ExploraTour - Looking at the World in a Different Light
Click on cartoon to see how different a flower can look to a bee
Bees can see ultraviolet light. This is a type of light at higher frequencies than the violet portion of the visible spectrum. It is more energetic than visible light and can cause our skin to sunburn after too long of an exposure. Some flowers have interesting markings when viewed in ultraviolet light that attract bees. Pigments in the petals absorb ultraviolet light and thus appear dark.
Click on the cartoon to see how different a flower can look to a bee in ultraviolet light compared to it's rather plain appearance to us in visible light.
There are other forms of light (called radiant energy). Some carry information to us about violent explosive events in the universe, some tell us about the birth of stars, others tell us how our sun changes over time. All these views of the world would be ours, if we could just see beyond the limits of human vision. Modern technology gives us these views.
But first we have to understand where radiant energy comes from.
