Keep Your Third Eye Closed. No Really.

A recent paper published on Cell Press proposes that our pineal organ is a modified primitive eye. This eye was once used to detect light and dark by some of our most ancient monocular ancestors. Eventually two additional eyes formed from this one and, as our reliance on binocular vision increased, this third eye became used less and less. While still visible in many reptiles, in mammals it has migrated deep into our brains. So yeah, don't even try to open that sucker up. No way that would turn out well.

For easier reading, you can check out this article on The Conversation. Or if you'd rather watch a presentation about it, I learned about this discovery on the youtube channel of Anton Petrov, who covers many other topics like this that you might enjoy, including the meteor craters I wrote about the other day.

-- Ben Williams