How badly do we want this?
An incredible new nanotechnology could one day enable us to see in the dark. It works on mice, and there’s little to say it wouldn’t be equally effective on other mammals. The only drawback — how are you with needles to the eyeball?
Research led by the University of Science and Technology of China produced particles that adhere to light-detecting cells in the retina and help them respond to near-infrared (NIR) wavelengths.
The back of our eye, which is where the retina is, acts like a television screen in reverse. As the full spectrum of light falls on its cells, some wavelengths trigger chemical reactions we perceive as either colour or intensity.
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