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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, scienceThe 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, colorsA 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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A juice company dumped orange peels in a national park. Here's what it looks like now.

12,000 tons of food waste and 21 years later, this forest looks totally different.

In 1997, ecologists Daniel Janzen and Winnie Hallwachs approached an orange juice company in Costa Rica with an off-the-wall idea. In exchange for donating a portion of unspoiled, forested land to the Área de Conservación Guanacaste — a nature preserve in the country's northwest — the park would allow the company to dump its discarded orange peels and pulp, free of charge, in a heavily grazed, largely deforested area nearby.

One year later, one thousand trucks poured into the national park, offloading over 12,000 metric tons of sticky, mealy, orange compost onto the worn-out plot. The site was left untouched and largely unexamined for over a decade. A sign was placed to ensure future researchers could locate and study it.


16 years later, Janzen dispatched graduate student Timothy Treuer to look for the site where the food waste was dumped.

Treuer initially set out to locate the large placard that marked the plot — and failed.

The first deposit of orange peels in 1996.

Photo by Dan Janzen.

"It's a huge sign, bright yellow lettering. We should have been able to see it," Treuer says. After wandering around for half an hour with no luck, he consulted Janzen, who gave him more detailed instructions on how to find the plot.

When he returned a week later and confirmed he was in the right place, Treuer was floored. Compared to the adjacent barren former pastureland, the site of the food waste deposit was "like night and day."

The site of the orange peel deposit (L) and adjacent pastureland (R).

Photo by Leland Werden.

"It was just hard to believe that the only difference between the two areas was a bunch of orange peels. They look like completely different ecosystems," he explains.

The area was so thick with vegetation he still could not find the sign.

Treuer and a team of researchers from Princeton University studied the site over the course of the following three years.

The results, published in the journal "Restoration Ecology," highlight just how completely the discarded fruit parts assisted the area's turnaround.

The ecologists measured various qualities of the site against an area of former pastureland immediately across the access road used to dump the orange peels two decades prior. Compared to the adjacent plot, which was dominated by a single species of tree, the site of the orange peel deposit featured two dozen species of vegetation, most thriving.

Lab technician Erik Schilling explores the newly overgrown orange peel plot.

Photo by Tim Treuer.

In addition to greater biodiversity, richer soil, and a better-developed canopy, researchers discovered a tayra (a dog-sized weasel) and a giant fig tree three feet in diameter, on the plot.

"You could have had 20 people climbing in that tree at once and it would have supported the weight no problem," says Jon Choi, co-author of the paper, who conducted much of the soil analysis. "That thing was massive."

Recent evidence suggests that secondary tropical forests — those that grow after the original inhabitants are torn down — are essential to helping slow climate change.

In a 2016 study published in Nature, researchers found that such forests absorb and store atmospheric carbon at roughly 11 times the rate of old-growth forests.

Treuer believes better management of discarded produce — like orange peels — could be key to helping these forests regrow.

In many parts of the world, rates of deforestation are increasing dramatically, sapping local soil of much-needed nutrients and, with them, the ability of ecosystems to restore themselves.

Meanwhile, much of the world is awash in nutrient-rich food waste. In the United States, up to half of all produce in the United States is discarded. Most currently ends up in landfills.

The site after a deposit of orange peels in 1998.

Photo by Dan Janzen.

"We don't want companies to go out there will-nilly just dumping their waste all over the place, but if it's scientifically driven and restorationists are involved in addition to companies, this is something I think has really high potential," Treuer says.

The next step, he believes, is to examine whether other ecosystems — dry forests, cloud forests, tropical savannas — react the same way to similar deposits.

Two years after his initial survey, Treuer returned to once again try to locate the sign marking the site.

Since his first scouting mission in 2013, Treuer had visited the plot more than 15 times. Choi had visited more than 50. Neither had spotted the original sign.

In 2015, when Treuer, with the help of the paper's senior author, David Wilcove, and Princeton Professor Rob Pringle, finally found it under a thicket of vines, the scope of the area's transformation became truly clear.

The sign after clearing away the vines.

Photo by Tim Treuer.

"It's a big honking sign," Choi emphasizes.

19 years of waiting with crossed fingers had buried it, thanks to two scientists, a flash of inspiration, and the rind of an unassuming fruit.


This article originally appeared eight years ago.

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Study shows the specific barriers female business owners face—even those at the very top

30 women who own businesses that make more than $5 million in annual revenues, and the discussions were very revealing.

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Running multi-million dollar businesses doesn't exclude women from gender prejudice.

