What are those floaty things in your eye? - Michael Mauser
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Sometimes, against a uniform, bright background such as a clear sky or a blank computer screen, you might see things floating across your field of vision. What are these moving objects, and how are you seeing them? Michael Mauser explains the visual phenomenon that is floaters.
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3 Open Answer Questions Dig Deeper Learn More Discuss 1 Guided Discussion &
9 Open Discussions
The astronomer Johannes Kepler was the first scientist to explain that the eye works by focusing an image of the outside world onto the retina. However, we can see floaters just in front of the retina and white blood cells moving in the capillaries on the retina because of the shadows they cast and the light they let through. No focusing of an image is involved. Can you think of any other things and ways we might see that also do not rely on the focusing of an image on the retina?
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Meet The Creators
- Educator Michael Mauser
- Producer Stephen Whittle
- Animator Jane E. Davies
- Script Editor Alex Gendler
- Narrator Pen-Pen Chen
