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Researchers hacked 5 people's brains so they could see a new and impossible color

The new color 'olo' is neat, but the technique behind it could be groundbreaking.

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Only five people in the world have seen the mysterious color "Olo"

Color is one of the great joys of being alive. The brilliant blue sky, the green grass, the exotic pinks and purples and teals in coral or tropical fish. Soaking it all in is truly a feast for the eyes, and some studies even show that certain colors can trigger specific emotions in people. Orange may evoke feelings of joy, and red may conjure feelings of love, while blue may have a calming effect.

One of the most interesting things about colors, though, is that they are finite. Though the world is full of undiscovered plants, creatures, and even elements, the entire color spectrum is known and documented. Due to the nature of light in our universe and how it reflects off of physical objects, all perceived color must be created by some combination of the primary colors (blue, green, and red — yes, green, not yellow!). There are essentially unlimited combinations, but they all exist on a known spectrum — different hues and shades of pink or emerald or orange.

However, a team of researchers recently decided to push the limits of human perception. They "hacked" participants' retinas to allow them to see an impossible color.

color, green, blue, color wheel, physics, light, wavelengths, science The paint companies are dying to know the secret formula for the new color.Giphy

Scientists from the University of California, Berkeley, developed a new technique called "Oz," which would allow them to activate specific cones in the retina. Cones are light-sensitive cells that respond to different wavelengths of light. When the three types of cones are activated in different ways, our brains perceive colors.

One fascinating bit of background is that the "M" cone, which typically responds strongest to green (Medium wavelength), can not naturally be activated without also activating the Long and Short cones. So even the purest green on the planet would also, to a smaller degree, stimulate the parts of our eyes that are mostly correlated with red and blue.

retinas, eyes, oz, retina scan, retina cones, vision, colors A close-up of the human eye. Swapnil Potdar/Unsplash

The team wanted to find out what would happen if they could isolate and activate only the M, or green, cone using the new technique.

The result? The five participants reported seeing an absolutely unreal, brilliant shade of green like nothing they had ever experienced. Imagine a bright green laser cranked up to the highest saturation and brilliance possible, the purest and brightest green your brain could possibly comprehend. Participants noted that a bright green laser pointed looked "pale" in comparison to the new color.

The name of the new, impossible color? Olo, or 010 (indicated zero stimulation of the L and S cones and full stimulation of the M cones).

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

It's fair to wonder, if olo is impossible and can never naturally exist without manual stimulation of the retinal cones, what's the point of the experiment?

The introduction of a "new color" is certainly interesting and makes for a good headline, but the real value of this study lies in the future applications of the Oz technique.

The research team hopes that the detailed retinal maps they have developed, along with their ability to stimulate specific rods and cones in the eye in any combination, will enable major breakthroughs in the study and treatment of various visual impairments.

For example, Oz could one day cure color blindness or unlock new treatments for cataracts or glaucoma. It could even play a role down the line in curing certain types of blindness. Isn't it wild how our understanding of how our eyes perceive color tells us so much?

But those days are a long way off, for now. In the meantime, only five people in the world have experienced the brilliance of olo, and the rest of us will just have to imagine it.

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Science

The 'world's slowest experiment,' going for nearly 100 years, is still endlessly fascinating

It takes nearly a decade for one drop of this liquid to fall.

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John Mainstone was the custodian of the Pitch Drop Experiment for 52 years.

Because we use water all the time, most of us have an intuitive sense of how long it takes a drop of water to form and fall. More viscous liquids, like oil or shampoo or honey, drop more slowly depending on how thick they are, which can vary depending on concentration, temperature and more. If you've ever tried pouring molasses, you know why it's used as a metaphor for something moving very slowly, but we can easily see a drop of any of those liquids form and fall in a matter of seconds.

But what about the most viscous substance in the world? How long does it take to form a falling drop? A few minutes? An hour? A day?

