Scientists have discovered a new colour and claim that it has never been seen before
A team of scientists have claimed to have discovered a brand new colour that has supposedly never been seen before.
Yep, it looks like there could soon be another colour to consider when you're next picking a new shade for your kitchen wall, or debating summery colours for your next wedding-guest dress.
A team of scientists in the US claim to have discovered a colour that no human has ever seen before, and they've named it 'olo'.
But how exactly did they come across such a finding?
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Well, it came following an experiment in which five researchers had laser pulses fired into their eyes, which stimulated specific cells in the retina - which is the light-sensitive layer at the back of the eye that converts light into electrical signals, which are then sent to the brain via the optic nerve, enabling us to see.
Participants claimed to have seen an unusual blue-green colour when this happened, a colour which later went on to be christened as olo.
Researchers have shared an image of a turquoise square to give the closest sense of the colour, but stressed that the hue could only be truly experienced through 'laser manipulation of the retina'.
The findings were published in the journal Science Advances and have been described as 'remarkable' by the study's co-author, Professor Ren Ng from the University of California.
The professor also said that he hopes the results could potentially further research into colour blindness.
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Saturday that olo was 'more saturated than any colour that you can see in the real world'.
"Let's say you go around your whole life and you see only pink, baby pink, a pastel pink," he said. "And then one day you go to the office and someone's wearing a shirt, and it's the most intense baby pink you've ever seen, and they say it's a new colour and we call it red."
Austin Roorda, a vision scientist on the team, spoke further of the discovery and said there is 'no way to convey that colour in an article or on a monitor'.
He said, as per The Guardian: "The whole point is that this is not the colour we see, it’s just not. The colour we see is a version of it, but it absolutely pales by comparison with the experience of olo."
Some experts, however, have said that how someone perceives olo is simply down to 'perception'.
Professor John Barbur, a vision scientist at City St George's, University of London, said to the BBC that while the research is a 'technological feat' in stimulating selective cone cells, the discovery of a new colour is 'open to argument'.
Emily Puckering