In a recent scientific breakthrough, researchers discovered a colour previously invisible to the human eye. Earlier, the eyes were limited to a narrow spectrum of colour, perceiving only the familiar reds, blues, and greens that make up our visual reality. But with recent advances, researchers have found a way to tweak the eyes a bit so that they can see way beyond the visual reality, a whole new wave of an unfamiliar shade.
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Washington claim to have figured out a way to hijack the retina and artificially expand the natural human colour gamut and named this new colour “olo “.
Researchers were driven by curiosity to understand the limits of the human eye.
The human eye is made of certain light-sensitive photoreceptor cells that are individually stimulated using laser light. The retina is made up of 3 types of cones – S, M, L which are individually sensitive to different wavelength of light that include blue, green and red respectively. Typically, a single wavelength of light will stimulate more than one type of cone and this overlap limits the ability to see a variety of colour.
They named their study the Oz, and just like the work of the magician they used laser to particularly stimulate the M cone without affecting the S and L cones opening up a world of whole new color spectrum, including a "blue-green of unprecedented saturation” with no overlap of cones giving out a new colour which was never seen by the human eye.
This breakthrough could help develop many more research projects and can be beneficial for studying colour blindness or colour vision deficiencies, allowing them access to a whole new range of colour differentiation. It will also lead to the emergence of new technologies for creating colour in digital imaging and enhance the field of art, design and photography where shades of colour play a pivotal role, leading to an increase in the quality. It may also play a big role in the sector of tech and gaming sectors, making the visuals more attractive. The scope is endless.
What next?
Even after such a fantastic breakthrough, which opens up exciting new possibilities in how we interact and perceive colour, the question that always pops up is what's next? There's still so much to explore. the human eye is powerful, yet we are still unaware of half its potential. It’s so thrilling to imagine if instead of M cone, either of the other two S or L cones were targeted, then which colour would have the human eyes unveiled. As researches go on, we have even more intriguing questions about the true limit of the human eye and the endless spectrum of undiscovered colours out there.
References:
Fong, James, Hannah Doyle, Austin Roorda, and Ren Ng. “Novel Color via Stimulation of Individual Photoreceptors at Population Scale.” Science Advances 11, no. 16 (April 18, 2025): eadu1052. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adu1052.Modern Retina+4Wikipedia+4Science+4
Manke, Kara. “Scientists Trick the Eye into Seeing New Color ‘Olo’.” Berkeley News, April 22, 2025. https://news.berkeley.edu/2025/04/22/scientists-trick-the-eye-into-seeing-new-color-olo/.hwni.berkeley.edu+2Berkeley News+2Science Friday+2
Gibney, Elizabeth. “Brand-New Colour Created by Tricking Human Eyes with Laser.” Nature, April 18, 2025. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01252-3.Nature+1Wikipedia+1
(Input from various sources)
(Rehash/Dr. Sneha SS/MSM)
