Category Archives: Futurism

In Brief Los Angeles will trial GuardTop's gray pavement coating on certain black asphalt streets in an attempt to beat the heat. The coating could lower temperatures by as many as 12 degrees Fahrenheit, helping cut down on A/C usage and therefore lowering the city's greenhouse gas emissions.

In Los Angeles, temperatures that exceed 38 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit) during the summer are not uncommon. Dark pavement can contribute to thesehigher temperatures, but a new asphalt treatment could reportedlycut street temperatures by as many as 6.6 degrees Celsius (12 degrees Fahrenheit) after just one coat.

Black asphalt absorbs between 80 and 95 of sunlight, but the cool pavement treatment marketed by the California-based sealcoating firm GuardTop reflects it. This could have a big impact on street temperatures and make life more comfortable for people in urban environments.

After successful testing the treatment in parking lots, Los Angeles is ready to be the first major city to put it through its paces on a public road. Officials will monitor how residents react to the new pavement, as well as how long it takes for traffic conditions to soil the gray coloration of the coating.

As Alan Barreca, an environmental science professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, told AFP, Lower temperatures due to the pavement mean less reliance on air conditioning. So, that means less greenhouse gases.

However, despite the potential advantages of cool pavement coatings, research conducted by the Department of Energy indicated that they do have some drawbacks in terms of the energy and emissions associated with their manufacture, installation, use, and disposal.

By approaching the treatment with caution, rather than rushing into a wide rollout, L.A. can determine whether these drawbacks are outweighed by the benefits and make an educated decision on how to proceed.

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LA Is Testing a Pavement Treatment That Can Drop Street Temperatures by 12 Degrees - Futurism

In Brief Volocopter, the German startup behind Dubai's upcoming autonomous aerial taxi (AAT) service, just secured $29.5 million in new funding. Dubai plans to begin testing the startup's two-seater VTOL, the Volocopter 2X, before the end of this year. Investing Big

In February, Dubai, a city known for its active pursuit of all things futuristic, revealed plans to partner with German startup Volocopter on a flying taxi service. The city then updated the timeline for those plans in June, and now, it has moved one step closer to implementing them thanks to a 25 million (roughly $29.5 million) investment in Volocopter by Mercedes-Benz parent company Daimler AG, Berlin tech investor Lukasz Gadowski, and a few others.

The strong financial commitment of our new investors is a signal as well as proof of the growing confidence in the newly emerging market for electrically driven [vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) vehicles] put to use as personal air taxis, Florian Reuter, Volocopter managing director, said in a press release announcing the new round of funding.

The startup has been working on a flying car for some seven years now, and the Volocopter 2X, a two-seater VTOL vehicle powered by electricity and capable of autonomous flight, is their second-generation vehicle.

Volocopters AAT would work like most ride-hailing services a passenger would be able to summon the service on demand and then be ferried to their destination. The company will work closely with Dubais Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) during a five-year testing period for this autonomous aerial taxi (AAT), which is set to begin by the fourth quarter of 2017.

The benefitsof a flying car or a flying taxi service seem obvious enough. For one, youd avoid the usual traffic congestion of busy urban centers.Secondly, Volocopter 2X is safe and quiet, thanks to the 18 rotors that lift it off the ground.

According to the company, it wont require heavy infrastructure support, either. One moment, it is the replacement for a bridge that is being repaired, the other moment it is an air taxi used as a shuttle to a trade fair, they explain on their website. This would effectively eliminate the typical concerns regarding the use of VTOLs in cities, such as the ones Elon Musk previously raised.

Volocopter isnt the only company working on a flying car or an AAT. Uber has had plans for a flying vehicle and an aerial taxi servicein the works for a while now, and a number of bothestablishedcompanies andsmaller startupshave their own designs for such vehicles, increasing the odds that flying cars will have a place in the future of transportation.

Disclosure: The Dubai Future Foundation works in collaboration with Futurism as a sponsor and does not hold a seat on our editorial board.

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Dubai Just Moved One Step Closer to Launching Its Flying Taxi Service - Futurism

In Brief Bitcoin has surpassed another milestone by reaching worth of more than $4,000. Many are still optimistic about the currency's future.

