: D D TE E N H IZ IO IG R T R HO BU PY T I O U TR C T A IS O D N R FO
: D D TE E N H IZ IO IG R T R HO BU PY T I O U TR C T A IS O D N R FO
Who’s who? Look at this image up close, then slowly back away and see what happens.
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: D D TE E N H IZ IO IG R T R HO BU PY T I O U TR C T A IS O D N R FO
marilyn / einstein
This is called a hybrid image. When it’s up close, your eyes find the contours that make up Einstein’s face. From farther away, fine lines are less useful, and you turn your attention to the broader, fuzzier areas that create the portrait of Marilyn Monroe. Find that weird sweet spot where you can’t decide exactly what you’re looking at, and you can practically feel your eyes and brain at work, flipping back and forth between the two images, trying to understand both.
Image © Aude Oliva, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Used with permission.
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: D D TE E N H IZ IO IG R T R HO BU PY T I O U TR C T A IS O D N R FO
Real or fake? That’s the question. The smiles on these two people are not the same. In one photo, each person is responding to a humorous situation; in the other, they’ve been asked to “smile for the camera.” Can you tell the difference between each person’s real and fake smile?
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: D D TE E N H IZ IO IG R T R HO BU PY T I O U TR C T A IS O D N R FO
real title smiles
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These photos show people smiling, but not necessarily because they’re happy. If you look carefully, you’ll see that a real smile involves the muscles around both the mouth and the eyes. When people are genuinely happy, they don’t just smile, their eyes crinkle up as well. A genuine smile is known as a Duchenne’s smile, for the French neurologist who observed the difference in the 1800s. PS: Most people can fake a crinkly-eyed smile if they bother to think about it. Take a look in the mirror and see how convincing you can be.
Photos © Exploratorium
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: D D TE E N H IZ IO IG R T R HO BU PY T I O U TR C T A IS O D N R FO
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It’s all in your head! Nobody’s quite sure why this happens, but scientists it’s becauseut your brain trying keep up with Ad quatem. Itathink alique comnihit, untur autisad quiatto lab inciuntis assi conflicting information from a pattern that keeps flickering in front of dolorectis ma delia culliquis et dolorent por rero maiorem dolessinum your eyes,adit, turning visual signals ondolor and off. dolupitat minvernamus imoditatem quuntis sequatqui debis pario et rernam asinctaest, officipsam ut moluptatios ullut audit doThe cells in your eyes that detect color (called cones because of their shape) luptiunto consequis derum quae con plandam reiusam sum fuga. Ut asi fire and refresh at different rates when you look at different colors. Here, optatatem. Mus rest eos vendem esti simendae volo mo dolum rerum your brain is trying to make sense of the color-rich white in the pattern adis ad modi berum quas solut in pedi blaut fugitatur, sa volesse rupta(white light is made up of all the colors of the rainbow) and the colorless tus, cum illamus min peles et et ressiti totatiis evelit ut plabore pudiblack in the pattern (no color there at all) both at the same time. The colors tae. Nem aut re venet reprepudae deria nis et ab iduci vollatem harum you see are an illusion—created when your eye and brain get out of sync. event officitat offic te es doluptamet liquiat prae earum exerume repudit doloreicius as called adiciisadoluptatur ra numqui alit quo totatur This spinner, Benham’s disk, is named for aconsequo nineteenthreicillam remoluptatum repero que velicab orrovit exeribus. century toy maker who liked to decorate toy tops with the pattern. The elusive Fechner colors are named for the German Ovitat. Aquibusdae vent alignimpore prati cum earulm es doluptatur as psychologist who first studied them. quametur, sit landi ratur res esto magnam ius por maximinus dolori net quat repudiaPS: autCheck remque pedof enis quae eicipic outsandae the order theexpla colors. Then spin te perchitia dio. Tae optiat exerathe quidis excepelecume net laccae volor aut diskdescit in the opposite direction quunte enia and see what happens.
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