Do eyelashes exist, in part, to keep our eyes from drying out? (Credit: KDdesignphoto/Shutterstock)

Why do we have eyelashes? The answer might seem simple: those thick hairs on the end of our eyelids simply exist to block intruding particles from landing on our eyeballs.

And in fact, that’s what many scientists have hypothesized. It explains why camels evolved to have long lashes for wandering the dusty desert and why our house pets, in comparison, have stumpy ones.

But it turns o