Another day, another Bitcoin milestone passed. The worlds first and largest cryptocurrency surpassed the $4,000 mark for a moment yesterday. The new all-time high for Bitcoin is now $4,162.57. The price has dropped slightly since that high was reached, and at the time of writing now sits at $4,072.30.

This latest milestone marks the currencys seemingly unstoppable surge since the beginning of the year. In January, Bitcoin was trading at less than $1,000 per coin. Now, the burgeoningcryptocoinsare worth more than four times that amount. Early adopters must be rejoicing that their faith in the cryptocurrency is (thus far) being rewarded.

Experts remain optimistic about Bitcoins potential, yet some are beginning to fear that it has entered a bubble. Still, the trend seems to be in favor of its continued success. No one knows for sure what the future of Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies in general will look like. The debate of whether the reward is worth the risk will continue to rage on.

The bigger picture here though, is blockchain. While it is most closely associated with cryptocurrency at the moment, that doesnt even begin to scratch the surface of what is possible with this tech. So while cryptocurrency may still be considered a gamble, get ahead of the game and read up on blockchain, because it is, almost certainly, the future.

Disclosure: Several members of the Futurism team, including the editors of this piece, are personal investors in a number of cryptocurrency markets. Their personal investment perspectives have no impact on editorial content.

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Bitcoin Continues to Plow Through Milestones By Surpassing the $4000 Mark - Futurism

In Brief Elon Musk's nonprofit AI company has successfully beaten some of the world's greatest Dota 2 players. The game is much more complex than chess or Go, and the bot's ability to win is indicative of the increasing power of AI systems. An AI World First

eSports are growing in popularity and quickly becoming a surprisingly lucrative sport. eSports are a form of competition where the action takes place in an electronic system, usually a video game. There are a ton of formal competitions and tournaments for a wide range of games, such asStarCraft 2, Overwatch, and Defense of the Ancients (Dota) 2.

One way that developers of artificially intelligent systems teach their creations is through gaming. Googles AI, AlphaGo, became so advanced at playing the ancient game of Go, that it was able tobeat whatever human master was thrown at it. This was quite the achievement, as Go involves much more complexity than games like chess which theDeep Blue computer system was able to master in 1996.

Now, AI systems are coming for the best that eSports have to offer. Elon Musks OpenAI software has become the first AI to beat the world greatest eSports athletes. Musk took to Twitter to announce this achievement.

OpenAI published an accompanying blog post explaining the significance of what theyve built. Dota 1v1 is a complex game with hidden information. Agents must learn to plan, attack, trick, and deceive their opponents. The correlation between player skill and actions-per-minute is not strong, and in fact, our AIs actions-per-minute are comparable to that of an average human player.

The software taught itself how to play the game by playing itself. Our bot has learnedentirely via self-playto predict where other players will move, to improvise in response to unfamiliar situations, and how to influence the other players allied units to help it succeed.

OpenAI has a history of using novel approaches to train its AI. Last year, they let their system loose on Reddit, where it processed nearly two billion comments. It may be unclear what is in store for the future of OpenAI and other AI projects, but professional gamers are seemingly out of luck for a while.

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Elon Musk's OpenAI Created a Bot That Can Beat the World's Best eSports Players - Futurism

Riding the Heat Wave

Hot weather has forceddozens of commercial flights to be canceledat airports in the Southwest this summer. This flight-disrupting heat is a warning sign. Climate change is projected to have far-reaching repercussions includingsea level rise inundating citiesand shifting weather patterns causinglong-term declines in agricultural yields. And there is evidence that it is beginning to affect the takeoff performance of commercial aircraft, with potential effects on airline costs.

National and global transportation systems and the economic activity they support have beenoptimized for the climatein which it all developed: Machines are designed to operate in common temperature ranges, logistical plans depend on historical weather patterns and coastal land development is based onknown flood zones. In the aviation sector, airports and aircraft are designed for the weather conditions experienced historically. Because the climate is changing, even fundamental infrastructure elements like airports and key economic sectors like air transportation may need to be redesigned and reengineered.

As scientists focused on theimpacts of climate change and extreme weatheron human society and natural ecosystems around the world, our research has quantified how extreme heat associated with ourwarming climate may affect flightsaround the world. Weve found that major airports from New York to Dubai to Bangkok will see more frequent takeoff weight restrictions in the coming decades due to increasingly common hot temperatures.