Many studies on the state of women in the workplace seem to reinforce the doom and gloom of modern women's experience. They tell us something we already know – that you're going to have to speak ten times louder to be heard half as often, and there's no amount of leaning in or wearing shoulder pads that can fix that.

A report conducted in 2019 by Babson College and Bank of America found that female business owners don't feel like they're being taken seriously, which is pretty much old news at this point. But the report also explored the specific barriers women business owners feel like they're facing so we can jump over those barriers, no shoulder pads needed.

Researchers conducted in-depth interviews with 30 women who own businesses that make more than $5 million in annual revenues, and the discussions were very revealing. "[W]omen who have built successful companies had to navigate significant gender-based obstacles. In doing so, these women created alternate paths to success for themselves, and for other similarly unstoppable female entrepreneurs," Bank of America said in a release. The study found that there were three main misconceptions: market misperceptions, network exclusions, and managing expectations while underfunded.

Many women felt that they "had their leadership position questioned due to their gender." Raegan Moya-Jones, co-founder of baby products manufacturer Aden & Anais, said the fact that she was a mother was a positive in the eyes of the consumer, however she found that business people weren't taking her seriously because of it.

Other female business owners found that some people had misconceptions as to why the woman founded her business in the first place. "When a woman starts a business, some potential backers may assume that she is running the business out of her home, for fun, or just to supplement her family's income," the report said. "Backers may then fail to see the business as growth-oriented and worthy of investment."

women, business, successful, entrepreneur, trends

Potential backers may assume that a woman could only run a business from her home.

Photo from Pixabay

More importantly, the report laid out how women can bust through the barriers to success. The report recommended we "capitalize on personal insights and experiences," because the female experience is actually an advantage. "Women entrepreneurs have an opportunity to leverage their personal experiences and serve the emerging needs and trends for female consumers," the report said. "Because they understand the market, they are well suited to communicate their value proposition and reach their target clients." In other words, being a woman isn't something that has to hold you back — it can propel you forward.

This article originally appeared on 10.24.19



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Don't worry, your cat does love you. Science says so.

All these years, we've been thinking about cats wrong.

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Cats have love for their owners.

Cats can sometimes come off like aloof jerks. Their love often seems conditional. But turns out they actually love you more than they let on. Your cat might shoot you a stone-cold stare every time you pet it, but it actually harbors warm feelings underneath. And it's not just because you feed it.

A study conducted by researchers at Oregon State University found that cats form "secure attachments" to their owners, meaning cats feel a sense of security from their owners. It's not dissimilar from dogs and babies. The findings were published in Current Biology.

The researchers studied 108 cats (70 adult cats, 38 kittens) and their owners using a test developed in the 1970s to study bonding between parents and infants. "We took [attachment styles] from other previous studies and just thought, 'Do cats actually fit these different styles or not?'" lead study author Kristyn Vitale told NBC News.

The cat was placed in a room with its owner for two minutes, then the owner left for two minutes. The owner returned for two more minutes to determine the attachment the cat had for its owner. Of the 70 cats, 64.3% of cats showed signs of "secure attachment," which means that they trust that their owner will take care of their needs. They felt safe exploring their surroundings, as well. "The characteristics of a secure cat, for example, [are] greeting their owner and then going back to what they were doing," Vitale told NBC News. "That's how a secure human also behaves."

The other cats showed "insecure attachment," which means they appeared to have anxiety or fear towards their owners. They either ignored their owners completely when they returned, or clung to them. Other signs included twitching their tails and licking their lips. By comparison, similar research found that 65% of children and 58% of dogs demonstrated secure attachment to their caregivers. There's a better chance that your cat feels more secure around you than your dog, even though your dog is all up in your business all the time.

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It's more likely your cat feels more secure around you than your dog.

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

Vitale says that it's important for owners to think about how much their cats rely on them for a sense of security. "When they're in a stressful situation, how they're behaving can actually have a direct impact on their cats' behavior. Cats that are insecure can be likely to run and hide or seem to act aloof," she said. "There's long been a biased way of thinking that all cats behave in this way. But the majority of cats use their owner as a source of security."

This wasn't the only time researchers were able to crack the thoughts behind your cat's icy gaze. In 2017, researchers at the Oregon State University found that cats prefer socializing with people to food. This is not a joke. Cats were given a choice of stimuli to see what they preferred. A majority of cats went for hanging out with humans first, then food.

All these years, we've been thinking about cats wrong. It's not that your cat doesn't love you. Your cat just has a very different way of showing you it loves you. It might not even look like love. Sometimes it looks like pee on your favorite sweater. But that's love. Really, it is.

This article originally appeared on 10.30.19

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