How about somewhere between 7 and 13 years?

pitch drop experiment, tar pitch, solid or liquid, physics, world's longest experiment Pitch moves so slowly it can't be seen to be moving with the naked eye until it prepares to drop. Battery for size reference.John Mainstone/University of Queensland

The Pitch Drop Experiment began in 1927 with a scientist who had a hunch. Thomas Parnell, a physicist at the University of Queensland in Australia, believed that tar pitch, which appears to be a solid and shatters like glass when hit with a hammer at room temperature, is actually a liquid. So he set up an experiment that would become the longest-running—and the world's slowest—experiment on Earth to test his hypothesis.

Parnell poured molten pitch it into a funnel shaped container, then let it settle and cool for three years. That was just to get the experiment set up so it could begin. Then he opened a hole at the bottom of the funnel to see how long it would take for the pitch to ooze through it, form a droplet, and drop from its source.

It took eight years for the first drop to fall. Nine years for the second. Those were the only two drops Parnell was alive for before he passed away in 1948.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

In total, there have been nine pitch drops in the University of Queensland experiment. The first seven drops fell between 7 and 9 years apart, but when air conditioning was added to the building after the seventh drop, the amount of time between drops increased significantly. The drops in 2000 and 2014 happened approximately 13 years after the preceding one. (The funnel is set up as a demonstration with no special environmental controls, so the seasons and conditions of the building can easily affect the flow of the pitch.)

The next drop is anticipated to fall sometime in the 2020s.

pitch drop experiment, tar pitch, solid or liquid, physics, world's longest experiment The first seven drops fell around 8 years apart. Then the building got air conditioning and the intervals changed to around 13 years.RicHard-59

Though Parnell proved his hypothesis well before the first drop even fell, the experiment continued to help scientists study and measure the viscosity of tar pitch. The thickest liquid substance in the world, pitch is estimated to be 2 million times more viscous than honey and 20 billion times the viscosity of water. No wonder it takes so ridiculously long to drop.

One of the most interesting parts of the Pitch Drop Experiment is that in the no one has ever actually witnessed one of the drops falling at the Queensland site. The drops, ironically, happen rather quickly when they do finally happen, and every time there was some odd circumstance that kept anyone from seeing them take place.

The Queensland pitch drop funnel is no longer the only one in existence, however. In 2013, Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, managed to capture its own pitch drop on camera. You can see how it looks as if nothing is happening right up until the final seconds when it falls.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Today, however, with the internet and modern technology, it's likely that many people will be able to witness the next drop when it happens. The University of Queensland has set up a livestream of the Pitch Drop Experiment, which you can access here, though watching the pitch move more slowly than the naked eye can detect is about as exciting as watching paint dry.

But one day, within a matter of seconds, it will drop, hopefully with some amount of predictability as to the approximate day at least. How many people are going to be watching a livestream for years, waiting for it to happen?

PoorJohn Mainstone was the custodian of the experiment for 52 years, from 1961 to 2013. Sadly, he never got to witness any of the five drops that took place during his tenure. Neither did Parnell himself with the two that took place while he was alive.

John Mainstone, pitch drop experiment, university of queensland, physics John Mainstone, the second custodian of the Pitch Drop Experiment, with the funnel in 1990.John Mainstone, University of Queensland

Sometimes science is looks like an explosive chemical reaction and sometimes it's a long game of waiting and observing at the speed of nature. And when it comes to pitch dripping through a funnel, the speed of nature is about as slow as it gets.

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Science

Simulation specialist reveals what would happen if you rode a rollercoaster without a harness

Not that you'd want to try it.

Imagine you’re at a Six Flags theme park, and after waiting an hour in line, you sit down in the front seat of The New Revolution, a looping roller coaster that hits top speeds of up to 55 miles per hour. The ride operator calls, “All clear,” your coaster takes off from the loading station, and you make your way up a lift hill. As the car goes clack clack clack, you realize that the lap bar was never secured and there’s no way back.

What would happen if you were stuck on a looping roller coaster and the harness stopped working? Could you hold on to the person securely seated next to you and make it through the loop, or would you be thrown out of the car for what would be a tragic ending? Popular YouTuber Zach D. Films, who specializes in digital recreations, showed what would happen if you rode a looping roller coaster without a harness, and the good news is that there’s a decent chance you will survive. (Not that you'd want to try, though.)

