Which Professor found out that he could see ultra-violet light?

From Wikipedia, on the discovery of uv:
Soon after infrared radiation had been discovered, the German physicist Johann Wilhelm Ritter began to look for radiation at the opposite end of the spectrum, at the short wavelengths beyond violet. In 1801 he used silver chloride, a light-sensitive chemical, to show that there was a type of invisible light beyond violet, which he called chemical rays.

If you mean somebody who could literally see uv with their naked eyes, I don't have a clue.

I would surmise it was someone who had cataracts surgically removed (the lenses in the eyes filter uv), but I don't know if the retinal pigments are sensitive even to near uv rays. Interesting question -- I await the answer.

Professor

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If you mean somebody who could literally see uv with their naked eyes, I don't have a clue.

According to my source ..yes,but it did distort how he saw other colours!

Are you referring, perhaps, to "Professor" Claude Monet?

No, talking about a physicist.

Googling around, I found a professor of biology (William S. Stark) at St. Louis University who describes his ability to see near-uv after cataract surgery. Sailracer should get some credit for mentioning Monet, as Stark provides this link to Monet's paintings of water lillies before and after cataract surgery.

Still looking for an aphakic physicist...

You are certainly as close as can be of finding the answer,Professor.Also due to an accident to one of his eye,was this physicist, able to see UV at low intensity. Monet was indeed a good guess.

I will give the answer up on this one.English physicist A.G Gaydon.

In 1936 Professor Alfred Gaydon underwent surgery on his eyes after an accident. When his sight began to return he found that he could see ultra-violet light, which is normally beyond the visible spectrum of humans. This helped in his work as a physicist, but it did distort how he saw other colours! .

I went on and kept looking for a back up web site. Very little I could find on Gaydon, but plenty of book offers about it or paying membership offers.He himself wrote several books.

Here's another site.

I have to admit I never would have found that! This phenomenon of uv perception is apparently more common than I surmised, given all the phacectomies (surgical lens removals) that have been performed. However in recent decades most cataract patients get plastic prosthetic lens implants during surgery. I wonder if these also filter uv to prevent this effect. I'll see what I can find.

Thanks for an interesting topic, Mozart.

Your first link, like other websites containing long lists of trivia and factoids that we have seen, is rife with inaccuracies. The ones I've spotted include:

• A TV screen shows 24 pictures a second... In the U.S. (NTSC standard) the frame rate (interlaced half-frames) is 30/second. In other parts of the world (PALS or SECAM standard) it is 50/sec.
  
  
• Some people with two or more differnt kinds of fillings in their teeth are able to hear...AM broadcast stations. The theory is that an RF detector (diode) is created, effectively demodulating the signal into audio. This might be urban myth -- I'm not sure of its status. It's plausible but MythbustersFanClub describes an investigation of this claim, originally attributed to Lucille Ball, with negative results.
  
  
• You weigh less at the equator than the north pole because it's further from the center of the earth. This is true (the equatorial bulge) but omits another reason: centrifugal force, as perceived in the local frame of reference.
  
  
• A supernova is the most energetic single event known in the Universe. This is outdated. Gamma-ray bursts are far more impressive: "In practice, over the few seconds that a gamma ray burst occurs, it releases almost the same amount of energy as the entire Universe!"

by Professor

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Your first link, like other websites containing long lists of trivia and factoids that we have seen, is rife with inaccuracies. The ones I've spotted include:

That is why I always look for a back up web site to make sure of the authenticity of the question/answer, I,ve been burn before. ....and notice in this case both sites were ".org "

"Some people with two or more differnt kinds of fillings in their teeth are able to hear...AM broadcast stations. The theory is that an RF detector (diode) is created, effectively demodulating the signal into audio."

I remember reading about a woman who, many years ago, claimed that she was getting, through her fillings, secret messages between the Soviets and the Chinese. Not being able to speak Russian or any of the Chinese languages, she was unable to say how she knew that the messages were either secret or between the Russians and Chinese.
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Does anyone emember the movie, "X" with Ray Milland? It's alternate title was " X - The Man with X-ray Eyes." It was actually pretty good.

below fron the Internet Movie Database -
Ray Milland plays Dr. James Xavier, a world renowned scientist experimenting with human eyesight. He devises a drug, that when applied to the eyes, enables the user to see beyond the normal realm of our sight (ultraviolet rays etc.) it also gives the user the power to see through objects. Xavier tests this drug on himself, when his funding is cut off. As he continues to test the drug on himself, Xavier begins to see, not only through walls and clothes, but through the very fabric of reality!