytime is physically uncomfortable, even on overcast days.
The spice must flow, and all that.
A lesser variant of this is not uncommon, or at least not unheard of - the light reflects inside the cornea, helping to amplify and gather light. In bright light, however, this can result in double vision to a greater or lesser extent, and also tends to cause headaches. (I assume that actual feline eyes work differently and/solve these problems)
Speaking as one who has this, it means I wear sunglasses All The Time, I don't turn on lights indoors very often, and I've been pulled over three times so far for forgetting to turn on my headlights. It's not a superpower, it's just above-average night vision.
said about him being his star pupil!
He will soon be the best driver in all of Asia
Did he pay a doctor 20 menthol cools to do a shine job on his eyeballs?
Oh, you're not stuck, you're just unable to let go of the onion rings.
Where is Weekly World News when you need it? They could easily confirm this.
I didn't thought pollution was THAT bad in China.
Or this could be an illegitimate child that the mother refuse to say.....
New Economic Perspectives
What do you call people who have been, "selectively breeding for night vision for thousands of years"?
Ninjas!
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
that you are what you eat.
You are what you eat.
THe wife and I experiment with unregulated gene manipulation all the time, and we're not even in China!
You're right, it's awesome.
I'm pretty sure you can find those at any tourist destination. . . Disneyworld, The Smithsonian, Paris. . .
Read the posts before making your own post. I said this 2 hours before you....
Anonymous Coward
the boy is Persian.
At least he has opposable thumbs, so he can lift the toilet seat.
You are what you eat..... ...sorry, had to.
In the video they said that a teacher noticed that he had to squint in the sunlight when playing. Question: how do you tell when a chinese kid is squinting? Seriously though how do you tell? Some asians have eyes that look more or less closed all the time so how do you tell the difference between someone with normally mostly closed eyes and one that squinting in normal light because it is too bright for them? Wouldn't it be more of the case that you'd notice it when the kid was in a darker room that, "oh look his eyes can open up more"?
Will he haz cheezburgers?
Have you ever seen a typical Chinese person drive?
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
I can't be the only person thinking about FF7 right now, right?
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapetum_lucidum
i guess it's possible to have randomly mutated one of these out of his genetic code. if he survives and mates with others like him and can outcompete the rest of us, it could become the new norm. :)