1.

2 THE SENSE OF TOUCH

You might be surprised to find out it's the skin, which you might not think of as an organ. No matter
how you think of it, your skin is very important. It covers and protects everything inside your body.
Without skin, people's muscles, bones, and organs would be hanging out all over the place. Skin holds
everything together. It also:

 1. protects our bodies

 2. helps keep our bodies at just the right temperature
 3. allows us to have the sense of touch

Don't Miss Your Epidermis

The skin is made up of three layers, each with its own important parts. The layer on the outside is
called the epidermis (say: eh-pih-dur-mis). The epidermis is the part of your skin you can see.

Look down at your hands for a minute. Even though you can't see anything happening, your epidermis
is hard at work. At the bottom of the epidermis, new skin cells are forming.

When the cells are ready, they start moving toward the top of your epidermis. This trip takes about 2
weeks to a month. As newer cells continue to move up, older cells near the top die and rise to the
surface of your skin. What you see on your hands (and everywhere else on your body) are really dead
skin cells.

Bye-Bye Skin Cells

These old cells are tough and strong, just right for covering your body and protecting it. But they only
stick around for a little while. Soon, they'll flake off. Though you can't see it happening, every minute
of the day we lose about 30,000 to 40,000 dead skin cells off the surface of our skin.

So just in the time it took you to read this far, you've probably lost about 40,000 cells. That's almost 9
pounds (4 kilograms) of cells every year! But don't think your skin might wear out someday. Your
epidermis is always making new skin cells that rise to the top to replace the old ones. Most of the cells
in your epidermis (95%) work to make new skin cells.

And what about the other 5%? They make a substance called melanin (say: mel-uh-nun). Melanin
gives skin its color. The darker your skin is, the more melanin you have. When you go out into the
sun, these cells make extra melanin to protect you from getting burned by the sun's ultraviolet, or UV,
rays.

That's why your skin gets tan if you spend a lot of time in the sun. But even though melanin is mighty,
it can't shield you all by itself. You'll want to wear sunscreen and protective clothing, such as a hat, to
prevent painful sunburns. Protecting your skin now also can help prevent skin cancer when you get
older.

The Dermis Is Under the Epidermis

The next layer down is the dermis (say: dur-mis). You can't see your dermis because it's hidden
under your epidermis. The dermis contains nerve endings, blood vessels, oil glands, and sweat glands.
It also contains collagen and elastin, which are tough and stretchy.

The nerve endings in your dermis tell you how things feel when you touch them. They work with your
brain and nervous system, so that your brain gets the message about what you're touching. Is it the
soft fur of a cat or the rough surface of your skateboard?

Sometimes what you feel is dangerous, so the nerve endings work with your muscles to keep you
from getting hurt. If you touch something hot, the nerve endings in your dermis respond right away:
"Ouch! That's hot!" The nerves quickly send this message to the brain or spinal cord, which then
immediately commands the muscles to take your hand away. This all happens in a split second,
without you ever thinking about it.

Dermis = Lots of Blood Vessels

Your dermis is also full of tiny blood vessels. These keep your skin cells healthy by bringing them the
oxygen and nutrients they need and by taking away waste. These blood vessels are hard to see in
kids, but you might get a better look if you check out your grandparents' skin. As the dermis gets
older, it gets thinner and easier to see through.

The dermis is home to the oil glands, too. These are also called sebaceous (say: sih-bay-shus)
glands, and they are always producing sebum (say: see-bum). Sebum is your skin's own natural oil.
It rises to the surface of your epidermis to keep your skin lubricated and protected. It also makes your
skin waterproof — as long as sebum's on the scene, your skin won't absorb water and get soggy.

You also have sweat glands on your epidermis. Even though you can't feel it, you actually sweat a tiny
bit all the time. The sweat comes up through pores (say: pors), tiny holes in the skin that allow it to
escape. When the sebum meets the sweat, they form a protective film that's a bit sticky.

An easy way to see this film in action is to pick up a pin with your fingers. Then wash your hands well
with soap and water and dry them off completely. Now try to pick up that pin again. It won't be so
easy because your sticky layer is gone! Don't worry — it will be back soon, as your sebaceous and
sweat glands create more sticky stuff.

