Fast twitch muscles

Your eyes may not be the strongest muscle or move the fastest, but they are the fastest reacting muscles in your body.21 The eye can move in all directions within less than a second and reacts more quickly than other muscles. The muscles move together so you can blink, focus and track movement — all at the same time.

Millions of cones and rods

While dogs have us beat at hearing sounds,22 we can see many more colors and variety in our environment than they can. With 7 million cones and 130 million rods in your eye to detect variations in color, you are able to see nearly 10 million different colors.23

Baby’s eye color may change

Many babies are born with blue eyes that gradually darken over the first year.24 Usually, by 9 months your baby’s eyes will be very close to their permanent color.

Eyelashes

Your eyelashes have an average life span of five months. If you put each of the lashes shed over your life end-to-end it would reach approximately 98 feet.25

Unique eyes

Your fingerprint has 40 unique characteristics, but your retina has 256 unique characteristics making a retinal scan much more secure.26

Eye health

There are 39 million people around the world who are blind.27 Nearly 80 percent of vision problems are preventable or curable. Your eyes heal very quickly; with proper care a corneal scratch may heal in 48 hours. More than 1 million nerve fibers connect each eye to your brain, making this connection so complex that an eye transplant is not yet possible.

Blind spot

Although you don’t see it, each of your eyes has a blind spot in your field of vision where your optic nerve attaches to your retina.28 Your eyes work together to fill in the blind spot of the other.