Why are there so few blue cones in the human eye?

You are right there are significantly fewer S or short wave cones for blue light perception. The consequence of the lack in numbers of S cones is the relatively poor ability to differentiate blue hues.

http://www.chm.davidson.edu/vce/CoordChem/color.ht...

The basis of primate vision evolved to find fruit, seeds and other high value food in trees. Seeking food we rely on color contrasts, textural contrasts, and form/pattern recognition. Primate vision is very good at finding food, often purple to reddish or yellowish, against the background of green foliage. Research indicates that red-green dominated vision system is particularly suited to providing information about both the spatial and the chromatic structure of such scenes. Three color perception avoids the problem of a surface reflacting equally from both sides of the spectrum and being indistinguishable because both cone types absorbed the same amount of light from the object and its background. The third cone permits primates to detect the object because the scene can't reflect equally at three wavelengths,

http://webvision.med.utah.edu/Color.html

http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960...

Good question. What you mentioned could be a possible reason.

We may not realize it, but we actually see more green and red objects (and shades of green and blue)in our daily lives, as well as colors like yellow (red and green).

This can also be explained by evolution. Ancient humans had a large variety of cones of all 3 colours in their eyes. However, as they were mostly hunters/gatherers and nomads who lived in caves and forests, those in the population who had more green and red cones were more likely to survive and reproduce as green allowed them to observe plants (that were abundant) and red to alert them to dangers such as blood from injuries. The red and green cones as such, allowed them to respond to stimuli better.

Over many generations, humans who had more green and red cones in their eyes formed the predominant members of the population while others with fewer green and red cones were gradually eliminated.

However, the exact proportion and percentage of cones in the human eye may differ from person to person and amongst different races even today, so I do not think your figures apply to everyone. Some people have more blue cones, while others have less. But the general trend is that more people tend to have fewer blue cones but more green and red cones.

Your figures are not correct. They do not add up to 100 percent when they should. It would be better if you provide some links to back up your claim.

Whoever gave you those figures can't count. 46+32+2 = 80, not 100. Makes me wonder what the remaining 20% of the cones are.

Hey: I learning biology, I can recommend u of the book - Making of the fittest in short we have few blue cones because evolution become! There's a strong bonding between our surrounding to our capabilities, and not like nocturnal craters we are most depended on our cooler vision, mating, gating foods etc . . .

And in the relaxing selection the evolution become, and makes our cooler vision more needed then blue and dark coolers:-)

I rhink 20/10 vision would be cool. A fourth cone doesn't really excite me.