What would happen if I rode a rollercoaster without a harness?

“If the bar came loose while you were riding a roller coaster, you'd probably expect to immediately fall out, but that probably wouldn't happen,” Zach D. begins his video.

- YouTubeyoutu.be

According to Zach D., the competing forces of gravity and the speed at which you’re moving counteract each other, most likely keeping you safely in your seat. “You see, as you're being pulled into the loop, gravity tries to pull you down towards the ground, but because of the speed you're going and the direction of the tracks, a special force actually pushes you further down, outweighing the pull of gravity and keeping you in your seat,” Zach D. says in his video.

Another example of these forces is filling a bucket with a few inches of water, attaching a rope, and swinging it around your head. If you forcefully spin the bucket, the water will remain inside, even without anything to restrain it from falling out.

Even though science shows that it is possible to ride a looping rollercoaster without restraints, there aren't many people out there who want to try it. In November 2024, a passenger on the Desert Storm coaster at Castles and Coasters in Phonix, Arizona, claimed that his restraint released while he was on the ride. The restraint failure happened as the coaster climbed its first lift hill so he could exit quickly and make it to the emergency stairs near the coaster's peak.

"We started going up, everything seems to be OK. And then, when we get closer to the top, I hear a click. Different from the click of the roller coaster going up on the chain," he said. "So I check my bar, and when I pushed it, it released. It opened." The incident was caught on camera, and the footage is chilling.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

While the idea of riding a roller coaster without a lap bar is horrifying, Zach D. proves that physics may be your unexpected friend in case of a lap bar failure. That being said, let’s keep those restraints locked and double-checked. Roller coasters are meant to be fun, not a test of your centrifugal force knowledge.

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Innovation

Physicist demonstrates how to break a ruler with a newspaper and it's utterly delightful

Her enthusiasm is everything.

Photo by Roman Kraft on Unsplash

A simple sheet of newspaper can produce an enormous amount of force.

Have you ever had a teacher whose enthusiasm for their subject piqued your interest more than the subject itself? I had a biology professor in college who would talk in a low almost-whisper most of the time, but when she got excited about mitochondria or cellular respiration or the stages of mitosis, her voice would rise into a loud, high-pitched shriek. While her exuberance didn't make me fall in love with cellular biology, it did capture my attention and provide some chuckle-worthy entertainment while I was learning.

For people who don't have a natural inclination toward certain subjects, a passionate teacher can make all the difference. That's one reason a video of Texas A&M University (TAMU) physicist Dr. Tatiana Erukhimova explaining how atmospheric pressure works is so delightful.

Dr. Erukhimova has been teaching at TAMU for more than 20 years and is the co-author of an undergraduate textbook, "Atmospheric Thermodynamics: Elementary Physics and Chemistry." She is an award-winning educator, and when you see her physics demonstrations shared on TAMU Physics & Astronomy's YouTube channel, it's not hard to see why.

When most of us think of atmospheric pressure, we think about the weather. But Erukhimova demonstrates how atmospheric pressure can give a newspaper the power to break a ruler. (Sort of—the person actually breaks the ruler, but the newspaper is the key to enabling it to happen.) This demonstration would be cool on its own, but Erukhimova's energy is what truly makes the lesson.

Watch and enjoy:

(I may or may not be adding "Did I impress you? NO!" to my regular sayings.)

"Dr. Tatiana" has many similar videos, all of which have the same passion and enthusiasm. Watch her delight in making balloons shrink in liquid nitrogen and then come back to life.

And watch how she describes the "confidence and courage" you need to do a tablecloth inertia demonstration:

So much fun. Three cheers for teachers who make learning fun simply by enthusiastically sharing their wonder at how things work.

And if you want to see more from Dr. Erukhimova, check out her TEDx talk on Physics as a Street Art:

This article originally appeared two years ago.

