Blurb for brooches

You know, this project has done wonders for my communications skills. Writing for non-scientists requires a different skill set (which I may not have totally grasped, feel free to edit out confusing bits). It's fun :)

Second person is intended to make the writing accessible rather that patronising.

Retinal progenitor cell- Retinal stem cells are a specialised variety of stem cell that produce all the different types of neurons that make up the retina. Scientists hope to one day use retinal stem cells to repair damaged eyesight in humans, by getting them to replace the neurons that allow you to see.

Rod cell - Rod cells sense light at low levels, giving you night-vision. They cannot differentiate between colours, which is why at low light levels you see in shades of grey. They are called rods due to their long, thin shape, which helps pack in lots of the light-sensing protein rhodopsin into a small retinal surface area.

Cone cell - There are three types of cone cell in the human eye. They sense red, green or blue light depending on the type of light-sensing protein they contain. They give you colour vision. Different species have different types of cones. Birds, for example, have a fourth cone cell type that allows them to see ultraviolet light.

Bipolar cell - These cells take signals from cone, rod and horizontal cells and process them before sending a signal on towards your brain. They are important messenger components in the retinal circuit.

Horizontal cell - By integrating messages from rods and cones, horizontal cells help you to perceive edges sharply. Using a process called 'centre-surround inhibition' they amplify the signal produced at transitions in your field of vision. Transitions could be from dark to light, or from green to red.

Amacrine cell - Amacrine cells take signals for bipolar cells and pass them on to ganglion cells. An amacrine cell can have one of many processing functions. Some affect your colour perception. These cells are responsible for the green after-image you see after staring at a red light.

Ganglion cells - The long axon of a ganglion cell stretches many centimetres from the retina to the brain, along the optic nerve. These cells carry the information from bipolar and amacrine cells to your visual cortex, where the image that landed on your retina is interpreted.

A further note: the colour scheme of these brooches - blue, green and red - references the three primary colours of light as seen by human cone cells. It also references the three colours primarily used in fluorescent microscopy, a technique used by scientists to see the shapes of these different retinal neurons.