In the entire history of humanity on Earth, only five people have been able to see a new color recently discovered by scientists.
Of the five who saw the “breathtaking” color, three were researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, while two were colleagues from the University of Washington in Seattle. They used a “technicolor technique” with a laser that was nicknamed “Oz.”
To better understand this rare color, it is important to understand the biology behind our eyes. Our retinas have three types of cones, which are specialized photoreceptors that detect different wavelengths of light.
S-cones are most sensitive to shorter wavelengths, corresponding to blue. M-cones respond to medium wavelengths, perceived as green, while L-cones are tuned to longer wavelengths, which we see as red.
The brain then receives information from all three types and mixes them, allowing us to see different colors. However, each type of cone does not work in isolation, meaning their sensitivity ranges overlap.
This means that light stimulating M-cones, for example, may also activate S or L cones, depending on the specific wavelength. So, if it were possible to activate just one type of cone, it would be possible to see colors without interference.
With this in mind, the researchers created the Oz test, named after the journey of the characters from The Wizard of Oz to the Emerald City.
The extremely rare color, called “olo,” is a bluish-green hue with “unprecedented saturation,” described by those who saw it as “breathtaking.” The color closest to olo, according to them, would be turquoise.
“The attempt to exclusively activate M-cones proved to produce a color beyond the natural human range, formally measured through color matching by human subjects,” the researchers said in the article.
“Other experiments show that subjects perceive Oz colors in image and video form. The prototype directs microdoses of laser to thousands of spectrally classified cones during eye fixation movements.”
“These results are proof of principle for the programmable control of individual photoreceptors on a population scale,” the scientists concluded.
Photo and video: Unsplash. This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
