ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Spring is here, and with it, in the leaves and in the grass, the color green.
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
But none of the green you'll see this year - well, that you'll ever see - is as green as olo.
SHAPIRO: That is a new color that you can only see in a lab at UC Berkeley using a laser. It's been described in the journal Science Advances.
SUMMERS: So how does it work? Well, it starts with a device called Oz.
SHAPIRO: Yes, of Emerald City fame.
SUMMERS: It uses tiny laser pulses to individually activate cone cells.
SHAPIRO: Those are special cells in the retina that see different wavelengths of light. Oz can activate any combination of cones and thus produce any technicolor image.
SUMMERS: But Oz can also be dialed in to just activate the cones that can see green. In nature, that would never happen. But in the lab, that's how you get olo.
SHAPIRO: Participants describe it as resembling the emerald green of a peacock, but saturated to a level they've never experienced.
SUMMERS: Scientists say the technology could help those with eye diseases and even color blindness in the future. But for now, Oz is staying in the lab.
SHAPIRO: And if you hope to see olo one day, well, YOLO.
(SOUNDBITE OF MELANIE MARTINEZ SONG, "VOID") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