The Third Layer Is Subcutaneous Fat

The third and bottom layer of the skin is called the subcutaneous (say: sub-kyoo-tay-nee-us) layer.
It is made mostly of fat and helps your body stay warm and absorb shocks, like if you bang into
something or fall down. The subcutaneous layer also helps hold your skin to all the tissues underneath
it.

This layer is where you'll find the start of hair, too. Each hair on your body grows out of a tiny tube in
the skin called a follicle (say: fah-lih-kul). Every follicle has its roots way down in the subcutaneous
layer and continues up through the dermis.

You have hair follicles all over your body, except on your lips, the palms of your hands, and the soles
of your feet. And you have more hair follicles in some places than in others — there are more than
100,000 follicles on your head alone!

Your hair follicles rely on your sebaceous glands to bring on the shine. Connected to each follicle in the
dermis layer is a tiny sebaceous gland that releases sebum onto the hair. This lightly coats the hair
with oil, giving it some shine and a little waterproofing.

Skin Can Warm and Cool You

Your skin can help if you're feeling too hot or too cold. Your blood vessels, hair, and sweat glands
cooperate to keep your body at just the right temperature. If you were to run around in the heat, you
could get overheated. If you play outside when it's cold, your inner temperature could drop. Either
way, your skin can help.

Your body is pretty smart. It knows how to keep your temperature right around 98.6° Fahrenheit (37°
Celsius) to keep you and your cells healthy. Your skin can respond to messages sent out by your
hypothalamus (say: hy-po-thal-uh-mus), the brain's inner thermometer. If you've been running
around on a hot day, your blood vessels get the signal from the hypothalamus to release some of your
body's heat. They do this by bringing warm blood closer to the surface of your skin. That's why you
sometimes get a red face when you run around.

To cool you down, sweat glands also swing into action by making lots of sweat to release body heat
into the air. The hotter you are, the more sweat your glands make! Once the sweat hits the air, it
evaporates (this means that it changes from a liquid to a vapor) off your skin, and you cool down.

What about when you're ice-skating or sledding? When you're cold, your blood vessels keep your body
from losing heat by narrowing as much as possible and keeping the warm blood away from the skin's
surface. You might notice tiny bumps on your skin. Most kids call these goosebumps, but the fancy
name for them is the pilomotor (say: py-lo-mo-ter) reflex. The reflex makes special tiny muscles
called the erector pili (say: ee-rek-tur pie-lie) muscles pull on your hairs so they stand up very
straight.

Keep It Clean!

Unlike other organs (like your lungs, heart, and brain), your skin likes a good washing. When you
wash your skin, use water and a mild soap. And don't forget to cover scrapes and cuts with gauze or a
bandage. This keeps the dirt out and helps prevent infections. It's just one way to be kind to the skin
you're in!
1.3 THE SENSE OF SMELL

A big batch of cookies coming out of the oven. Your gym bag full of dirty clothes. How do you smell
these smells and thousands more? It's your nose, of course.

Your nose lets you smell and it's a big part of why you are able to taste things. The nose is also the
main gate to the respiratory system, your body's system for breathing. Let's be nosy and find out
some more about the nose.

Nose Parts

The nose has two holes called nostrils. The nostrils and the nasal passages are separated by a wall
called the septum (say: sep-tum). Deep inside your nose, close to your skull, your septum is made of
very thin pieces of bone.

Closer to the tip of your nose, the septum is made of cartilage (say: kar-tel-ij), which is flexible
material that's firmer than skin or muscle. It's not as hard as bone, and if you push on the tip of your
nose, you can feel how wiggly it is.

Behind your nose, in the middle of your face, is a space called the nasal cavity. It connects with the
back of the throat. The nasal cavity is separated from the inside of your mouth by the palate (roof of
your mouth).

Getting the Air in There

When you inhale air through your nostrils, the air enters the nasal passages and travels into your
nasal cavity. The air then passes down the back of your throat into the trachea (say: tray-kee-uh),
or windpipe, on its way to the lungs.

