{"id":34143,"date":"2025-05-16T15:16:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T15:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/lasers-trick-eye-into-seeing-new-color\/"},"modified":"2025-05-16T15:16:00","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T15:16:00","slug":"lasers-trick-eye-into-seeing-new-color","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/lasers-trick-eye-into-seeing-new-color\/","title":{"rendered":"Lasers Trick the Eye into Seeing New Color"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Scientists at UC Berkeley have developed a groundbreaking technology called <em>Oz<\/em> that uses laser light to make people see a completely new color &mdash; a dazzling, ultra-saturated blue-green they named <em>olo<\/em>. This new hue is unlike anything found in nature.<\/p>\n\n<p>&ldquo;Olo&rdquo; was described as &ldquo;a profoundly saturated teal &hellip; the most saturated natural color was just pale by comparison,&rdquo; said Austin Roorda, one of Oz&rsquo;s creators. The platform works by firing precise, tiny bursts of laser light at up to 1,000 light-sensitive cells &mdash; called photoreceptors &mdash; in the eye at once. With this control, researchers can make people see shapes, moving images, and especially colors that aren&#39;t normally visible.<\/p>\n\n<p>The name <em>Oz<\/em> is a nod to <em>The Wizard of Oz<\/em> &mdash; a journey to an unknown land with sights never seen before. &ldquo;We chose Oz to be the name because it was like we were going on a journey to the land of Oz to see this brilliant color that we&rsquo;d never seen before,&rdquo; said James Carl Fong, a doctoral student who helped develop the system.<\/p>\n\n<p>Typically, humans see color using three kinds of cone cells in the retina: one each for blue, green, and red. But because green and red cones respond to very similar light, it&#39;s impossible in nature to trigger just the green ones alone. Oz overcomes this by activating only the green cones with laser light, letting people see what might be the &ldquo;greenest green&rdquo; ever &mdash; <em>olo<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n<p>In experiments, people described <em>olo<\/em> as peacock green or blue-green, and far more intense than even a laser pointer&rsquo;s green. &ldquo;When I pinned olo up against other monochromatic light, I really had that &lsquo;wow&rsquo; experience,&rdquo; said Roorda.<\/p>\n\n<p>Beyond just making people see new colors, Oz could help study vision loss and even explore whether we can expand how humans perceive color. As Roorda puts it: &ldquo;I think that the human brain is this really remarkable organ that does a great job of making sense of inputs, existing or even new.&rdquo;<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\"><em>Possible Preaching Angle:<\/em><\/h2>\n\n<p><em>God&rsquo;s light also reveals spiritual truths beyond our innate understanding<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3712,4375,4376,4546,4623,4891,5129,5241,5242],"tax_ctp_topics":[395,397],"class_list":["post-34143","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-creativity","tax_ctp_tags-light","tax_ctp_tags-light-of-the-world","tax_ctp_tags-news-that-illustrates","tax_ctp_tags-perception","tax_ctp_tags-science","tax_ctp_tags-technology","tax_ctp_tags-visible-invisible","tax_ctp_tags-vision"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Lasers Trick the Eye into Seeing New Color - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/lasers-trick-eye-into-seeing-new-color\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lasers Trick the Eye into Seeing New Color - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Scientists at UC Berkeley have developed a groundbreaking technology called Oz that uses laser light to make people see a completely new color &mdash; a dazzling, ultra-saturated blue-green they named olo. This new hue is unlike anything found in nature. &ldquo;Olo&rdquo; was described as &ldquo;a profoundly saturated teal &hellip; the most saturated natural color was Read more...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/lasers-trick-eye-into-seeing-new-color\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CTpastors\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/lasers-trick-eye-into-seeing-new-color\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/lasers-trick-eye-into-seeing-new-color\/\",\"name\":\"Lasers Trick the Eye into Seeing New Color - CT Pastors\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-16T15:16:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-16T15:16:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/lasers-trick-eye-into-seeing-new-color\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/lasers-trick-eye-into-seeing-new-color\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/lasers-trick-eye-into-seeing-new-color\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Lasers Trick the Eye into Seeing New Color\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"name\":\"CT Pastors\",\"description\":\"Timeless wisdom for pastors with forward-thinking solutions\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Christianity Today\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"caption\":\"Christianity Today\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/CTpastors\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Lasers Trick the Eye into Seeing New Color - CT Pastors","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/lasers-trick-eye-into-seeing-new-color\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Lasers Trick the Eye into Seeing New Color - CT Pastors","og_description":"Scientists at UC Berkeley have developed a groundbreaking technology called Oz that uses laser light to make people see a completely new color &mdash; a dazzling, ultra-saturated blue-green they named olo. 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