QuantumFog

March 26, 2007

More colors in the rainbow

The reader's inclination for the truly relevant may lead them to the latest journal of Science. A genetic upgrade was performed on lab mice to enhance their ability to see colors. The mouse retina in the picture has the photoreceptors tinted green.

Most mammals see the world in shades of gray and perhaps a little of the color spectrum as we know it. The reason is their lack of photoreceptors for the color red. Primates are figured to have evolved this capability several million years ago.

The researchers introduced DNA into the mice genome containing instructions for the red photopigment. The visual capability of the altered mice were compared with an unaltered control group.

The mice were presented with a panel of three lights; two lights were blue-green, the third was orange. The reward for a correct light selection was a drop of soymilk, which is pretty much what I earn around here.

The control group performed as expected by selecting the blue-green lights a third of the time. The enhanced-vision group selected the correct orange color 80% of the time.

It took 10,000 trials for the enhanced-groups' brains to learn what to do with the new found receptors. Although the number appears large, remember this brain never had this capability before in its evolution. Somehow, the brain had to adapt and "rewire" itself.

Which, in an idle moment, makes me wonder what the possibilities are for engineering different kinds of photoreceptors. Following that, what would we be able to see.

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