Your nose is also a two-way street. When you exhale the old air from your lungs, the nose is the main
way for the air to leave your body. But your nose is more than a passageway for air. The nose also
warms, moistens, and filters the air before it goes to the lungs.
The inside of your nose is lined with a moist, thin layer of tissue called a mucous membrane (say:
myoo-kus mem-brayne). This membrane warms up the air and moistens it. The mucous membrane
makes mucus, that sticky stuff in your nose you might call snot. Mucus captures dust, germs, and
other small particles that could irritate your lungs. If you look inside your nose, you will also see hairs
that can trap large particles, like dirt or pollen.

If something does get trapped in there, you can probably guess what happens next. You sneeze.
Sneezes can send those unwelcome particles speeding out of your nose at 100 mph!

Further back in your nose are even smaller hairs called cilia (say: sill-ee-uh) that you can see only
with a microscope. The cilia move back and forth to move the mucus out of the sinuses and back of
the nose. Cilia can also be found lining the air passages, where they help move mucus out of the
lungs.

Sniff, Sniff, Take a Whiff

The nose allows you to make scents of what's going on in the world around you. Just as your eyes
give you information by seeing and your ears help you out by hearing, the nose lets you figure out
what's happening by smelling. It does this with help from many parts hidden deep inside your nasal
cavity and head.

Up on the roof of the nasal cavity (the space behind your nose) is the olfactory epithelium (say: ol-
fak-tuh-ree eh-puh-thee-lee-um). Olfactory is a fancy word that has to do with smelling. The
olfactory epithelium contains special receptors that are sensitive to odor molecules that travel through
the air.

These receptors are very small — there are at least 10 million of them in your nose! There are
hundreds of different odor receptors, each with the ability to sense certain odor molecules. Research
has shown that an odor can stimulate several different kinds of receptors. The brain interprets the
combination of receptors to recognize any one of about 10,000 different smells.

How Signals Get Sent

When the smell receptors are stimulated, signals travel along the olfactory nerve to the olfactory bulb.
The olfactory bulb is underneath the front of your brain just above the nasal cavity. Signals are sent
from the olfactory bulb to other parts of the brain to be interpreted as a smell you may recognize, like
apple pie fresh from the oven. Yum!
Identifying smells is your brain's way of telling you about your environment. Have you ever smelled
your toast burning? In an instant, your brain interpreted the smell and a problem and you knew to
check on your toast.

You learned to associate a certain smell with burning and now your brain remembers that smell so you
recognize it. Your sense of smell also can help you keep safe. For example, it can warn you not to eat
something that smells rotten or help you detect smoke before you see a fire.

Tastes Great!

Most people just think of the tongue when they think about taste. But you couldn't taste anything
without some help from the nose! The ability to smell and taste go together because odors from foods
allow us to taste more fully.

Take a bite of food and think about how it tastes. Then pinch your nose and take another bite. Notice
the difference? It's just another reason to appreciate your knockout of a nose!
1.4 THE SENSE OF TASTE

Want to find out just how much you use your tongue? Try eating an ice-cream cone or singing your
favorite song without it. You need your tongue to chew, swallow, and sing. And don't forget talking
and tasting!

Tongue Twister

Has anyone ever told you that the tongue is a muscle? Well, that's only partly true: The tongue is
really made up of many groups of muscles. These muscles run in different directions to carry out all
the tongue's jobs.

The front part of the tongue is very flexible and can move around a lot, working with the teeth to
create different types of words. This part also helps you eat by helping to move food around your
mouth while you chew. Your tongue pushes the food to your back teeth so the teeth can grind it up.

The muscles in the back of your tongue help you make certain sounds, like the letters "k" and hard "g"
(like in the word "go"). Try saying these letters slowly, and you'll feel how the back of your tongue
moves against the top of your mouth to create the sounds.

The back of your tongue is important for eating as well. Once the food is all ground up and mixed with
saliva (say: suh-lye-vuh), or spit, the back muscles start to work. They move and push a small bit of
food along with saliva into your esophagus (say: ih-sah-fuh-gus), which is a food pipe that leads
from your throat to your stomach.

