Friday Science: UV Vision

I read an article about Caribou being able to see in the Ultraviolet light range.  It seems that some rodents, a few birds can see in the UV range of the light spectrum.  There is research being done on the caribou to figure out how their eye handles the higher UV exposure of the northern latitudes.  a large portion of older human vision is corrupted by UV light. 

What do they see, I guess with almost everything white in the winter, including polar bears and wolves it just helps them distinguish enemies from friends a little bit sooner.  Maybe they can tell the difference between thin ice from thick ice.  Mostly, it is just another survival tool.  The UV does not seem to degrade the Caribou's eyesight. 

I am constantly stunned by the variety of research that people get involved with.  It is serendipitously cool, all the time. 

This is where I get up on my soap box to shout out to the masses about "basic research".  Cutting funding for education, research, EPA, and NIH will only hurt this country and its ability to sustain itself.  How are the war mongers going to stay on top of the heap if the country does not support science and free thought.  China, India and South Korea are spending twice as much on education and almost twice as much per person on research as we are.  I cannot stand it any more, I gotta go kick some ass.