The Mind Hacks blog — which supports the fantastic O'Reilly book that explains how your brain works and how to play with it — has a great riff today on the saying that it is "better to light a candle than curse the darkness," exploring how adaptive night vision actually suggests that lighting a candle might not be the best answer to darkness.
She says: It's better to light a candle than to curse the darkness
He says: I wouldn't be so sure, maybe a candle would destroy your night-vision – without the candle your eyes could adjust to the lowered light levels (a process called adaptation, [Hack #26])
She says: But if you're in total darkness, there's no light at all to adjust to seeing
He says: Good point, so maybe it should be "It's better to wait for a bit, then, if your eyes don't adjust, you should light a candle rather than curse the darkness"
(via Ambiguous)
