The Human Eye

The bewildering complexity of the human eye speaks eloquently of an Almighty Creator. The eye’s retina is less than one square inch in surface area but it contains 137 million light-sensitive receptor cells. 130 million of these are rod cells (which see in black and white) while 7 million are cone cells (which allow color vision). Each photoreceptor cell is more complex than the most sophisticated man-made computer (Alan Gillen, Body by Design, p. 98). And each complex photoreceptor cell replaces itself every seven days. The eye has a dynamic range of 10 billion to one; that is, it will detect a single photon of light and will still work well in an intensity of 10 billion photons. By contrast, modern photographic film has a dynamic range of about 1,000 to one (Jonathan Sarfati, Ph.D., By Design, p. 26), and a high quality single lens reflex (DSLR) camera has a dynamic range of about 2000 to 1. A healthy eye can see the light from a single candle 25 miles away. At every level the human eye demonstrates mind-boggling complexity. For example, in response to bright light, a protein called arrestin rushes to “bind and calm the light-detecting proteins.” Arrestin is shuttled at lightning speed by a motor protein called myosin along special tracks of the cell’s internal skeleton (Sarfati, By Design, p. 27). “For the cell to properly adapt to bright light, arrestin needs to move; if it doesn’t, the cell remains as sensitive to light as it was when it was dark” (C. Montell).

(Friday Church News Notes, July 20, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

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