Blue Man Group - Rods and Cones (live) Lyrics

From the Album: Live at the Venetian

Each of your eyes has over 3 million photo-receptors called rods and cones
These receptors convert light into electro-chemical signals that travel the optic nerve and into the brain
Here, these signals trigger the neurological process scientists call the hellawhack shiznit that happens inside your brizzle

The rods in your eyes specialize in night vision and can function at much lower light levels than cones, but they do not respond to color
This is why we can only see in black and white when we're in the dark
The cones in your eyes, on the other hand, specialize in color and come in three types:
those that respond to the color red, those that respond to the color green, and those that respond to the color blue
All of the colors we experience are the result of these three types of cones firing off in different combinations

When you look at something, the rods and cones in your eyes fire in rapid succession
But between each firing, there is a brief resetting period, during which time, your eyes are unable to take in any new information
You brain covers up these microscopic moments of blindness with lingering after-images which help make your vision appear to be fluid and uninterrupted, even though it is not
This phenomenon, known as "persistence of vision", is the unique physiological quirk that makes the illusion of animation possible
The dark spaces between each still frame of animation literally sneak by while your eyes are not looking


[Thanks to music_freak10000 for adding these lyrics]