from the intelligence-without-commonsense dept.
A team of biohackers is attempting to modify the human sensory spectrum.
Tibbetts along with several friends, is part of a homegrown experiment where he has attempted to alter his vision to see in the infrared, which humans can’t usually see. The three experimenters have just completed a 25-day nutritional regimen and, as their bodies return to normal, they will continue to document their vision for the next two weeks. Very early results appear promising, albeit incomplete. But several experts in ophthalmology have doubts about the purpose and safety of the project, not to mention the validity of the results themselves.
People who want to improve how humans function span the full range of invasiveness, from gym rats who chug protein shakes to biohobbyists slicing open their flesh in basements. Tibbetts and his co-experimenter, Gabriel Licina, are solidly in between. The team spent six months reviewing previous studies to craft a nutritional protocol designed to modify their vision, bearing the mark of their backgrounds in human anatomy and molecular biology. But their acceptance of the risks reflects their rogue scientist attitude; test subjects who don't follow the protocol, either through wrong vitamin dosage or improper diet, could go blind.
http://www.popsci.com/article/diy/can-we-hack-our-vision-see-infrared-naked-eye
(Score: 4, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday September 10 2014, @11:15PM
They should have just rolled up a dwarf or an elf if they wanted infravision.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Funny) by arslan on Thursday September 11 2014, @01:54AM
what about is half-elves you insensitive half-orc!
(Score: 1) by archfeld on Thursday September 11 2014, @09:02PM
I'll see your 1/2-elf and raise you a drow. Is ultra-vision better than infra-vision ?
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 10 2014, @11:24PM
"But several experts in ophthalmology have doubts about the purpose and safety of the project, not to mention the validity of the results themselves."
Ophthalmologists, exercising caution? They must be hoarding the ocular advancements for themselves.
Brought to you by Advancement through eXperimentation on Latent E-Humanity.
(Score: 1) by b on Wednesday September 10 2014, @11:31PM
Dear amateur scientists, please Google "model organisms".
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Ethanol-fueled on Thursday September 11 2014, @12:24AM
I like to strip naked, then lay a towel over my office chair before turning out the lights and lighting candles on my office desk, my ass and chest freshly shaved so I can rub either my butt-cheek or my most sensitive nipple while backetweaving myself into the most convulsive...
...Oh, wait, you said "model orga ni sms, not,you know...um...heh.
Tee-hee! *looks down with eyes up and puts hand over mouth* My mistake!
(Score: 2) by Tork on Thursday September 11 2014, @07:48PM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 3, Interesting) by kaszz on Thursday September 11 2014, @12:17AM
They certainly aren't first to try potentially lethal self-experiments [wikipedia.org]. Anyway remove all Vitamin-A from your diet for 25 days and drink 1.6 ml of Vitamin-A2 at 25 US$ each and then get the ability to see "strange reddish colors, losing blue/green definition, and have been pointing out things in the dark to others who can't see them at all". Of course at the risk of permanent blindness.
A less dangerous alternative is to make glasses that can "receive" infrared wavelengths and generate (TFT) vision.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 11 2014, @08:24PM
get the ability to see "strange reddish colors, losing blue/green definition
That makes me wonder if people who have colorblindness in the blue/green region are predisposed to better red/infrared acuity.
I'm now remembering the guy who used to have to use his ohmmeter to tell if a resistor was 1M (brown/black/green) or 10M (brown/black/blue).
-- gewg_
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Friday September 12 2014, @12:25AM
"That makes me wonder if people who have colorblindness in the blue/green region are predisposed to better red/infrared acuity."
If someone has access to people with this kind of functioning and a electroretinograph (ERG), a small box that a person puts over their eyes that flashes LEDs at different wavelengths. It would be really interesting to read about the result.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by opinionated_science on Thursday September 11 2014, @12:51AM
The title says it all. It's how we see things. In fact it is how all multicellular life sees things, as far as we know.
Colour is not a problem. In fact humans can see ultraviolet, a fact revealed from some patients who have had cataract surgery (the human cornea is impermeable to UV light - in fact this leads to cataracts but stop the light receptors from getting damaged).
Humans see 3/4 base wavelengths (think gaussian frequency response), but then about 10 years ago it was discovered that humans had an extra receptor. Melanopsin, that appear only to look for night/day.
Infrared receptors, however, is not enough. You will probably need a completely different eye stucture (like cats who can see some IR), a highly reflective surface to cram those long wavelengths in the eye.
This reads like the Darwin awards nominations...
(Score: 2) by arslan on Thursday September 11 2014, @01:58AM
Yea, someone should suggest to them that I'd be a lot more "awesome dude!!" if they attempt an eye transplant from mantis shrimps... think of all the new colors they'd see.
(Score: 0) by dltaylor on Thursday September 11 2014, @02:52AM
Some of us already have the reflective layer; it's called "blonde fundus". I read paperbacks by moonlight when I was a child.
Genengineering the normally-off-in-the-dark receptors to have an additional near infrared capability (as the green receptors shut down, for example, their lack of activity could allow an infrared-sensitive pigment in the same cells to activate, reversing the effect when there's enough green light).
The network of blood vessels in the eyelid might emit enough IR that you'd never again "be in the dark". I don't know that anyone has measured the IR emission of the back of the eyelids.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by wonkey_monkey on Thursday September 11 2014, @07:22AM
Even more interestingly:
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Thursday September 11 2014, @04:37PM
The pigments in the eye sensitive to light have different response curves [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photopsin [wikipedia.org] ], and the response curve of the red-sensitive opsin [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OPN1LW [wikipedia.org] OPN1LW ] has a tail into the near-IR. So all you need to do is place a sufficiently sharp and effective cut-off filter in front of the eye that attenuates the normal visible light but transmists the near-IR, which will mean that the red-sensitive opsin will be 'bleached' by near-IR light and you then see near-IR. Many people have done this using particular optical filters and welding goggles - one example is here:
INFRARED GOGGLES FOR UNDER $10 A Human IR Vision Experiment Sept. 14, 2002 Bill Beaty http://amasci.com/amateur/irgoggl.html [amasci.com]