Seeing Floaters

Most recent answer: 07/06/2012

Q:
" Follow-Up #1: Seeing sub-atomic particles is difficult Q: well I was looking for the answer to this same question for when out side in daylight.. if you look into the sky and focus there are many hundreds of thousands of little tiny particles .. which look to me like energy.. and like someone stated already they do bounce and jump and move around in all kinds of directions.. but if you focus you should see them.. at least I do.. I just need to know what they are.. and why they are there - Onyx (age 18) Detroit,MI, USA A: Seeing individual subatomic particles is very difficult and I think the effect you are seeing in daylight must be due to something else. Perhaps it is neuronal activity in your eye. Researchers have seen individual particles but in order to do that you must be in a very dark room and the particles must interact with a special florescent screen. I myself once spent an hour in a dark room with a Cobalt 60 source and a scintillator but never saw a darn thing. I was stupid, I could have fried my eyeballs. LeeH " I was searching for information about subatomic particles and saw the above Q & A here http://van.physics.illinois.edu/qa/listing.php?id=1198 I also have been seeing the "little tiny particles" as far back as I can remember. I think the 'particles' that Onyx describes here may be 'floaters'. They seem to be cells or something that are floating in the fluid inside the eye. Is this correct?
- Ronald Ralte (age 35)
Aizawl, Mizoram, India
A:
Floaters are quite common. They are indeed defects in the gelatinous liquid in the eye. (See this Wikipedia article for more details. )

The ones I'm seeing right now, like those I've seen for ~25 years, are stringy and lumpy. They don't move very quickly. It would be unusual to mistake them for subatomic particles. Maybe some people have other types that look different, more particle-like.

Mike W.


(published on 07/06/2012)