Tongue Held Down Tight

Have you ever wondered what keeps you from swallowing your tongue? Look in the mirror at what's
under your tongue and you'll see your frenulum (say: fren-yuh-lum). This is a membrane (a thin
layer of tissue) that connects your tongue to the bottom of your mouth. In fact, the whole base of
your tongue is firmly anchored to the bottom of your mouth, so you could never swallow your tongue
even if you tried!

Tasty Tidbits

Don't put that mirror away yet! Look at your tongue again, but this time look closely at the top of it.
Notice how it's rough and bumpy — not like the underside, which is very smooth. That's because the
top of your tongue is covered with a layer of bumps called papillae (say: puh-pih-lee).

Papillae help grip food and move it around while you chew. And they contain your taste buds, so you
can taste everything from apples to zucchini! People are born with about 10,000 taste buds. But as a
person ages, some of his or her taste buds die. (An old person may only have 5,000 taste buds!)
That's why some foods may taste stronger to you than they do to an adult. Taste buds can detect
sweet, sour, bitter, and salty flavors.

Traveling Tastes

So how do you know how something tastes? Each taste bud is made up of taste cells, which have
sensitive, microscopic hairs called microvilli (say: mye-kro-vih-lye). Those tiny hairs send messages
to the brain, which interprets the signals and identifies the taste for you.

Identifying tastes is your brain's way of telling you about what's going into your mouth, and in some
cases, keeping you safe. Have you ever taken a drink of milk that tasted funny? When the milk hit the
taste buds, they sent nerve impulses to your brain: "Milk coming in — and it tastes funny!" Once your
brain unscrambled the nerve impulses, it recognized the taste as a dangerous one, and you knew not
to drink the milk.

Some things can make your taste bud receptors less sensitive, like cold foods or drinks. An ice pop
made from your favorite juice won't taste as sweet as plain juice. If you suck on an ice cube before
you eat a food you don't like, you won't notice the bad taste.

Friend of the Tongue

Last time you had a cold and your nose felt stuffed up, did you notice that foods didn't taste as strong
as they usually do? Well, that's because your tongue can't take all of the credit for tasting different
flavors — it has help from your nose.

Your nose helps you taste foods by smelling them before they go in your mouth and as you chew and
swallow them. Strong smells can even confuse your taste buds: Try holding an onion slice under your
nose while eating an apple. What do you taste?
Your tongue also gets help from your teeth, lips, and mouth. Your teeth help your tongue grind food
as the tongue mixes the food around your mouth. And without your teeth, lips, and the roof of your
mouth, your tongue wouldn't be able to form sounds to make words.

Saliva is also a friend of the tongue. A dry tongue can't taste a thing, so saliva helps the tongue by
keeping it wet. Saliva moistens food and helps to break it down, which makes it easier for the tongue
to push the food back to swallow it.

Fighting Germs

If all that wasn't enough, your tongue even helps keep you from getting sick. The back section of your
tongue contains something called the lingual tonsil (say: ling-gwul tahn-sul). Lingual is a medical
word that means having to do with the tongue, and tonsils are small masses of tissue that contain
cells that help filter out harmful germs that could cause an infection in the body.

But when you have tonsillitis, it's not your lingual tonsil that's infected. Tonsillitis affects the palatine
(say: pah-luh-tyne) tonsils, which are two balls of tissue on either side of the tongue. The lingual
tonsil, the palatine tonsils, and the adenoids are part of a bigger system that fights infections
throughout your body.

The Tongue Is One Tough Worker

With all that talking, mixing food, swallowing, tasting, and germ fighting, does your tongue ever get a
rest? No. Even when you are sleeping, your tongue is busy pushing saliva into the throat to be
swallowed. It's a good thing, too, or we'd be drooling all over our pillows. Keep your tongue in tip-top
shape by brushing it along with your teeth and avoiding super-hot foods. A burned tongue is no fun!
1.5 THE SENSE OF HEARING

Did you hear something? Maybe the sound you heard was as quiet as your cat licking her paws. Or
maybe it was loud, like a siren going by. Sounds are everywhere, and you have two cool parts on your
body that let you hear them all: your ears!

