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Girl With Kaleidoscope Eyes
A NEWLY DISCOVERED GENETIC CONDITION HAS BEEN FOUND TO GIVE SOME WOMEN SUPERHUMAN VISION. MAUREEN SEABERG IS ONE OF THEM.
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WOMEN WITH THE TETRACHROMACY GENE CAN SEE UP TO 100 TIMES MORE COLORS THAN PEOPLE WITH NORMAL SIGHT.
A little over a decade ago I took a trip to Ireland, where the owners of my bed-and-breakfast called me to a window to look out at the fields. I had arrived late the night before and hadn't yet seen the countryside in all its verdant glory. "Do you see them, the 40 shades of green?" my host asked. For most people, the old Irish cliche is hyperbole, but to me it was a gross understatement--I could see 40 shades in a single blade of grass. "There are so many more than that," I said, smiling at the sight of emerald, yes, but also peridot and jade and malachite and sea glass and verdigris and everything in between.
After this and countless episodes like it, it began to dawn on me that there was something unusual about the way I see the world. Then, in the summer of 2013, I made a discovery that finally offered an explanation: I have the genetic potential for a trait called tetrachromacy. This means I have a mutation in my genes that creates additional color receptors in my retinas, giving me the potential to see up to 100 times more than the one million shades seen by normal people, or "trichromats." Trichromats have three classes of pigment receptors (also known as cones); I have four. We tetrachromats are always women, and as much as 12 percent of the female population carries these extra genes--though a much smaller proportion are what are known as functional tetrachromats, or those who can actually perceive all the colors their eyes are equipped to...