Add your Article
- Agriculture
- Getting the dirt on carbon
- New Gene Fights Potato Blight
- Growing Healthier Tomato Plants
- Chemistry and Materials
- Small but WISE
- Toxic Dirt + Avian Flu = Science Fair Success
- Sticking Around with Gecko Tape
- E Learning Jamaica
- 2014 GSAT Results for Jamaican Kids
- Results of GSAT are in schools this week
- E Learning in Jamaica WIN PRIZES and try our Fun Animated Games
- Earth
- What is groundwater
- Distant Quake Changes Geyser Eruptions
- Meteorites may have sparked life on Earth
- Food and Nutrition
- In Search of the Perfect French Fry
- Turning to Sweets, Fats to Calm the Brain
- Making good, brown fat
- GSAT Exam Preparation Jamaica
- Scotiabank Jamaica Foundation Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) Scholarships
- March 21-22, 2013: Over 43,000 students will take the GSAT Exam
- How are students placed after passing the GSAT exam
- GSAT Exams Jamaica Scholarships
- GSAT Practice Papers | GSAT Mathematics | Maths
- 2014 GSAT Results for Jamaican Kids
- GSAT stars reap scholarship glory
Sea Kids See Clearly Underwater
Published: 07/05/2010
Mermaids probably don't exist. But there are children of certain tribes in Asia who are distinctly fishlike. Called sea gypsies, these island-dwelling people are famous for their swimming and diving skills. A study now shows that sea-gypsy children spend so much time swimming that their eyes have adapted especially well to seeing clearly underwater. If you've ever opened your eyes in a lake without goggles on, you know how hard it can be to find objects or recognize your friends, even at a close distance. That's because our eyes work best in air. Sea gypsies, on the other hand, have lived on the islands and in the waters of Southeast Asia for hundreds of years. From a young age, they learn to swim and dive. Sea-gypsy children have an amazing ability to find morsels of food underwater. To understand how they do it, Swedish researcher Anna Gislen studied the Moken people off the west coasts of Burma and Thailand. In eye exams, 6 Moken children were far better at focusing their eyes and picking out objects underwater than 28 European kids who did the same tests. In both groups, however, underwater vision remained imperfect compared with their above-water eyesight. The researchers think anyone's eyes could get better at seeing underwater with just a few months of practice. Even then, though, the chances of seeing a mermaid underwater would be pretty slim!—E. Sohn
Sea Kids See Clearly Underwater