Your ears are in charge of collecting sounds, processing them, and sending sound signals to your
brain. And that's not all — your ears also help you keep your balance. So if you bend over to pick up
your cat, you won't fall down — or even worse — fall on your cat. Meow!

The ear is made up of three different sections: the outer ear, the middle ear, and the inner ear. These
parts all work together so you can hear and process sounds.

The Outer Ear: Catch the Wave

The outer ear is called the pinna or auricle (say: or-ih-kul). This is the part of the ear that people can
see. It's what people pierce to wear earrings and what your friend whispers into when it's time for a
secret. The main job of the outer ear is to collect sounds, whether they're your friend's whispers or a
barking dog.
The outer ear also includes the ear canal, where wax is produced. Earwax is that gunky stuff that
protects the canal. Earwax contains chemicals that fight off infections that could hurt the skin inside
the ear canal. It also collects dirt to help keep the ear canal clean. So earwax isn't just gross. It's
gross and useful.

The Middle Ear: Good Vibrations

After sound waves enter the outer ear, they travel through the ear canal and make their way to the
middle ear. The middle ear's main job is to take those sound waves and turn them into vibrations that
are delivered to the inner ear. To do this, it needs the eardrum, which is a thin piece of skin stretched
tight like a drum.

The eardrum separates the outer ear from the middle ear and the ossicles (say: ah-sih-kulz). What
are ossicles? They are the three tiniest, most delicate bones in your body. They include:

 the malleus (say: mah-lee-us), which is attached to the eardrum and means "hammer"
in Latin
 the incus (say: in-kus), which is attached to the malleus and means "anvil" in Latin
 the stapes (say: stay-peez), the smallest bone in the body, which is attached to the
incus and means "stirrup" in Latin

When sound waves reach the eardrum, they cause the eardrum to vibrate. When the eardrum
vibrates, it moves the tiny ossicles — from the hammer to the anvil and then to the stirrup. These
bones help sound move along on its journey into the inner ear.

The Inner Ear: Nerve Signals Start Here

Sound comes into the inner ear as vibrations and enters the cochlea (say: ko-klee-uh), a small,
curled tube in the inner ear. The cochlea is filled with liquid, which is set into motion, like a wave,
when the ossicles vibrate.

The cochlea is also lined with tiny cells covered in tiny hairs that are so small you would need a
microscope to see them. They may be small, but they're awfully important. When sound reaches the
cochlea, the vibrations (sound) cause the hairs on the cells to move, creating nerve signals that the
brain understands as sound. The brain puts it together and hooray! You hear your favorite song on the
radio.

Day or Night, Ears Keep You Upright

Ears do more than hear. They keep you balanced, too. In the inner ear, there are three small loops
above the cochlea called semicircular canals. Like the cochlea, they are also filled with liquid and have
thousands of microscopic hairs.

When you move your head, the liquid in the semicircular canals moves, too. The liquid moves the tiny
hairs, which send a nerve message to your brain about the position of your head. In less than a
second, your brain sends messages to the right muscles so that you keep your balance.

Sometimes the liquid in your semicircular canals keeps moving after you've stopped moving. To
understand this, fill a cup halfway with water. Now move the cup around in a circle in front of you and
then stop. Notice how the water keeps swishing around, even after the cup is still? That's what
happens in your semicircular canals when you spin in circles or go on the Tilt-A-Whirl at the
amusement park.

When you stop spinning or step off the ride, the fluid in your semicircular canals is still moving. The
hairs inside the canals are sensing movement even though you're standing still. That's why you might
feel dizzy — your brain is getting two different messages and is confused about the position of your
head. Once the fluid in the semicircular canals stops moving, your brain gets the right message and
you regain your balance.

Three Cheers for the Ears!

Your ears take care of you, so take care of them. Protect your hearing by wearing earplugs at loud
music concerts and around noisy machinery, like in wood or metal shop at school. Keep the volume
down on your stereo, especially if you're in the car or wearing headphones.
And one last thing — don't go poking around in your ears, even with cotton swabs. As you probably
know, there's only one thing that's safe to put in your ear. Your elbow, of course.

