Just like when solving the color blind solve rubik's cubes , although colorblindness can cause some problems, like coloring the sky, the grass, or the inability to know just when to stop driving, it doesn’t mean those with this “disability” can’t be successful at life. On the contrary, colorblindness can also be considered a blessing, as it can help a bee reach it’s staff of life and also aids cuttlefish in their camouflage. Even in humans, color deficiencies can be beneficial in war and hunting. All of these reasons add up to the fact that colorblindness is not a hindrance, but an adaption to survive.
Color Blindness- the inability to see certain colors in the usual way (National Library of Medicine). Color blindness doesn't always mean that living creatures can't see any colors at all. In a bee's case, this color deficiency means that it can see more colors than humans, colors that go as far as ultraviolet. These bees use their broad spectrum to keep their hive alive with their adaption to see a flower's colors differently. For example, when humans see a pure milky white, bees see much darker hues, when humans see a solid, unchanging color, bee's will see two tones. This makes flowers like the Black-Eyed Susan end up looking like a Black-Super-Big-Eyed Susan . This version of vision creates different colors and patterns, invisible to humanity, that point out "landing strips", designed to guide bees into the bullseye of the flower, where all of the nectar, their food, their lives are. This discovery, which was uncovered in 1801 by Johann Ritter, gave scientists a new start to use cameras capable of viewing UV rays to see in the eyes of bees, first seeing flowers, then seeing outer space. NASA's GALEX noticed young stars of galaxy M81 that were never seen before and the Hubble Space Station seeing Jupiter's aurora, that was invisible to the naked eye. These were all seen by ultraviolet, and without it and this form of colorblindness, bees would be extinct, and humans would never be able to see certain aspects of space.
Cuttlefish, also called the “chameleons of the sea”, can change into 30-50 different appearances to match the color of their background, and yet, they are colorblind. This species of cephalopods are exactly what anyone would think when they hear the word “color blind”- the inability to see any colors, at all. In a cuttlefish’s view of life, monochromacy, everything is in black, or white, or somewhere in between. This form of color blindness doesn’t diminish their camouflages’ efficiency, it improves it. Like the way those with disabilities are unusually skilled at other areas , for example, when singing well when blind , or drawing nice pictures when deaf, cuttlefish have the lack of the ability to visually see color, which increases the differences in texture and brightness. These marine animals use this adaption by mimicking coral reefs and underwater sandy deserts by replacing color by brightness , and enhancing it all with the ability to mold their skin to copy texture. The hungry predators of cuttlefish often have to slink off with growling stomachs since the cuttlefish had all successfully copied every small detail of the rolling dunes of sand below or the exotic coral above in less than a second, all thanks to the advantages provided by their color blind, contrast sensing eyes.
Besides insects and ocean life, even humans can benefit from color deficiencies. During the second World War, groups of soldiers were analyzing some aerial photographs. It turned out the color blind groups could detect more patterns and could spot more enemies because there was less color to distract them. So, some color blind men were specially sent out on missions to see past all the green and see through the camouflage. Even cavemen have used colorblindness. This would have helped in seeing through a deer’s or turkey’s camouflage, leading to the color blind caveman’s family to be able to eat more, and the color blind trait being passed on, surviving after generation, after generation. This condition must of helped with keeping them alive as if it had not, the color blind gene would not still be in the modern age.
Just because colorblindness had helped before, why would it help now, in the age of computers and other electronics? For example, driving would be thought to be a problem with the vision impaired, but the color blind just memorize the positions of the lights of a traffic light instead of memorizing red, green, and yellow and what they stand for. Also, in a child’s early years of education, color identification is often required. When teachers see a kid’s blue grass and green sky, they might end up believing the child is either difficult, or just plain stupid. But in other cases, such as van Gogh, or Clifton Pugh (an expressionist painter who was a three-time winner of Australia's Archibald Prize) colorblindness helped give them their fame. Their different view on life made their paintings brighter and more contrasting, as that was how they saw their world. As a result, they enjoyed their work, the rest of the world enjoyed their work, and everyone was happy, all thanks to colorblindness.
Color vision deficiency aids bees and flowers in their symbiosis, cuttlefish in their camouflage, and even humans , as it helps spot patterns and creates famous people all at the same time. Just because someone with a color deficiency can’t solve a rubix cube, it doesn’t mean they stink at life. Because like a bee or a cuttlefish, or like van Gogh, those who are colorblind aren’t at a disadvantage, sometimes, they live the advantage.