“In the last few years there has accumulated a considerable amount of new and highly precise data describing various visual functions.” – Selig Hecht, 1937.
Vision research is one of the few subject areas in biology with a vigorous and active modern focus and a rich history of relevant quantitative literature. Now that it is no longer necessary for me to navigate the musty stacks of 80-yr-old Welch Hall to find the classic vision papers, many of which, for example, are available online in the Journal of General Physiology, one of my duties as a responsible commentator—to put the new work of Ala-Laurila and colleagues (see Ala-Laurila et al. on p. 153 of this issue) into its proper long-term context and perspective—becomes a bit easier.
That rod and cone ciliary photoreceptor cells are different was first recognized in the 19th century (Schultze,...
