The Truth About Color Blindness

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Colorblindness is quite common, about 8% of the male population have it. Color blindness, or color vision deficiency, is the incapability to see color, or notice color differences under normal light. Color Blindness can change a person’s life. It can make it harder to read and learn, and certain careers are unavailable (Williams, 2010). The most usual case of color blindness is a sex-linked condition. This is caused by an error in the development of the retinal cones that distinguish color in light and transfer it to the optic nerve. Sometimes a person can acquire color blindness from aging, eye problems, injury or a side affect of A medicine. Color blindness has been around for quite sometime. John Dalton, an English chemist, was the first to report the disorder. He wrote the first scientific paper on color blindness in 1798. The first general condition of color blindness was called Daltonism. Given that both he and his brother were color blind, he realized that this condition has to be hereditary. Dalton believed that a colored liquid inside the eyeball was the reason for color blindness, acting like a tinted shield surrounding the eyeball. Before Dalton died one of his last wishes was to get an autopsy of his eyes after death. Scientists dissected his eye and found no colored liquid. Although Dalton’s theory lost creditability through his life and was proved wrong after his death, Dalton was the first to recognize color vision problems (Wearecolorblind, 2012). After the theory of John Dalton was proved wrong, two men named Thomas Young and Hermann von Helmholtz were the first to propose trichromatic color vision. Once the theory developed, it was not long after the basics were learned. By 1802, Young suggested there were th... ... middle of paper ... ...modified cells that protect against HIV. Gene therapy revoltion. 12. Retrieved March 25, 2014, from io9 Evans, A. (2008). Color Is In The Eye Of The Beholder. Boston, massachusetts: CVD Publishing. Kennard, J. (2007, Janurary 7). Color Blindness in Men. Mens Health. Retrieved February 10, 2014, from About.MensHealth: MensHealth.about.com MedicineNet. (2012, May 14). Color Blindness. Retrieved February 9, 2014, from MedicineNet: MedicineNet.com Phillips, R. H. (1995). Coping With Colorblindness (Vol. 1). New York City, New York: Avery. Wearecolorblind. (2012, Janurary 10). A introduction to colorblindness. Retrieved February 9, 2014, from Wearecolorblind: Wearecolorblind.com WebMD. (2011, April 2011). Eye Health Care. Retrieved Feburary 9, 2014, from WebMD.com Williams, P. (2010). Color Blind A Memoir. New York City, New York: St. Martins Pres.

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