{"id":4224,"date":"2018-09-03T21:31:25","date_gmt":"2018-09-03T21:31:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/?p=4224"},"modified":"2023-05-24T17:56:15","modified_gmt":"2023-05-24T17:56:15","slug":"not-just-black-and-white","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/2018\/09\/03\/not-just-black-and-white\/","title":{"rendered":"Not Just Black and White"},"content":{"rendered":"

A grant from the National Science Foundation is expanding Psychology Department Chair Karen Gunther\u2019s research on color vision.<\/em><\/p>\n

Karen Gunther wanted to be an artist when she grew up.<\/p>\n

She made her first quilt in elementary school and loved doing it, but in junior high she decided she was better suited for science or math.<\/p>\n

She never let her creative side wane, though. She knitted and sewed with both of her grandmothers, and she picked up quilting again while studying biopsychology at Oberlin College.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to somehow combine quilting with science,\u201d Gunther says, \u201cso I ended up studying color vision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gunther says it\u2019s fun \u201cimmersing\u201d herself in color, and her passion for her work extends to her personal life. She continues to create quilts, has shown them locally, and her office is adorned with various forms of colorful expression.<\/p>\n

The wedding rings for her and her husband, who is also a vision scientist, were designed based on their field of study. Coral, chrysoprase, and lapis stones were used to symbolize the three cones found in the retina\u2014red, green, and blue. Onyx lines the sides of their rings to represent the stimuli the couple uses in their research.<\/p>\n

Now that she\u2019s received a grant worth more than $200,000 from the National Science Foundation, Gunther\u2019s research is about to expand.<\/p>\n

\u201cVision scientists have recently determined that the retina routes the cone signals into three \u2018cardinal color\u2019 pathways: red vs. green, bluish vs. yellowish and black vs. white,\u201d she explains. \u201cBut how do people perceive colors beyond the six cardinal colors\u2014the \u2018non-cardinal\u2019 colors?\u201d<\/p>\n

The grant will fund three years of research into that question, as well as summer interns for Gunther.<\/p>\n

And though the waiting period was long, Gunther said she never stressed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe primary expectation of Wabash faculty is to teach, with secondary emphasis on research, so my job doesn\u2019t rely on the grant as it would at more research-intensive schools. Some researchers are on \u201csoft\u201d money\u2014they need to get grants to get their salaries.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted the grant, it would be satisfying, it would fund more summer interns, but I wouldn\u2019t lose my job without it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014Christina Egbert<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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