There is robust evidence that extreme events such as heat waves and coastal flooding are happening withgreater frequency and intensitythan just a few decades ago. And if we fail to reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly in the next few decades, the frequency and intensity of these extremes is projected toincrease dramatically.

The effects on aviation may be widespread. Many airports are built near sea level, putting themat risk of more frequent floodingas oceans rise. The frequency and intensity ofair turbulence may increasein some regions due tostrengthening high-altitude winds. Stronger winds would force airlines and pilots tomodify flight lengths and routings, potentially increasing fuel consumption.

The July heat-relatedPhoenix flight cancellationshappened at least in part because airlines operational manuals didnt include information fortemperatures above 118 degrees Fahrenheit because that kind of heat is historically uncommon. Its another example of how procedures may need to be updated to adapt to a warmer climate.

High air temperatures affect the physics of how aircraft fly, meaning aircraft takeoff performance can beimpaired on hot days. The amount of lift that an airplane wing generates is affected by the density of the air. Air density in turn depends mostly on air temperature and elevation; higher temperatures and higher elevations both reduce density.

Lower the air density, the faster an airplane must travel to produce enough lift to take off. It takes more runway to reach a higher speed, and depending on how long the airports runway is, some airplanes might risk running out of room before reaching sufficient speed. When this occurs, the only immediate option is to reduce the aircrafts weight to lower its required takeoff speed by removing passengers, luggage and cargo. This is referred to as a weight restriction

Weight restrictions happen now, especially in hot places like Phoenix andDubaiand at airports with short runways likeNew Yorks LaGuardiaand Washington, D.C.s Reagan National, but our research suggests that they may become much more common in the future.

Global temperatures have beensteadily rising for decades, and they will almost certainly continue to do so. In some regions, there is evidence that thehottest temperatures may increase at a faster ratethan the average,further stacking the deckin favor of extreme heat. These hotter temperatures will reduce air density and make it much more likely weight restrictions are needed for flights taking off during the hottest parts of the day.

The frequency and magnitude of weight restrictions is projected to increase in some locations, the number of days requiring at least some amount of weight restriction for certain aircraft could double or triple, perhaps covering 50 or more days per year.

On most affected flights, the amount of cargo, passengers and fuel that must be removed to allow for takeoff will usually be small between 0.5 percent and 4 percent of the total load. That means fewer paying customers on airplanes, and less cargo on board. When those restrictions add up across the global air transport system, the costs can be significant.

Carrying just a fraction of a percent fewer passengers or less cargo can add up tomillions of dollars in lost revenuefor an airline over years of operation. That makes even small weight restrictions a concern in such a highly competitive and optimized industry. These limits could disproportionately affectlong-haul flights, which require large fuel loads and often take off near their maximum weights.

There are ways that airlines could mitigate increasing weight restrictions. The most feasible is to reschedule some flights to cooler hours of the day although withair traffic increasingand many airports alreadyoperating near capacity, this could prove difficult.

Another potential solution is to build longer runways. But thats not always possible: Some airports, like New Yorks LaGuardia, are on coastlines or in dense urban environments. Even where a longer runway is technically possible, buying the land and expanding an airports physical area may beexpensive and politically difficult.

Aircraft could be optimized for takeoff performance, but redesigning aircraft isextremely expensive and can take decades.Manufacturers are always workingto build planes that arelighter and more fuel-efficient. In the future, those efficiency improvements will be necessary just to maintain todays performance.

These changes are merely examples of the countless procedures, processes and equipment requirements that will have to be adjusted for a changing climate. Even if those adaptations are successful, they will take effort and money to achieve.

Many sectors of the economy, including the aviation industry, have yet to seriously consider the effects of climate change. The sooner, the better: Both airport construction and aircraft design take decades, and have lasting effects. Todays newest planes may well beflying in 40 or 50 years, and their replacements are being designed now. The earlier climate impacts are understood and appreciated, the more effective and less costly adaptations can be. Those adaptations may even include innovative ways to dramatically reduce climate-altering emissions across the aviation sector, which would help reduce the problem while also responding to it.