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'All wrong': Neil deGrasse Tyson totally changes people's understanding of tides in 48 seconds

"The tide doesn't actually come in and out..."

via Neil deGrasse Tyson/Wikimedia Commons and Heinz Klier/Pexels

Neil deGrasse Tyson at Howard University 2010

Astrophysicist and master science communicator Neil deGrasse Tyson is blowing people’s minds by describing how tides actually work, as opposed to how we see them as mere humans.

He recently described the “misunderstood” phenomenon in an episode of “Star Talk” with co-host Chuck Nice.

“Tides are widely misunderstood. The next thing I say may be mind-blowing to you. The tide doesn’t actually come in and out. What happens is there is a bulge of water, two of them, on opposite sides of the Earth,” Tyson began his discussion.

“They are caused by the Sun and the Moon and Earth turns inside that bulge. So when we say [the tides] rise and fall, tidally what is happening is we are rotating into the bulge and then out of the bulge," he continued.

What you think you know about tides is all wrong…www.youtube.com

The quick explanation exposes an even greater scientific idea, that humans are limited in understanding because of our perspective and language. "So we're stuck with language, from our own perspective, rather than the language of what's actually happening,” Tyson explains. “It's simpler to say the water goes in and out. It's simpler to say the sun set rather than, Earth rotated such that our angle of view on this stationary sun fell below our local horizon."

For a more in-depth description of how tides work from “Star Talk,” check out the video below. The famed scientist also wrote a blog post on the tidal forces back in 1995, which describes the phenomenon on an even deeper level.

Neil deGrasse Tyson Explains the Tideswww.youtube.com

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Lawyers' Committee

Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights

He was more than just a physics genius.

upload.wikimedia.org

The famous image of Einstein taken by photographer Arthur Sasse in 1951

These days, the name Albert Einstein is basically a synonym for “genius.”

Einstein’s theory of relativity is one of the cornerstones of modern physics and his predictions continue to be confirmed today, even over a hundred years later. That’s not to mention his famous E=mc² equation and the nuclear weapons it eventually helped spawn (which Einstein came to deeply regret).

He could even be pretty wise at times. A note scrawled with a piece of advice — "A calm and modest life brings more happiness than the pursuit of success combined with constant restlessness." — recently sold for $1.56 million.

But there’s a different reason Einstein was amazing that many people might not realize: He was also a fervent civil rights activist.

Though his life ultimately came to be full of fame and fortune, Einstein wasn’t a stranger to prejudice.

Einstein was Jewish, living in Germany as Hitler rose to power. Einstein despaired over the Nazi’s anti-Semitism and became an outspoken critic of the Nazi party, which only drew more attacks against him. Major newspapers published attack pieces against him. His house was raided while he was away. He even appeared on a pamphlet list of the enemies of Nazi Germany. The caption below his picture read, “Not Yet Hanged.”

The harassment would ultimately prove to be too much. In 1933, Einstein abandoned his home and job at the Prussian Academy and sailed to the United States, stating: “I shall live in a land where political freedom, tolerance, and equality of all citizens reign.”

Though the United States proved to be a haven for Einstein for the rest of his life, he must have been disappointed to see his newly adopted country fail to live up to the promise of equality.

At the time, the United States was still deeply segregated and Jim Crow laws severely restricted the rights of black Americans. Even Princeton, the college that’d become Einstein’s workplace, wouldn’t admit black students. Einstein could see the parallels, and, just as he refused to be quiet in Germany, so too in the United States.

Over the next decades, Einstein would become a staunch defender and ally of both the civil rights movement and the men and women who fueled it.

When opera star Marian Anderson was denied a hotel room because of her skin color, Einstein opened his house to her. He worked with actor and singer Paul Robeson on the American Crusade Against Lynching and invited him to perform at Princeton when the singer was blacklisted. He publicly encouraged the NAACP and W.E B. Du Bois for years and appeared as a character witness when the federal government tried to indict the man.

civil rights, education, science, art, equality

Albert Einstein actively supported civil rights.

Photos Albert Einstein by Ferdinand Schmutzer and Marian Anderson by Carl Van Vechten/ both Wikimedia Commons.

