this post was submitted on 29 Dec 2025
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[–] Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works 51 points 1 week ago (4 children)

“There’s no light in nature that can only stimulate the M-cones,” said Austin Roorda, a professor of optometry and vision science at the School of Optometry at Berkeley. 

Roorda explained that the human eye has long, middle and short wavelength-sensitive cones called L, M and S cones. The M cones are sandwiched between the L and the S cones, so when the M cone is tickled, so are the L and the S. 

The study involved a team of researchers, including Ren Ng, a professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences at Berkeley. Their collaboration began years ago when Ng asked Roorda, “What would happen if we delivered light to thousands of M cones only? Would it be the greenest green you’ve ever seen?”

So it’s essentially isolated green or “pure” green.

[–] homoludens@feddit.org 23 points 1 week ago

It's not easy seeing green.

[–] VoterFrog@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago (3 children)

So olo because it's the middle of color?

[–] neonix@reddthat.com 1 points 6 days ago

I seem to remember reading it's so named because only the "G" in the (roughly) RGB cones are stimulated, so a 0-1-0 mapping onto the R-G-B colour space. 0-1-0 > olo.

[–] Rubanski@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 1 week ago

Another name for it is "olou"

[–] TargaryenTKE@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

Get this man a MacArthur Genius Grant immediately

[–] Tangent5280@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Has the same thing been done for the L and S cones? I mean, the isolated "tickling"?

[–] RaphaelSchmitz@feddit.org 3 points 6 days ago

As far as i understand, it's easier to be on either end of the spectrum, so there are already colors that do that in nature.

[–] Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 week ago

I’m curious as well, for all we know we don’t know what pure red looks like either.

[–] Nanook@lemmy.zip 13 points 1 week ago

New Zealand: ah you mean green

[–] 5too@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

...Octarine?