Unveiled: The Enchanting Hue That Defies Human Vision

Ever wondered if there’s a color out there strutting around like Cindy Crawford in the ’90s, but we just haven’t seen it yet? Well, cue the drumroll because, apparently, there’s a color that humans have never laid their visually hungry eyes on before—isn’t that just mind-boggling? Folks from the University of California decided it’s high time we broaden our chromatic horizons, and get this, they’ve gone and discovered it through zapping laser pulses into people’s peepers.

I know what you’re thinking: “That sounds like something out of a spy movie!” but hang tight, because after the lasers (which I promise isn’t as sinister as it sounds) they’ve unearthed a delightful blue-green hue, which they’ve christened ‘olo’. This color is like the neigbourhood’s new, mysterious resident, that the folks think might just be “open to argument” about its very existence. Is it real or just a blip on the visual radar?

Now, I’ve always had a soft spot for science, especially when it sounds like magic, and isn’t this just magical! Imagine walking around your whole life only seeing pastel pinks, then one day, someone shows up to the office with a shirt in this color. You’d be like, “Whoa, didn’t know pink could be this intense!” But is it really a new color, or just our perception playing peek-a-boo?

Professor Ren Ng, a co-author of this study who also played guinea pig in this chromatic adventure, shared his team’s excitement on BBC Radio 4, calling the discovery ‘remarkable’. This blue-green wonder called ‘olo’ is more saturated than any color we’ve ever witnessed in our multidimensional world of hues.

So, does this mean we’ll soon be able to see colors like never before, maybe even help those who are visually differently-abled? The experiment involved a device named Oz which sounds like something straight out of “The Wizard of Oz”, making me wish I could see behind that curtain of science.

But wait, some experts are pushing back, saying, “Hold your horses, it might just be a tech wizardry trick of the light.” Yet, Professor Barbur from London’s City St George’s University explains it as more of a ‘technological feat’ that stimulated specific cone cells, hinting that if you tickle the L cone cells the same way, you might see not ‘olo’

Apparently, there’s a colour that humans have never seen before which has been discovered by scientists.

A team of scientists from the University of California have seemingly made a breakthrough after firing laser pulses into people’s eyes.

It’s not as sinister as it sounds, with the end result being that a new colour, specifically a blue-green one, has been discovered.

While some experts think that the discovery is still ‘open to argument’, the researchers behind it all have named it ‘olo.’

Their findings were published in the Science Advances journal on Friday (18 April), with co-author Professor Ren Ng calling them ‘remarkable’.

In fact, his team believe that the study could help to advance research into colour blindness and more.

Professor Ng himself was one of the five people to take part in the experiment, speaking to BBC Radio 4 about the new colour.

A laser was shone into the pupil (Getty Stock Image)

The Malaysian American scientist explained: “[Olo is] more saturated than any colour that you can see in the real world,

“Let’s say you go around your whole life and you see only pink, baby pink, a pastel pink,

“And then one day you go to the office and someone’s wearing a shirt, and it’s the most intense baby pink you’ve ever seen, and they say it’s a new colour and we call it red,” the professor said about the level of their discovery.

As well as the co-author, there were four other participants in the study, with just one being female, though all of them had normal colour vision.

Three of the participants, however, were co-authors of the research paper.

The study involved shining a laser beam into the pupil of one eye of each of the participants.

The device was called Oz and it consists of optical devices, mirrors, and lasers, having been designed by researchers from UC Berkeley and the University of Washington.

Now updated for use in this study, it analyses the retina, which is a light-sensitive tissue in the back of your eye that processes visual information, changing light into electrical signals that can be sent to the brain through the optic nerve.

This is how the sense of sight works.

However, the retina includes cone cells which help to perceive colour.

There are three types, S, L and M, which are sensitive to wavelengths of blue, red and green, as the paper reads: “Any light that stimulates an M cone cell must also stimulate its neighbouring L and/or S cones,” as their functions overlap.

Olo is quite hard to see, but is it a real colour at all? (Getty Stock Image)

But during the study, the laser only stimulated M cones, which sent a colour signal that wouldn’t occur in natural vision.

So, olo cannot be seen by the naked eye in real life, unless stimulated to do so.

The colour was verified as participants would be made to adjust a controllable colour dial until it matched olo.

But some don’t think this proves anything, as Professor John Barbur, a vision scientist at City St George’s, University of London explained that the experiment was a ‘technological feat’ that stimulated cone cells, though said the new colour was ‘open to argument’.

Others claimed it was simply a ‘matter of interpretation’, but Professor Barbur went on, explaining that if L cone cells were stimulated, people would see a ‘deep red’ – similar to the study’s findings.

Professor Ng did admit that it is ‘difficult’ to see olo, though the team intend to delve into what it could mean for colour blind people, who struggle to distinguish between some colours.