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6 Amazing Fun Facts About Our Eyes

It’s easy to take our eyesight for granted! We don’t think about it during a typical day. Here are some remarkable vision tidbits.

Be the life of the party with these facts that few people know about vision!

6 Crazy Facts

  1. Babies are born color blind. Their color perception develops gradually, usually reaching a full ability to recognize and distinguish colors at about 5 months.
  2. Our irises have over 256 unique characteristics. Compare that to fingerprints, which only have about 40. This is why many new security measures have iris scans instead of fingerprint scans.
  3. When we’re attracted to someone, our pupils dilate as much as 45%. In addition, women with dilated pupils are judged to be more attractive. In fact, Italian women in the Middle Ages capitalized on this idea by using belladonna to dilate their own pupils. Don’t try that at home, though; belladonna is toxic to your eyes!
  4. The colossal squid has the largest eyes on the planet, measuring 10.6 inches across!
  5. Why did pirates wear eye patches? It was actually a trick to help them see better. The eye with the patch was used to see in the dark below deck, while the uncovered eye was used for bright light above deck.
  6. Shark corneas are amazingly similar to humans’. They’re close enough that shark corneas have been used for human transplant surgery.

More Cool Animal Eye-Facts

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Share YOUR Interesting Eye Trivia With Us!

We would love to read the awesome eye facts you may know. Comment below to share your favorite! Check in later for more amazing trivia, as well as tips and helpful information about maintaining healthy eyesight.

Thanks for being such wonderful patients. And thanks for your kind referrals of family members, coworkers, neighbors and friends!

Top image by Flickr user Mike Mozart used under Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 4.0 license. Image cropped and modified from original.

Contact Us

Pontiac Family Eye Care
320 N Ladd St.
Pontiac, IL 61764

Phone: 815-842-4304

Fax: 815-844-5495

Email Us

Office Hours

Monday: 8:00am - 5:00pm
Tuesday: 8:00am - 5:00pm
Wednesday: 9:00am - 6:00pm
Thursday: 9:00am - 12:00pm
Friday: 8:00am - 5:00pm
Saturday: By Appointment

We are open at 8:00am on select Thursdays, other Thursdays we open at 9:00am due to morning staff meetings.
We are open on select Saturdays by appointment.
Optical services are available for walk-in or by appointment on Saturdays we're open.
We are open on these Saturdays in 2025: Nov 8, Nov 22 & Dec 13. In 2026: Jan 10, Jan 24, Feb 7, Feb 21, Mar 7, Mar 21, Apr 11, Apr 25, May 9, May 30, Jun 13, Jun 27.

We request notice by 8:00am if you are unable to keep your appointment that day. No shows or late cancellations within 2 business hours of appointment will incur $50 fee.