1.6 THE SENSE OF SIGHT

Which part of your body lets you read the back of a cereal box, check out a rainbow, and see a softball
heading your way? Which part lets you cry when you're sad and makes tears to protect itself? Which
part has muscles that adjust to let you focus on things that are close up or far away? If you guessed
the eye, you're right!

Your eyes are at work from the moment you wake up to the moment you close them to go to sleep.
They take in tons of information about the world around you — shapes, colors, movements, and more.
Then they send the information to your brain for processing so the brain knows what's going on
outside of your body.

You can see that the eye's pretty amazing. So, come on — let's take a tour of its many parts.

The Parts of the Eye

You can check out different parts of the eye by looking at your own eye in the mirror or by looking at
(but not touching) a friend's eye. Some of the eye's parts are easy to see, so most friends will say OK.
Most friends won't say OK if you ask to see their liver!

Big As a Ping Pong Ball

The eye is about as big as a ping-pong ball and sits in a little hollow area (the eye socket) in the skull.
The eyelid protects the front part of the eye. The lid helps keep the eye clean and moist by opening
and shutting several times a minute. This is called blinking, and it's both a voluntary and involuntary
action, meaning you can blink whenever you want to, but it also happens without you even thinking
about it.
The eyelid also has great reflexes, which are automatic body responses, that protect the eye. When
you step into bright light, for example, the eyelids squeeze together tightly to protect your eyes until
they can adjust to the light. And if you flutter your fingers close (but not too close!) to your friend's
eyes, you'll be sure to see your friend's eyes blink. Your friend's eyelids shut automatically to protect
the eye from possible danger. And speaking of fluttering, don't forget eyelashes. They work with the
eyelids to keep dirt and other unwanted stuff out of your eyes.

The white part of the eyeball is called the sclera (say: sklair-uh). The sclera is made of a tough
material and has the important job of covering most of the eyeball. Think of the sclera as your
eyeball's outer coat. Look very closely at the white of the eye, and you'll see lines that look like tiny
pink threads. These are blood vessels, the tiny tubes that deliver blood, to the sclera.

The cornea (say: kor-nee-uh), a transparent dome, sits in front of the colored part of the eye. The
cornea helps the eye focus as light makes its way through. It is a very important part of the eye, but
you can hardly see it because it's made of clear tissue. Like clear glass, the cornea gives your eye a
clear window to view the world through.

Iris Is The Colorful Part

Behind the cornea are the iris, the pupil, and the anterior chamber. The iris (say: eye-riss) is the
colorful part of the eye. When we say a person has blue eyes, we really mean the person has blue
irises! The iris has muscles attached to it that change its shape. This allows the iris to control how
much light goes through the pupil (say: pyoo-pul).

The pupil is the black circle in the center of the iris, which is really an opening in the iris, and it lets
light enter the eye. To see how this works, use a small flashlight to see how your eyes or a friend's
eyes respond to changes in brightness. The pupils will get smaller when the light shines near them
and they'll open wider when the light is gone.

The anterior (say: an-teer-ee-ur) chamber is the space between the cornea and the iris. This space
is filled with a special transparent fluid that nourishes the eye and keeps it healthy

Light, Lens, Action

These next parts are really cool, but you can't see them with just your own eyes! Doctors use special
microscopes to look at these inner parts of the eye, such as the lens. After light enters the pupil, it
hits the lens. The lens sits behind the iris and is clear and colorless. The lens' job is to focus light rays
on the back of the eyeball — a part called the retina (say: ret-i-nuh). The lens works much like the
lens of a movie projector at the movies. Next time you sit in the dark theater, look behind you at the
stream of light coming from the projection booth. This light goes through a powerful lens, which is
focusing the images onto the screen, so you can see the movie clearly. In the eye's case, however,
the film screen is your retina.

Your retina is in the very back of the eye. It holds millions of cells that are sensitive to light. The
retina takes the light the eye receives and changes it into nerve signals so the brain can understand
what the eye is seeing.