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How Hot Weather and Climate Change Affect Airline Flights - Futurism

In Brief DARPA, the research arm of the U.S. Department of Defense, awarded contracts to six teams working on developing better brain-computer interface technology. The goal, according to DARPA, is to repair and enhance the senses of those with disabilities. Repairing and Enhancing

The U.S. Department of Defense is moving forward with its work on brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) awarding contracts to five research groups and one private company on Tuesday.

BCIs have been around for a while now, but the potential for expanding their capabilities is relatively recent. The primary purpose of BCIs have been developing better neuroprostheses, which is also one of the visions of DARPAs Neural Engineering System Design (NESD) program. Through NESD, DARPA wants to develop high-resolution brain interfaces that could restore and enhance human senses.

The NESD program looks ahead to a future in which advanced neural devices offer improved fidelity, resolution, and precision sensory interface for therapeutic applications, founding NESD program manager Phillip Alvelda said at the announcement, the Singularity Archive reports. Of the six awarded contracts, four will work on vision enhancement while the other two will focus on hearing and speech.

Back in 2016, DARPA announced that NESD will develop neural interface systems that will improve communication between the brain and the digital world. The idea is to convert electrochemical signals in the brain into the binary bits of zeros and ones used in computers. Braintree founder Bryan Johnson even thinks its possible to make our neural code programmable through such systems.

Not only would this help treat persons with sense disabilities by inputting various senses directly into the brain as digital signals, it would also enhance them. The ability of such neural interface systems to do this has led others working on similar technologies like Elon Musk with his Neuralink to consider BCIs as humanitys way of keeping up with the development of intelligent machines. Indeed, the power of BCIs to meld the human mind with machines has led to the emerging field ofneuroreality, which is a transformation of how we see and interact with the world around us.

For DARPA, it starts with helping those that suffer from sensory impairments. [I]f were successful in delivering rich sensory signals directly to the brain, NESD will lay a broad foundation for new neurological therapies, Alvelda said.

Significant technical challenges lie ahead, he added, but the teams we assembled have formulated feasible plans to deliver coordinated breakthroughs across a range of disciplines and integrate those efforts into end-to-end systems.

Disclosure: Bryan Johnson is an investor in Futurism; he does not hold a seat on our editorial board or have any editorial review privileges.

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DARPA is Working on Enhancing Human Senses with Computers - Futurism

In BriefChinese researchers have developed two safer alternatives totraditional batteries, which can leak hazardous chemicals. Thesenew batteries are flexible and thin, which could make them idealfor use in wearables and implantable devices. Flexible and Safe

Leaking batteries can corrode the interiors of electronics, sometimes causing irreparable damage. Even worse, they can harm people, and given the increasingprevalence of wearable technology and implantable devices, such a hazard is troublesome.

To avoid this issue altogether, researchers from ChinasFudan Universityhave developed a new kind of battery that doesnt include the chemicals that can make traditional batteries dangerous. As a bonus, their designs are also thin and flexible.

Current batteries like the lithium-ion ones used in medical implants generally come in rigid shapes, Yonggang Wang, one of the researchers from Fudan, said in a press release. Additionally, most of the reported flexible batteries are based on flammable organic or corrosive electrolytes, which suffer from safety hazards and poor biocompatibility for wearable devices, let alone implantable ones.

In a study recentlypublished in Chem, the researchers present their two flexibledesign alternatives, neither of which requires the electrolytes used in current batteries. Instead, these batteries use one of two bio-compatible sodium-based liquids: a normal saline solution or a cell culture medium that contains amino acids, sugars, and vitamins.

The first design is a 2D belt made of thin electrode films overa steel strand mesh. The other features a carbon nanotube fiber weave with nanoparticle electrodes embedded on it. According to the researchers, both designs showed excellent performance, even faring better than most existing lithium-ion batteries used in wearable electronics in terms of how much energy they could hold and the power they could produce.

The thinness and flexibility of these batteries make them idealfor implants, the researchers noted, and theycould be hugely beneficial to the development ofbrain-computer interfaces, which are, obviously, implanted into one of the most sensitive organs inside the human body.

The researchers also stumbled upon an unexpected potential use for their second battery design. The batterys carbon nanotube backbone caused the conversion of dissolved oxygen into hydroxide ions to accelerate. This isnt good for the battery itself, the researchers said, but it could prove beneficial forcancer starvation therapy.

