A Brush With Polarization

I was recently learning and reading about Haidinger’s Brush

Unlike some other types of animals, humans generally don’t perceive polarization of light, or rather we do so very weakly so it’s not something we normally notice. The link explains how to check for it and what to look for.

The eyes of men (AND women) are not designed to distinguish between different types of polarization, contrary to insects, cephalopods, many amphibians, fish, and other animals, for which nature possesses a different class of “colors” (but even common colors do not mean the same to everyone). However, a small quirk in the structure of the human eye gives us (by accident) the ability to tell apart different states of polarization. Thanks to this small aberration or “defect” of the eye we are not completely polarization-blind.

Yes !!! With some effort you can learn to see what remains invisible to most people! Without the help of any instrument you will be able to tell not only if the light you look at is strongly polarized or not, but also if it is linearly polarized or circularly polarized and, moreover, in which direction it vibrates or rotates. Any time that you raise your eyes to the blue sky you will be rewarded by the same clues that guide bees in their flight. Acquire P-Ray Vision !

I tried it with my LCD monitor (which, as we know, is polarized) with both a white and blue background, the latter for contrast to show the yellow. I think I see the yellow brush, but it’s not very distinct. I’ll keep trying, but I don’t think this is like those 3-D drawings that jump out at you all of the sudden.

Here’s another link explaining the phenomenon.