00:00Five people just saw a color no one had ever seen before.
00:04Here's how. So in the back of your eye, there are special cells that let us see color.
00:07There are three different kinds of these cones, each sensitive to different wavelengths of light.
00:11So if you make a map of relative activity of each of these cone types,
00:14this is the natural range of colors that our eyes see.
00:17Weirdly, there's no natural color that stimulates only this type of cones,
00:21because its sensitivity overlaps completely with the other cone types,
00:24so another cone is always also activated.
00:27But scientists just created a device that images where the cone cells are in a person's retina,
00:31and then stimulates individual ones using tiny amounts of laser light,
00:34while compensating for any motion.
00:36Which is cool because they were able to stimulate just these M cone cells,
00:39and create a brand new color that appears blue-green,
00:42but is way more saturated than you can see naturally.
00:44The goal is to learn more about how we see color,
00:46maybe one day correct colorblindness, or see more colors.
00:49If you need more optimistic science and tech stories, subscribe.
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