Like this guy?
Posted on 02/28/2019 8:00:20 PM PST by BenLurkin
By injecting specialized light-tweaking nanoparticles into a mouse’s retina, that mouse is suddenly and clearly able to perceive near-infrared light — suggesting the same could be possible for us, assuming you don’t mind a needle in the eye.
The advance involves what the researchers, from the University of Science and Technology in China, call “ocular injectable photoreceptor-binding upconversion nanoparticles.”
In fact, it turns out that these researchers had already created the necessary trickery for a different reason, namely as a molecule for optogenetic triggers that would absorb infrared light (which conveniently penetrates many tissues) and emit visible spectrum light instead.
These “nanoantennae,” as the researchers call them, are biocompatible and can be combined with proteins that encourage them to bind with the photoreceptive cells in our retinas. What happens when you coat a cell that normally detects green light with a molecule that absorbs NIR radiation (900-1000 nm) and outputs something 500 nm shorter? That cell can effectively now sees IR as a shade and intensity of green.
That’s exactly what happened when the team injected these molecules into the eyes of mice ... the animals were instantly able to detect NIR in a variety of circumstances. Not only did a beam of IR cause their pupils to constrict, but patterns projected in IR indicating a reward were reliably sought by the mice, indicating this was not just a general awareness but detailed perception in the wavelength.
The molecules also seemed to cause no serious problems in the retina, such as cell death or irritation — and the mice were still able to see in IR some 10 weeks after injection.
(Excerpt) Read more at techcrunch.com ...
SOMEONE’S got to post a picture of SOMETHING for this thread :)
I’m not creative enough.
Well... Chinese army with built in nightvision
This can only work if the particles are “charged up” first. They can’t convert long wavelengths to short wavelengths at ordinary light intensities; sufficient intensity to cause second-harmonic generation would surely be injurious to the eye due to thermal effects.
I very much doubt the Chinese University of Science and Technology has solved that problem, which stems from thermodynamic considerations. If they had, the implications would be extremely wide-ranging, far beyond intra-ocular nanoparticles.
I would but I can’t find the old comic book ad for x ray vision glasses with the spirals in place of the lenses.
Cool, but it would be better if you could turn it on and off.
:)
Sounds creepy.
Very COOL movie :)
One of few believable tough guy actors to come to the screen in the past 20 years.
He was a bouncer in NYC so he probably saw his share of antics.
If we’re hearing about it now, China has been doing it to political prisoners for months.
I am waiting for the X-ray vision nanoparticle.
“researchers, from the University of Science and Technology in China, call “ocular injectable photoreceptor-binding upconversion nanoparticles.””
I wonder how you say that in Chinese.
I think that would literally drive people insane after a few days.
I doubt there’s a way to reverse it, either. It’s not like you can go back into the retina and capture all those nanoparticles.
There'll be a quiz at the end of this post.
OK, clue us in. What movie?
It’s the one with the sea monkeys.
A young friend and I sneaked into a
tent at the carnival where the barker
was selling card decks with ‘the king
on top, the queen on the bottom, and
the ace in the hole.’ Scandalous.
How did we ever survive?
Want!
My old man told me a story of when he was a young man, probably around 1945 or so, how he worked night shift in a factory sandblasting metal that they were casting and a chunk of it got into his eye. They rushed him to the town doctors house and he had him sit down in the kitchen which had the best light. A single bulb hanging from the ceiling. The doc took a scalpel sort of like an X-acto knife and held his eye open and said "now whatever you do, don't move your eye" as he slowly moved the sharp tip towards it.
When he told that story I got the sense that if the experience resulted in him having mid reading super powers or time travel abilities, he'd take a hard pass on reliving it.
Two photo up-conversion.
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