A Muscle Makes It Work

The lens is suspended in the eye by a bunch of fibers. These fibers are attached to a muscle called the
ciliary (say: sil-ee-air-ee) muscle. The ciliary muscle has the amazing job of changing the shape of
the lens. That's right — the lens actually changes shape right inside your eye! Try looking away from
your computer and focusing on something way across the room. Even though you didn't feel a thing,
the shape of your lenses changed. When you look at things up close, the lens becomes thicker to focus
the correct image onto the retina. When you look at things far away, the lens becomes thinner.

The biggest part of the eye sits behind the lens and is called the vitreous (say: vih-tree-us) body.
The vitreous body forms two thirds of the eye's volume and gives the eye its shape. It's filled with a
clear, jelly-like material called the vitreous humor. Ever touch toy eyeballs in a store? Sometimes
they're kind of squishy — that's because they're made to feel like they're filled with vitreous humor. In
a real eye, after light passes through the lens, it shines straight through the vitreous humor to the
back of the eye.
Rods and Cones Process Light

The retina uses special cells called rods and cones to process light. Just how many rods and cones
does your retina have? How about 120 million rods and 7 million cones — in each eye!

Rods see in black, white, and shades of gray and tell us the form or shape that something has. Rods
can't tell the difference between colors, but they are super-sensitive, allowing us to see when it's very
dark.

Cones sense color and they need more light than rods to work well. Cones are most helpful in normal
or bright light. The retina has three types of cones. Each cone type is sensitive to one of three
different colors — red, green, or blue — to help you see different ranges of color. Together, these
cones can sense combinations of light waves that enable our eyes to see millions of colors.

Helping You See It All

Rods and cones process the light to give you the total picture. You're able to see that your friend has
brown skin and is wearing a blue hat while he tosses an orange basketball.

Sometimes someone's eyeball shape makes it difficult for the cornea, lens, and retina to work
perfectly as a team. When this happens, some of what the person sees will be out of focus.

To correct this fuzzy vision, many people, including many kids, wear glasses. Glasses help the eyes
focus images correctly on the retina and allow someone to see clearly. As adults get older, their eyes
lose the ability to focus well and they often need glasses to see things up close or far away. Most older
people you know — like your grandparents — probably wear glasses.

To the Brain!

Think of the optic nerve as the great messenger in the back of your eye. The rods and cones of the
retina change the colors and shapes you see into millions of nerve messages. Then, the optic nerve
carries those messages from the eye to the brain! The optic nerve serves as a high-speed telephone
line connecting the eye to the brain. When you see an image, your eye "telephones" your brain with a
report on what you are seeing so the brain can translate that report into "cat," "apple," or "bicycle," or
whatever the case may be.

Have No Fear, You Have Tears

For crying out loud, the eye has its own special bathing system — tears! Above the outer corner of
each eye are the lacrimal (say: lak-ruh-mul) glands, which make tears. Every time you blink your
eye, a tiny bit of tear fluid comes out of your upper eyelid. It helps wash away germs, dust, or other
particles that don't belong in your eye.

Tears also keep your eye from drying out. Then the fluid drains out of your eye by going into the
lacrimal duct (this is also called the tear duct). You can see the opening of your tear duct if you very
gently pull down the inside corner of your eye. When you see a tiny little hole, you've found the tear
duct.

Your eyes sometimes make more tear fluid than normal to protect themselves. This may have
happened to you if you've been poked in the eye, if you've been in a dusty or smoking area, or if
you've been near someone who's cutting onions.

And how about the last time you felt sad, scared, or upset? Your eyes got a message from your brain
to make you cry, and the lacrimal glands made many, many tears.

Your eyes do some great things for you, so take these steps to protect them:

 Wear goggles in classes where debris or chemicals could go flying, such as wood shop,
metal shop, science lab, or art.

 Wear eye protection when playing racquetball, hockey, skiing, or other sports that could
injure your eyes.

 Wear sunglasses. Too much light can damage your eyes and cause vision problems, such
as cataracts, later in life. If the lens gets cloudy, it's called a cataract. A cataract prevents
light from reaching the retina and makes it difficult to see.

The eyes you have will be yours forever — treat them right and they'll never be out of sight!