The coloured part of the eye is called the iris. There are three basic eye colours-brown, blue and green. A few albino people have red or pink eyes, but these are very rare. In fact they are just as tough as brow eyes, although they are more sensitive to light.
We only see part of the eyeball, although whole eye is as big as a table tennis ball. Light enters the eye through the pupil and passes through the lens. The retina sends the signal to the brain along the optic nerve. The image on the retina is actually upside-down, but the brain corrects it. As we get older our eyesight becomes worse. This happens because the lens isn’t as flexible as when we are young and the eye muscles are weaker.
Our eyes are the most important of our five senses. We receive 80% of our information about the world through our eyes. We also send signals to other people with our eyes. Some eye signals are unconscious. When we look at something nice, our pupils dilate (get bigger). We cry when we are unhappy and sometimes when we are very happy. But we can also control some eye signals. For example, we can wink at someone or raise an eyebrow. Sunglasses make someone appear mysterious or dangerous, because they hide the eyes and so we can’t see the signals.
We find large eyes more attractive. Children have large eyes in proportion to their heads. Cartoon characters always have large eyes, too. We can’t actually change our eyes, but we can make them look bigger with make-up. Eye make-up isn’t new. False eyelashes can make eyelashes longer. Eye shadow on the eyelids can make the eyes look bigger and more dramatic. Glasses can also make eyes look bigger.
We do not normally look into someone’s eyes for long, especially when they are very close. Eye contact can be very threatening, so people only do it when they want to threaten someone. It is also very intimate. It’s also why people don’t look at each other in lifts.