Interesting Eye Facts

November 7, 2009 | In: Medical facts

The average person blinks 12 times per minute.

An ostrich’s eye is bigger than it’s brain.

Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.

Babies cry but don’t produce tears until one to three months after birth.

The eyeball of a human weighs approximately 28 grams.

All babies are color blind when they are born.

Our eyebrows are made to keep sweat from running into our eyes.

The eye of a human can distinguish 500 shades of the gray.

Eyes are composed of more than two million working parts.

There is a big hole in our vision, but we don’t usually notice it!
The back of the eye contains a structure called the retina. The retina is packed with light-sensitive cells necessary for vision. There is a spot on the retina, on the side of the eye near the nose, which does not contain these cells. It is the spot where the optic nerve leaves the eye to carry visual information about the world to the brain. This area on the retina results in a large region in the visual field where we cannot see. This “hole” is large enough to fit somebody’s head at a distance of 2 meters (6 feet).

Normally, we are not aware of this huge hole in the visual field because the brain completes lines, forms and patterns that cross the blind spot.