Importance Score: 65 / 100 🔴
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Researchers startled the globe last week with their declaration that they had successfully modified the human eye to perceive a novel hue.
Innovative Technique Unveils New Color Perception
The specialists at the University of California, Berkeley, achieved this remarkable accomplishment by directing laser beams at precise cones within the retina of the human eye.
Art Meets Science
A British artist asserts that he has formulated a paint in this unprecedented shade that has been hailed as a “beautifully intense peacock green”.
Dorset-based Stuart Semple is known for his creations of ultra-black and bright pink paints and is now offering 150 ml bottles of his newest creation. Dubbed ‘Yolo’, the invention represents his ambition to merge scientific discoveries with artistic ingenuity.
Elevating Artist Creativity
Yolo is aimed at inspiring artists to produce meaningful new works. However, its extensive price tag may limit access to non-artists.
Semple expressed in an Instagram post: ‘Researchers have revealed a fresh color! I’ve spent the night liberating it for you.
‘This is Yolo and it’s exclusively for artists.’
The Distinctive Composition of Yolo
As per the description, this paint’s unique blend of high-frequency pigments and brighteners is designed to stimulate specific wavelengths, creating a distinctive visual experience. It has been engineered to evoke the laser-induced hue witnessed in laboratory settings.
Unmasking Olo: A Revolutionary Color
While the scientists named their new discovery ‘olo’, Semple has reimagined it as ‘yolo’ with the added ‘y’ signifying ‘you’.
The 150 ml bottle of Yolo is accessible on Semple’s website, Culture Hustle, at a hefty price tag of approximately £10,000 ($13,300).
Incentivizing Artists: A Discount for Creators
As part of an apparent publicity endeavor, the retail price is slashed to just £29.99 for those who confirm their status as artists by using the checkout code ‘YOLO’. It remains uncertain whether buyers will need to provide any documents to validate their artistic background and secure the discount.
The terms specify: ‘By employing the code YOLO at checkout, you affirm that you are an artist and intend to utilize this material solely for artistic endeavors. To the best of your knowledge, this YOLO material will not be transferred to non-artists.’
The high-frequency acrylic paint is currently under production and is expected to begin shipping within three weeks. Semple notes that the hue cannot be fully appreciated through digital displays and must be experienced in person.
Unveiling a New Spectrum of Color Perception
A Closer Look at the Scientists’ Discovery
The scientists have devised a method to manipulate the human eye into detecting a fresh color, achieved by employing minute quantities of laser light to manipulate specific photoreceptors in the eye.
The laser used is a single color, equivalent to that of a green laser pointer. By mainly stimulating M cone cells in the eye, it creates the perception of the new hue, dubbed ‘olo’.
However, Semple acknowledges that Yolo is merely an approximation of the color that participants encountered during laboratory experiments.
As he states, ‘Yolo is as close to the experience that we can get in physical form’. ‘Although Yolo isn’t exactly like directing a laser into your eye, the sensation of the hue is as close as you will experience with paint’.
Experimenting with Retinal Cell Stimulation
In the trials detailed in a recent Science Advances publication, five researchers were exposed to green laser light directed into their eyes, which stimulated cells in the retina, known as M cones.
By activating individual M cones, the researchers discerned the light as ‘a blue-green color of exceptional saturation’. ‘It was akin to an intensely saturated teal… the most saturated natural color paled in comparison,’ explained Austin Roorda, a professor of optometry at UC Berkeley.
As the team points out, their technique permits subjects to ‘perceive different colors of the rainbow, and hues beyond the natural human spectrum’.
Bringing Lab Discoveries to the Canvas
Semple concedes that ‘the stunning laser technology’ might remain restricted to laboratory environments, yet Yolo ‘transfers the essence of this revelation to artists everywhere’.
This creation harnesses ‘a special combination of high-frequency pigments and brighteners to provoke specific visual wavelengths’. Painting with Yolo offers ‘an almost transcendent experience that echoes the original’ genesis, as outlined in the product description.
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