‘The Evolution of the Human Eye’, A Short Animation Explaining How the Eye Has Adapted Throughout the Years

In the TED-Ed animation “The Evolution of the Human Eye,” educator Joshua Harvey explains how the human eye has changed and adapted over the course of many, many years and what’s being done to improve vision in the future.

The human eye is an amazing mechanism, able to detect anywhere from a few photons to direct sunlight, or switch focus from the screen in front of you to the distant horizon in a third of a second. In fact, the structures required for such incredible flexibility were once considered so complex that Charles Darwin himself acknowledged that the idea of there having evolved seemed absurd in the highest possible degree. And yet, that is exactly what happened, starting more than 500 million years ago. …Today, doctors and scientists are looking at different eye structures to help design bio-mechanical implants for the vision impaired. And in the not so distant future, the machines built with the precision and flexibility of the human eye may even enable it to surpass its own evolution.