The dye that helps give Doritos their signature orange hue can also make mice see-through. Researchers rubbed a solution containing tartrazine – the food dye commonly known as “yellow no. 5″ – onto mice and about five minutes later, they said it was like looking through a window.
The results are only temporary, and scientists say it’s a big step forward in getting a peek at what’s going on inside the body without using a scalpel. The outcome holds the potential for making it easier to find veins for blood tests or diagnosing tumors without surgery.
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And while it may sound like magic, it’s achieved by simple science. The technique works by changing how body tissues that are normally opaque interact with light.
The fluids, fats and proteins that make up tissues such as skin and muscle have different refractive indices. Refraction is how light bends as it passes through something.
Fluid components in the body have low refractive indices, while fats and proteins have high ones. That means the body’s tissues appear opaque because of the contrast between these refractive indices.
The researchers speculated adding a dye that strongly absorbs light to the body’s tissues could narrow the gap between the components’ refractive indices enough to make them transparent, and they were right.
This technique has not yet been tested on humans. And while tartrazine is a common dye in many food items, chowing down on a bag of Doritos won’t make you invisible. Researchers said the concentration of the dye in the chips is too low for that to happen.
It’s not clear if or when human trials will happen, as such trials would have to get ethical approval first.
