The eyes are the last bastion of conscious control in a body where most functions are carried out automatically. It used to be like that, at least.
A young German recently presented scientists with visual evidence of something that had been thought impossible: a previously undetectable genetic mutation.
Pupils dilate in response to changes in lighting conditions, contracting under bright sunlight and widening as night falls.
A person’s pupils may also be altered by their ability to concentrate at a distance or by their emotions, neither of which are within their direct control.
Except for the German guy of 23, of course.
A peculiar trait, which he first observed as a kid, was that a guy could «tremble» by contracting and enlarging his pupils.
In order to make the pupils smaller, he would tense the intraocular muscles, and to make the pupils larger, he would relax them.
«And I can also change the diameter simply by envisioning a dark and bright environment,» he told the scientists.
The tests revealed that the man’s pupils may dilate to 2.4 mm and constrict to 0.88 mm. There is no one else in the world who is capable of doing this.
Researchers are now attempting to determine whether they have encountered a very uncommon genetic anomaly. Maybe being able to adjust one’s pupils is only the next logical stage in human development.
