Retinal Rivalry: Rods vs. Cones

This week, EyeWire’s regularly scheduled team competition gets a little nerdier. And of course, if there’s one thing we’re nerdy about, it’s the science of eyeballs! It’s time to learn a bit about some cells in the eye we aren’t tracing, but which you might have already heard of: rods and cones.

Rods and cones are nicknames for two different types of photoreceptor cells in the retina. They’re described as their approximate shapes, as illustrated below (rods in green, cones in blue).

The key difference between rods and cones apart from their shape is that rods are used for vision in low light, while cones are used for vision in bright light. Rods confer night vision; cones confer color vision. Without the former working properly, we aren’t able to see in the dark, and without the latter working properly, we only see in black & white (or we see less colors than the human average).

So, in the spirit of science: what cell’s your style? Are you the stealthy, lurker type, or the colorful life of the party? Team signups start now, and the competition runs for 24 hours beginning at 11 AM Eastern Time, Thursday 11/13!

The usual bonuses:
Earn 5,000 points – 2,500 bonus
Earn 15,000 points – 5,000 bonus
Earn 25,000 points – 10,000 bonus
Every additional 25,000 points – 5,000 bonus
Winning team – 10,000 bonus
Team winner – 2,500 bonus
#1 overall score – 10,000 bonus
#2 overall score – 5,000 bonus
#3 overall score – 2,500 bonus

Edit (2:45 EST 11/11): Apologies, EyeWirers, the team competition interface on the site is experiencing a bug. Signups will open ASAP once the issue is fixed!

Edit (12:44 EST 11/12): And the magic fairies have saved the day! Signups are now open.