Did you know your eye is the fastest muscle in your body? Hence, the phrase: “In the blink of an eye.” Not many people know just how complex the human eye really is. It is so complex that the most complicated camera doesn’t come close! Every part of the eye is necessary to allow us to see the wonders of the world.

After the brain, your eyes are the second most complex organ in your body. Most of us are familiar with fingerprinting – yet retina scans are now commonly being used for security purposes instead: your fingerprint has 40 unique characteristics, whereas your iris has 256. Here are some other interesting facts about the human eye:

• Eyes are made up of over 2 million working parts.
• Each individual eye contains 107 million cells and all are light sensitive.
• Your eyes are about 1 inch across and weigh about 0.25 ounce.
• Eyes remain the same size throughout life, whereas our nose and ears never stop growing.
• The world’s most common eye color is brown.
• The human eye can differentiate approximately 10 million different colors.
• The human eye blinks an average of 4,200,000 times a year.
• Your eye is the fastest muscle in your body. Hence, the phrase: “In the blink of an eye.”
• Brown eyes are blue eyes underneath. Consequently, a person can receive surgery in order to make their brown eyes blue.
• “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue” is a song recorded by American country music artist Crystal Gayle.
• It is impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.
• 80% of all learning comes through the eyes.
• Your eyes focus on 50 different objects every second.
• The average person blinks 12 times a minute (bet you just blinked!).

Eye Care Professionals
The human eye contains enough complexity to warrant specialized attention and care beyond the duties of a general practitioner. These specialists, or eye care professionals, serve different functions in different countries. Eye care professionals can have overlap in their patient care privileges. For example, both an ophthalmologist (M.D.) and optometrist (O.D.) are professionals who diagnoses eye disease and can prescribe lenses to correct vision. However, typically only ophthalmologists are licensed to perform surgical procedures. Ophthalmologists may also specialize within a surgical area, such as cornea, cataracts, laser, retina, or oculoplastics.

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