Summary: Researchers use nanotech to enhance vision in mice, enabling them to see infrared light as well as visible light.
Source: Cell Press.
Mice with vision enhanced by nanotechnology were able to see infrared light as well as visible light, reports a study published February 28 in the journal Cell. A single injection of nanoparticles in the mice’s eyes bestowed infrared vision for up to 10 weeks with minimal side effects, allowing them to see infrared light even during the day and with enough specificity to distinguish between different shapes. These findings could lead to advancements in human infrared vision technologies, including potential applications in civilian encryption, security, and military operations.
Humans and other mammals are limited to seeing a range of wavelengths of light called visible light, which includes the wavelengths of the rainbow. But infrared radiation, which has a longer wavelength, is all around us. People, animals and objects emit infrared light as they give off heat, and objects can also reflect infrared light.
“The visible light that can be perceived by human’s natural vision occupies just a very small fraction of the electromagnetic spectrum,” says senior author Tian Xue of the University of Science and Technology of China. “Electromagnetic waves longer or shorter than visible light carry lots of information.”
A multidisciplinary group of scientists led by Xue and Jin Bao at the University of Science and Technology of China as well as Gang Han at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, developed the nanotechnology to work with the eye’s existing structures.
“When light enters the eye and hits the retina, the rods and cones–or photoreceptor cells–absorb the photons with visible light wavelengths and send corresponding electric signals to the brain,” says Han. “Because infrared wavelengths are too long to be absorbed by photoreceptors, we are not able to perceive them.”
In this study, the scientists made nanoparticles that can anchor tightly to photoreceptor cells and act as tiny infrared light transducers. When infrared light hits the retina, the nanoparticles capture the longer infrared wavelengths and emit shorter wavelengths within the visible light range. The nearby rod or cone then absorbs the shorter wavelength and sends a normal signal to the brain, as if visible light had hit the retina.
Image Credit: 123RF
Thanks to Heinz V. Hoenen. Follow him on twitter: @HeinzVHoenen

News This Week
New material discovery could revolutionize roll-out of global vaccinations
New raw vaccine materials that could make vaccines more accessible, sustainable, and ethical have been discovered. The results of the research have been published in Polymers. Adjuvants are vaccine ingredients that boost a person's immune response [...]
Scientists Develop Incredibly Lightweight Material 4 Times Stronger Than Steel
Researchers developed a light yet strong material by combining two unexpected ingredients—DNA and glass. Working at the nanoscale provides scientists with a deep understanding and precision in crafting and analyzing materials. In broader-scale production, and even [...]
New Implant Doctors Hope Will Cut Cancer Deaths in Half
Researchers at Houston's Rice University are developing an implant that could diminish deaths caused by cancer by half. The device will contain synthetically nurtured human cells and be embedded with sensors to keep track of cancer [...]
Machine learning helps predict drugs’ favorite subcellular haunts
Most drugs are small molecules that bind firmly to a specific target—some molecule in human cells that is involved in a disease—in order to work. For example, a cancer drug's target might be a [...]
Nanotechnology Breakthrough Could Help Treat Blindness
Scientists utilize nanotechnology to address a prevalent cause of vision loss. Scientists have discovered a way to use nanotechnology to create a 3D ‘scaffold’ to grow cells from the retina. This breakthrough could lead [...]
Decoding Women’s Health: Artificial Intelligence Revolutionizes PCOS Diagnosis
NIH study reviews 25 years of data and finds AI/ML can detect common hormone disorder. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can effectively detect and diagnose Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), which is the most common [...]
Surprising Discovery Could Explain How Coronaviruses Jump Species
New insights are enhancing scientists’ efforts to stay ahead of COVID-19 and the next pandemic. Unexpected new insights into the ways COVID-19 infects cells could shed light on the virus’s adept ability to jump from one species to another [...]
A blood test for long Covid is possible, a study suggests
Scientists can now show key differences in the blood of those who recover from Covid — and those who don't. More than three years into the pandemic, the millions of people who have suffered [...]
FedEx for your cells: this biological delivery service could treat disease
Researchers want to know why cells produce tiny packages called vesicles — and whether these bundles could be used for therapy. Graça Raposo was a young postdoc in the Netherlands in 1996 when she [...]
New study on the genetic magnetization of living bacteria shows great potential for biomedicine
Magnetic bacteria possess extraordinary capabilities due to the magnetic nanoparticles, the magnetosomes, which are concatenated inside their cells. A research team at the University of Bayreuth has now transferred all of the approximately 30 [...]
Ultrathin Nanotech Promises to Help Tackle Antibiotic Resistance
Researchers have invented a nano-thin superbug-slaying material that could one day be integrated into wound dressings and implants to prevent or heal bacterial infections. The innovation – which has undergone advanced pre-clinical trials – [...]
Researchers Discover New Mnemomic Networks in the Brain
The medial temporal lobe (MTL) houses the human memory system. Broadly, it contains the hippocampus, parahippocampal cortex, perirhinal cortex, and entorhinal cortex. “One big challenge in studying the MTL is its great anatomical variability [...]
The Surprising Origin of a Deadly Hospital Infection
C. diff might not originate from external transmission but rather from within the infected patient themselves. Hospital staff dedicate significant effort to safeguard patients from infections during their hospital stay. Through practices ranging from [...]
Google AI breakthrough – huge step in finding genes that cause diseases
Google says it has made a significant step in identifying disease-causing genes, which could help spot rare genetic disorders. A new model named AlphaMissense is able to confidently classify 89 per cent of all [...]
New Study: Everyday Pleasures Can Boost Cognitive Performance
MINDWATCH study reveals cognitive peaks with everyday pleasures. Listening to music and drinking coffee are the sorts of everyday pleasures that can impact a person’s brain activity in ways that improve cognitive performance, including [...]
Moderna reveals new highly targeted COVID-19 vaccine mRNA-1283
Moderna has developed a new and improved version of its COVID-19 vaccine. The unique formulation (mRNA-1283) reduces the vaccine's content from the full-length SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to a narrowly focused encoding of just two [...]
Leave A Comment