Ultra-Violet Vision: Seeing like the Butterflies and the Bees

Visible light (what we see) versus including ultra-violet light (what the bees see). Images by Klaus Schmitt: http://www.pbase.com/kds315/uv_photos

Dr. Klaus Schmitt has some utterly amazing photographs that simulate what bees and butterflies can see. They can see ultra-violet wavelengths of light, which we can’t.

Schmitt maps the ultra-violet in the image to blue to make it visible to our eyes.

His site (Photography of the Invisible World (updated)) has a lot more pictures and information about the process.

2 thoughts on “Ultra-Violet Vision: Seeing like the Butterflies and the Bees”

  1. Klaus

    Your work is an awesome blend of art and science. My physics students really liked them – I showed them when we were talking about optics – and came up with some very interesting questions, so they were really thinking about it.

    Lensyl

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