Breakthrough Discovery of New Color "Olo" Leaves Scientists and Artists Abuzz
A team of researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, has made a groundbreaking discovery in the field of color science, creating a new color that has left scientists and artists alike in awe. The color, dubbed "olo," can only be experienced through a complex technological setup, and its discovery has sparked excitement and curiosity about the possibilities of human color vision.
According to a report in The Atlantic, the team, led by optometry professor Austin Roorda and researcher Ren Ng, has developed a machine that can stimulate the retina with a specific pattern of light, creating a novel color experience. The machine targets over a thousand cone cells in the retina, activating the color vision in a way that is not found in nature.
Roorda, who was one of the first people to experience the new color, described it as a "beautiful, ultra-intense teal." He told The Atlantic that the experience was profound, and he felt a kind of euphoria after seeing the color. James Fong, a Ph.D. student at Berkeley and the first author on the paper, was not able to experience the color himself, having drawn the short straw in a random draw among team members. However, he expressed his enthusiasm for the discovery, stating that he hopes to experience the color soon.
The discovery of olo has significant implications for our understanding of human color vision. As The Atlantic reports, researchers have long been trying to understand how the visual system constructs the cinema of our lives, and the creation of olo provides a new tool for studying this process. By giving the visual system an entirely new stimulus, the team hopes to tease out the different roles that the eye and the brain play in creating our experience of color.
Philosophers have long grappled with the subjectivity of color, and the discovery of olo raises interesting questions about the nature of color experience. As Zed Adams, a philosophy professor at the New School, noted, "many 20th-century philosophers were haunted by the idea that we’re all trapped in our own perceptual world." The team’s method for verifying that the colors experienced by the participants were roughly similar was ingenious, according to Adams, and involved producing olo by targeting a specific set of color-sensing cone cells in each participant’s retina.
The discovery of olo has also sparked interest in the art world, with artists such as Stuart Semple expressing interest in working with the color. Semple has even started taking preorders for a paint based on olo, which he has dubbed "YOLO." As The Atlantic reports, Fong is delighted with the reaction to the discovery, and takes pride in having named the color. The name "olo" is a play on 0 1 0, which corresponds to the types of cone cells that were stimulated to generate it.
The discovery of olo has the potential to lead to new technologies and treatments for enhancing human color vision. Researchers are already exploring the use of gene therapies to add a third set of cone pigments to the retinas of male squirrel monkeys, which are born with only two. If successful, this technology could potentially be used to enhance human color vision, allowing people to experience a wider range of colors.
As The Atlantic notes, some human females have four types of cones in their retinas, instead of three, and researchers are trying to understand whether this sensory superpower can be engineered into an adult human. The team at Berkeley is laying the groundwork for this research by using their targeted lasers to mimic the patterns of retinal stimulation that a person with four kinds of cones would experience.
The discovery of olo is a significant breakthrough in the field of color science, and has the potential to lead to new technologies and treatments for enhancing human color vision. As researchers continue to explore the possibilities of olo, it is clear that this new color is just the beginning of a new era of discovery and innovation in the field of color science.
Source: The Atlantic
