Ever looked at something and wondered if you are actually seeing it the way it was suppose to be seen? Maybe there is something hidden to the naked eye that other creatures can perceive, but our human senses are too weak to pick up on it, or maybe we don't have the correct sense to begin with to even attempt to see it?
What am i getting at? I'm saying that the environment has more to it than we actual see, smell, feel, hear, and taste. I say the word "see" but is that really the word to use when you are looking at the world through x-ray, or electroreception (the ability to sense electricity)? There are so many senses out there that we don't even think of! I'm going to give a few examples and explain to you what they are, and whether there are actual animals out there that have the "sixth" or "seventh" senses. Some creatures however have the same type of senses that we do, they are just much more elaborate and strong, such as dogs can sense the direction of smells, cats can expand their pupils and shift the muscles around their eyes to see in low light, some birds can see things closer than they are, catfish have taste receptors all over their body, all fish can sense whether they are upside down or not through their special inner ear, and some insects have taste receptors on their feet!
- Chemical Sense: some animals can sense certain chemical changes, such as fish can sense the change is how salty the water is.
- Thermoception: ability to sense changes in temperature. This is not to be confused with our ability to sense temperature change. Ours is actually the homeostatic thermoception which is mainly regulated and detected by use of chemicals sent to the hypothalamus. Whereas some snakes have actual receptors that detect infrared; so it's basically having heat vision. They can concentrate through these receptors, as oppose to their eyes, at night and see things in a way we never could, through heat vision!
- Magnetoception: the ability to actally know which direction you are facing, because you can feel the magnet pole in the North. Birds, and some insects have this.
- Ultraviolet site: seeing things through ultraviolet light, rather than the normal light spectrum as we do. Things don't have the same colors they do when you are an insect, because you see the ultraviolet light.
- X-Ray: electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths between gamma rays and ultraviolet radiation. There are no known creatures that actually see in x-ray, but there are some animals that can feel the radiation associated with it.
- Echolocation: Sound wave detection, such as in bats and dolphins
- Polarized light detection: the detection or sense of the reflection of light. For instance, bees can see ripples in glass and water that we cannot, because they can detect the refracted light that we cannot. So the windshield of a car may look much more rippled to a bee than to us.
The following are some that are not naturally found within our atmosphere, so we have no real need for detecting them:
- Gamma ray
- Radio wave
- Microwaves
So there will always be sounds we don't hear, vibrations we don't feel, and tastes we could never have dreamed of. In a way that's sad, but at the same time all those animals don't perceive those objects and the atmosphere the same way we do, either. For instance, a dandelion in looks white and red to insects, because they see ultra violet light, and many creatures have trouble seeing during the day.
Next time you're walking around outside, imagine for a moment how cool it would be to see things in a different light, but then remember how hard simple tasks would be if you had all those other senses! Imagine taking the garbage out when you can see all the radio waves from the towers, ultra violet light and gamma rays from the atmosphere, while seeing in x-ray, detecting temperature, electricity, and magnetism! you'd never make it to the end of the driveway. ;
What am i getting at? I'm saying that the environment has more to it than we actual see, smell, feel, hear, and taste. I say the word "see" but is that really the word to use when you are looking at the world through x-ray, or electroreception (the ability to sense electricity)? There are so many senses out there that we don't even think of! I'm going to give a few examples and explain to you what they are, and whether there are actual animals out there that have the "sixth" or "seventh" senses. Some creatures however have the same type of senses that we do, they are just much more elaborate and strong, such as dogs can sense the direction of smells, cats can expand their pupils and shift the muscles around their eyes to see in low light, some birds can see things closer than they are, catfish have taste receptors all over their body, all fish can sense whether they are upside down or not through their special inner ear, and some insects have taste receptors on their feet!
- Chemical Sense: some animals can sense certain chemical changes, such as fish can sense the change is how salty the water is.
- Thermoception: ability to sense changes in temperature. This is not to be confused with our ability to sense temperature change. Ours is actually the homeostatic thermoception which is mainly regulated and detected by use of chemicals sent to the hypothalamus. Whereas some snakes have actual receptors that detect infrared; so it's basically having heat vision. They can concentrate through these receptors, as oppose to their eyes, at night and see things in a way we never could, through heat vision!
- Magnetoception: the ability to actally know which direction you are facing, because you can feel the magnet pole in the North. Birds, and some insects have this.
- Ultraviolet site: seeing things through ultraviolet light, rather than the normal light spectrum as we do. Things don't have the same colors they do when you are an insect, because you see the ultraviolet light.
- X-Ray: electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths between gamma rays and ultraviolet radiation. There are no known creatures that actually see in x-ray, but there are some animals that can feel the radiation associated with it.
- Echolocation: Sound wave detection, such as in bats and dolphins
- Polarized light detection: the detection or sense of the reflection of light. For instance, bees can see ripples in glass and water that we cannot, because they can detect the refracted light that we cannot. So the windshield of a car may look much more rippled to a bee than to us.
The following are some that are not naturally found within our atmosphere, so we have no real need for detecting them:
- Gamma ray
- Radio wave
- Microwaves
So there will always be sounds we don't hear, vibrations we don't feel, and tastes we could never have dreamed of. In a way that's sad, but at the same time all those animals don't perceive those objects and the atmosphere the same way we do, either. For instance, a dandelion in looks white and red to insects, because they see ultra violet light, and many creatures have trouble seeing during the day.
Next time you're walking around outside, imagine for a moment how cool it would be to see things in a different light, but then remember how hard simple tasks would be if you had all those other senses! Imagine taking the garbage out when you can see all the radio waves from the towers, ultra violet light and gamma rays from the atmosphere, while seeing in x-ray, detecting temperature, electricity, and magnetism! you'd never make it to the end of the driveway. ;
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