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Jesse Rogerson

๐Ÿ‘ค Speaker
1647 total appearances

Appearances Over Time

Podcast Appearances

The Last Show with David Cooper
Artemis Splashdown; Microplastic Oops; Ancient Eyes on Heads

Lots of ways to get energy out of the water.

The Last Show with David Cooper
Artemis Splashdown; Microplastic Oops; Ancient Eyes on Heads

So the really only light-sensitive thing that you need is something right on the top of your head that can tell you when it's day or night.

The Last Show with David Cooper
Artemis Splashdown; Microplastic Oops; Ancient Eyes on Heads

and can tell you up or down.

The Last Show with David Cooper
Artemis Splashdown; Microplastic Oops; Ancient Eyes on Heads

Those are useful things.

The Last Show with David Cooper
Artemis Splashdown; Microplastic Oops; Ancient Eyes on Heads

But you don't need anything to coordinate movement, which is what two eyes do, right?

The Last Show with David Cooper
Artemis Splashdown; Microplastic Oops; Ancient Eyes on Heads

Then, somewhere between 600 million years ago and 400 million years ago, this common ancestor of ours then decided it โ€“ or didn't decide.

The Last Show with David Cooper
Artemis Splashdown; Microplastic Oops; Ancient Eyes on Heads

It evolved to start being more โ€“ needed more coordinated movement.

The Last Show with David Cooper
Artemis Splashdown; Microplastic Oops; Ancient Eyes on Heads

And so the one thing on the top of the head developed eyelids that made it point in two different directions.

The Last Show with David Cooper
Artemis Splashdown; Microplastic Oops; Ancient Eyes on Heads

And then over time, because evolutionary biology is amazing, those that โ€“

The Last Show with David Cooper
Artemis Splashdown; Microplastic Oops; Ancient Eyes on Heads

That eye on the top of the head, which was kind of split in half, slowly moves to the side of the head because the more on the side of the head or the more on the front, the better your coordination and the brain built in between it.

The Last Show with David Cooper
Artemis Splashdown; Microplastic Oops; Ancient Eyes on Heads

And the connection between the eyes and the brain and how we manage our sleep was all built through that.

The Last Show with David Cooper
Artemis Splashdown; Microplastic Oops; Ancient Eyes on Heads

So it is a really interesting study to look at where our weird eyes come from.

The Last Show with David Cooper
Artemis Splashdown; Microplastic Oops; Ancient Eyes on Heads

It's definitely a way to talk about it.

The Last Show with David Cooper
Artemis Splashdown; Microplastic Oops; Ancient Eyes on Heads

Yes, it provides you some ammunition for that.

The Last Show with David Cooper
Artemis Splashdown; Microplastic Oops; Ancient Eyes on Heads

Yes.

The Last Show with David Cooper
Artemis Splashdown; Microplastic Oops; Ancient Eyes on Heads

See you, David.

The Last Show with David Cooper
FULL EPISODE: It's Not a Lie If You Believe It - April 10, 2026

Close enough.

The Last Show with David Cooper
FULL EPISODE: It's Not a Lie If You Believe It - April 10, 2026

It's been great.

The Last Show with David Cooper
FULL EPISODE: It's Not a Lie If You Believe It - April 10, 2026

Teaching undergrads is so much fun.

The Last Show with David Cooper
FULL EPISODE: It's Not a Lie If You Believe It - April 10, 2026

They're there.