"Olo" does not exist in nature, nor can it be found among paint cans. But for a very select few, olo can be seen — through the intervention of careful computing and lasers. A team led by vision scientist Austin Roorda and computer scientist Ren Ng at UC Berkeley figured out a method for stimulating only one specific subset of cones of the retina. It's the only way to view this spectacular teal. Creating the color is helping push the boundaries of vision science.Follow Short Wave on Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.More questions about the science behind our everyday lives? Email us at [email protected]. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
What is Olo and how was it created?
He might be following, but the colors won't look the same.
Yeah.
So back to this question about, you know, could there be, you know, an animal that could see Olo? I received that question first. Oh, what a great question. But it's actually that there's no way for that to happen because the experiential nature of the color for different species is just so vastly different.
Yeah. I recognize that you need a machine to see Olo, but for those of us at home, is there any way to approximate the Olo experience and to trick your eyes?
Now, there's one type of situation where you can get an impression of what Olo might be. And that is if you desensitize or if you're exposed to a bright red light for a period of time.
I'm going to do this at home. I want to see Olo so bad. Okay.
So if you look at red light and you kind of adapt to red light, by looking at red light too much for a long period of time, you may desensitize to it or adapt to it. And then immediately following the adaptation to red light, you show a green light.
And that approximates the condition that we generate with OLO, whereby the M-cones are preferentially stimulated more than what normal natural light would do. And so if you wanted to get a rough idea of what OLO looked like, you could do this adaptation trick. Now, the difference is that when we deliver OLO, we can make it last. It can persist.
Wow. You speak like such a steward of a color. And it's so it's funny to me because like the pop culture craze around seeing Olo has got to be pretty funny for you all to witness. I read about an artist from the UK, Stuart Semple, who is selling for $10,000 pre-orders online. Of a paint based on Olo called YOLO.
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