In 1946, he published an essay for white readers about racial bias in Pageantmagazine, writing:

"Your ancestors dragged these black people from their homes by force; and in the white man’s quest for wealth and an easy life they have been ruthlessly suppressed and exploited, degraded into slavery. The modern prejudice against Negroes is the result of the desire to maintain this unworthy condition. …
I do not believe there is a way in which this deeply entrenched evil can be quickly healed. But until this goal is reached there is no greater satisfaction for a just and well-meaning person than the knowledge that he has devoted his best energies to the service of the good cause."

That same year, he gave a speech at Lincoln University calling racism was "a disease of white people." He also added, "I do not intend to be quiet about it."

Einstein was clearly one of the greatest minds of the 20th century. But perhaps what made him a truly special human being wasn’t just that he was smart, or that he was funny, or that he left behind a lot of great anecdotes (and notes for bellboys).

Perhaps it was that he used that magnificent brain of his to not just understand the world, but to try to make it more just, fair, and peaceful place.

This article originally appeared on 10.27.17

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At a time when anti-immigration rhetoric is at an all-time high, it's imperative we look at the bigger picture.

“I think the United States is what it is today largely because of open borders."

That comment comes from Scottish-born naturalized U.S. citizen Sir J. Fraser Stoddart. When he said this to The Hill, he'd just won the Nobel Prize for chemistry.

This statement was bold, especially in an election year where the topic of immigration has been a hot-button issue filled with troublesome rhetoric.

Stoddart had a good reason for the comment: All six American Nobel laureates in science announced so far this year are immigrants.

Every year, the Nobel Foundation awards this prestigious honor to the most innovative scientists, writers, researchers, and peace-builders around the world for their outstanding contributions in the world of physics, chemistry, physiology, medicine, literature, and peace.

All six science Nobel Prize winners from the U.S. Photos by (clockwise) Scott Olson/Getty Images; Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge/Getty Images; Scott Eisen/Getty Images; Kayana Szyymczak/AFP/Getty Images; Mickael Vis/AFP/Getty Images; Denise Applewhite/Princeton University/Getty Images.

Stoddart was recognized for his breakthrough research in creating new ways to energize and steer molecules that could revolutionize how we treat illnesses and help develop more powerful computers.

The Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to Duncan M. Haldane, who is British; David Thouless, also Scottish; and Michael Kosterlitz, who is originally from Aberdeen, Scotland, and was born to Jewish refugees who fled Hitler's Germany. Their theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter could have a tremendous impact in electronics and computing.

Finally, Oliver Hart is from Britain, and Bengt Holmström is from Finland. Both are being recognized for their contributions to economics.

(On Oct. 13, 2016, the foundation also announced that beloved singer-songwriter Bob Dylan earned the coveted Nobel Prize for literature for "new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition." Not too shabby, America!)

This science lineup is a big deal, especially now.

At a time when Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is taking an unapologetically tough stance on immigration by proposing "extreme vetting" (and promising to build a massive wall and deport undocumented immigrants who are already here), this award lineup speaks volumes about why we need inclusive immigration policies.

It proves we can greatly benefit from inviting immigrants into our country. It shows that when we abandon our fear of differences, we'll find that folks from other places have a lot to offer in terms of science, education, and technological advances.

These six winners are literally making the world a better place.

The Nobel Foundation Prize Award Ceremony in 2008. Image by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images.

As Stoddart pointed out to The Hill, America's incredible scientific progress can remain strong "as long as we don't enter an era where we turn our back on immigration."

These Nobel Prize winners make an excellent and irrefutable case for nurturing our immigration system.

“I think the resounding message that should go out all around the world is that science is global," Stoddart said.

It's imperative we look at the bigger picture instead of just focusing on the negative aspects of immigration. Many of our amazing and impressive scientific innovations are here because of immigration.

We can accomplish amazing things when we have no barriers — physical or otherwise.

physics

Researchers hacked 5 people's brains so they could see a new and impossible color

The new color 'olo' is neat, but the technique behind it could be groundbreaking.

The 'world's slowest experiment,' going for nearly 100 years, is still endlessly fascinating

It takes nearly a decade for one drop of this liquid to fall.