Add your Article
- Chemistry and Materials
- Heaviest named element is official
- Small but WISE
- The newest superheavy in town
- Computers
- The Earth-bound asteroid scientists saw coming
- Lighting goes digital
- Electronic Paper Turns a Page
- 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
- Environment
- Out in the Cold
- Eating Up Foul Sewage Smells
- Animal CSI or from Science Lab to Crime Lab
- Food and Nutrition
- Eat Out, Eat Smart
- Allergies: From Bee Stings to Peanuts
- Moving Good Fats from Fish to Mice
- GSAT Exam Preparation Jamaica
- 10 Common Mistakes When Preparing for the GSAT Math Test
- Results of GSAT are in schools this week
- How are students placed after passing the GSAT exam
- GSAT Exams Jamaica Scholarships
- GSAT Scholarship
- GSAT Exam Preparation
- Results of GSAT are in schools this week
- GSAT Mathematics
- 10 Common Mistakes When Preparing for the GSAT Math Test
- 42,000 students will sit for the GSAT Exam in two weeks
- GSAT Practice Papers | GSAT Mathematics | Maths
- Human Body
- Taking the sting out of scorpion venom
- Kids now getting 'adult' disease
- The tell-tale bacteria
- Parents
- How children learn
- Expert report highlights the importance to parents of reading to children!
- Choosing a Preschool: What to Consider
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
