I dissected a cow's eye a week ago. It was fun, although the cornea was hard to cut through. Here's some pictures:
The blue thing is the eye itself, only turned inside out. The shiny stuff on the eye is something that cows have that we don't. Basically, it lets them see better in the dark than we can. The sort of clearish thing next to it is the lens (you can see the lens on display in my room if you wish).
The black stuff to the right of the eye is what's left of the cornea. Above that is the sack of vitreous stuff that was attached to the lens, and above that is the iris. 
5 comments:
I've always wanted to dissect a cow's eye, but unfortunately it did not happen in high school. Ah well. Perhaps in college...
Also thought I'd let you know that the Doc Who Series 4 soundtrack is pretty much fab (if I am allowed to use such moderately girlish language in your presence). It's on Youtube, and in a week or so my copy shall arrive... I could let you borrow it sometime thereafter, which is much more convenient than opening a million tabs and going back to them (alas, that is what I must resort to for the present). I was surprised by how much original stuff there was. They also redid a few themes, and I liked those better than the originals... Anyways, I won't gab on about it any longer... just consider yourself notified.
Good heavens. That was convoluted. And strange.
Signing off...
Aw man! That wasn't nearly half as gross as I was expecting :(
So from what I understand, with human eyes, most of the light passes through and gets absorbed in the back. With something like a cow or a cat, there is a shiny reflector on the back that allows light to be reflected so much light that isn't absorbed on the first pass is absorbed on the way back out. Is that a fair statement or do you know yet?
Supposedly the quantum efficiency of a human eye (percentage of incoming photons absorbed) is somewhere around 7% where a cat's is somewhere around 12% or something. I would imagine that the reflector is what causes that. Is this true?
Thanks for posting the pictures by the way!
Inky-Thanks for the notification. I have not gotten around to listening to them all yet, but they sound good so far...
Shadow-I forgot to take pictures of it before I dissected it. It was kinda deflated and the cornea was blue. And then when I cut into it this black stuff squirted out. My Mom said: "Eewww!" and I said "Cool!" And then when Laura saw I still had the lens on my desk, she said: "You're disgusting."
But I still think it was cool, and I can't wait for the other dissections...
:)
Wow. I remember that that was fun. I always liked the colors inside the eye. Do you do the heart next?
Interesting. Oh, and if you ever get the chance to dissect a squid, do so! Coolest thing I have ever dissected! =)
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