Moken people live in Surin Islands, Thailand, and are a modern gypsy tribe with only a few thousand people. They live in a floating tribe composed of dozens of ships and make a living by diving into the sea to catch underwater creatures. They are typical marine peoples. This goes well with their surnames, because what does Malcolm mean? Immersed in the sea? . Although it is a small tribe, its reputation has spread far and wide, because scientists have found that the underwater vision of Moken members is twice that of ordinary Europeans, almost reaching the limit of human vision. Even children can freely pick up small shells, clams and other underwater creatures at a depth of three or four meters. Anna, a researcher at Lund University in Sweden? Ghislain and his colleagues compared some 7~ 14-year-old Moken children with European children, and found that Moken children can distinguish objects less than 1.5 mm wide underwater, while European children can only distinguish objects with a diameter of 3 mm at most.
Why is Moken's underwater vision so outstanding? Is it genetic difference or evolution? With these questions, Anna? Ghislain continues to explore. She found that when Moken people are underwater, their pupils contract, which can squeeze the lens of their eyes to a greater extent than ordinary people, making it thicker and more suitable for bending the light entering their eyes. The method of pupil contraction and lens squeezing can focus blurred images more clearly, so the Moken people have twice the underwater vision of ordinary people.
Although I understand why the Moken people have super powers, Anna? Ghislain is not sure where he learned this ability. Howard, a neurobiologist at Cornell University, USA? Howland said: This is the first time I have seen reports that divers have such strong underwater vision. Although the reason is not clear, I think it is an acquired ability. In addition, evolution will also help those groups with genetic adaptability to obtain better underwater vision. ? Comparatively speaking, Ghislain thinks that environmental factors play a greater role, because preliminary experiments have proved that even if people are not Moken, they can improve their underwater vision as long as they are trained scientifically and reasonably, but they can't reach the level of Moken. It should be said that Moken people have unique genetic advantages in the process of evolution.