How Does Tetrachromacy: The Women Who See 100 Million Colors Work?

Most people can see about a million colors, but some women can see up to 100 million, and it all starts with their eyes.

Imagine your eye is like a special detective team that catches light from the world around you. Most people have three detectives, one for red, one for green, and one for blue. These detectives work together to figure out what color something is. But some women have four detectives, including one extra for a kind of green. This means they can see more shades and mix them in ways others can't.

When light hits an object, it sends signals into your eye. The detectives inside your eye each catch a part of that signal, like pieces of a puzzle. They send their clues to your brain, which puts everything together so you see color.

If you have four detectives instead of three, your brain gets more detailed clues. That means you can tell apart colors that look the same to most people, kind of like how you might notice different shades of gray in a picture that looks all black and white to someone else.

So next time you're looking at a rainbow or a colorful painting, imagine some people are seeing extra colors just because their detective team has one more member!