【文獻分享】自然界的雙焦眼鏡

在最新ㄧ期的Current Biology中，有篇研究論文介紹自然界的雙焦眼鏡～擁有者是某種龍蝨的幼蟲，而這是第一次發現現生物種具有真正的雙焦眼睛。牠們是如何做到？這對牠們又帶來什麼好處？請在文章中找答案。

閱讀過後若對生物視覺產生興趣，當然就別錯過我們今年十一月舉辦的生物物理研習營IV，主題是～

Vision beyond Visibility

蟲魚鳥獸的婆娑視界：視覺中的生物物理

這篇文章，也在本期的Science中報導喔！

Biophysics:

Two Eyes in One

Lisa D. Chong

Nearly 500 million years ago, schizochroal trilobites roamed the oceans, guided by compound eyes with bifocal lenses. In extant animals, the structures of the eye range from those with accommodating lenses (us) to those with multilayered retinas, such as the complex eyes of jumping spiders. Now, to add to these varieties, Stowasser et al. have described a bifocal lens in the larva of the sunburst diving beetle Thermonectus marmoratus. Of its six pairs of eyes, the E2 eyes are tubular and face directly forward. They contain two retinas that are positioned at unequal distances from the lens, with photoreceptors oriented either parallel or perpendicular to the light path. Using a microscope to observe images formed by isolated lenses, the authors measured optical performance and determined that two distinct and well-focused images are produced on the proximal and distal retinas, indicating a true bifocal lens. Moreover, the images are separated vertically, leading to an improved contrast for each of the focused images.