We can implant these fiber-shaped electrodes into the human body to consume essential oxygen, especially for areas that are difficult for injectable drugs to reach, Wang explained in the press release. Deoxygenation might even wipe out cancerous cells or pathogenic bacteria since they are very sensitive to changes in living environment pH.

Of course, as this wasnt the object of the research, much more in-depth studies would be required to validate this effect. Until then, it remains largely theoretical.

The batteries themselves, though, show a great deal of promise for their intended use. The next step is to make sure they would be able to meet the power needsof todays wearables and implants, as well as those that are still to come.

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Researchers Develop Bendable Batteries That Could Make Implants and Wearables Safer - Futurism

In BriefResearchers from the Salk Institute and the University ofCalifornia San Diego have discovered a way to categorize neuronsdown to the molecular level. This will help scientists to compose a"parts list" of the brain and, perhaps, create interfaces thatimprove its functionality. New Neurons

Mapping exactly how the human brain functions is, perhaps, the most promising step when it comes to transforming how humans operate on a fundamental level. Mapping how the brain works down to the molecular level could help us find new ways to combat neurological and even allow us to enhance human intelligence. Already, a host of innovators are working to develop technology that intertwines with the brain to enhance its functionality; however, before we can deploy such technologies, we need tofully understand how the brain works.

And we just got a little bit closer. Today, a team of researchers from the Salk Institute and the University of California San Diego announced that they havemade a major discovery that could aid usin this effort. Through a relatively new process, the scientists were able to discover new types of brain cells.

According to the co-senior author, Joseph Ecker, professor and director of Salks Genomic Analysis Laboratory and an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Decades ago, neuronswere identified by their shape. Now we are taking a molecularapproach by looking at this modification of the methylation profile between cells and that tells us what type of cell it is pretty accurately.

In short, sequencing the molecular structure of neurons that look the same under a microscope, we can begin to sort them into subgroups to give a better understanding of each subgroups functionality. We think its pretty striking that we can tease apart a brain into individual cells, sequence their methylomes, and identify many new cell types along with their gene regulatory elements, the genetic switches that make these neurons distinct from each other, Ecker notes.

This research will allow scientists to get a complete parts list of each neuron and its function. According to Chonguan Luo, a Salk research associate, and co-first author of the research paper, such mapping will open a host of new doors: There are hundreds, if not thousands, of types of brain cells that have different functions and behaviors and its important to know what all these types are to understand how the brain works.

As previously mentioned, these findings could have a profound impact on how we study and treat neurological disorders. Eckers next move is to research molecular differences in the brains of healthy subjects versus those with brain disease. If theres a defect in just one percent of cells, we should be able to see it with this method, he says. Until now, we would have had no chance of picking something up in that small a percentage of cells.

Researchers will be able to pin point the exact cell types that may be responsible for a particular disease. With that knowledge, future research would be able to focus on correcting that abnormality. we can develop, from this information, new tools to be able to study particular cell populations once we know they exist, says Ecker.

Understanding the brain on this minute of a level will certainly open up a wide range of possibility for the future of treating disease, as well as preparing us for a new level of bionic integration.

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Making A Better Brain: Scientists Just Discovered a New Kind of Brain Cell - Futurism

In BriefMalta, a project at Alphabet's "moonshot" factory, hasdeveloped a system that stores renewable energy in molten saltinstead of batteries. The project is now looking for partners totest the commercial viability of their system, which could helpclear one of the major hurdles to widespread clean energy adoption. Maximizing Renewables

Given the dramatic impact human-made carbon emissions are having on our planet, cleaner energy sources have become increasingly popular alternativesto their fossil fuel counterparts. Currently, solar and wind are the most widely used renewable energy sources, but both are dependent on certain conditions. The former can capture energy only during daylight hours, while the latter is more unpredictable,but often peaks at night.

As such, theres a mismatch between when solar and wind energy are available and when energy is needed. The world needs a way to maximize renewable energy usage, and thats whatMalta, a project currently brewing at Alphabet X, the moonshot factory by Googles parent company, is hoping to provide.

The goal of Alphabet X is to develop technologies that could someday make the world a radically better place. The organization follows a three-part blueprint for their moonshot projects that starts with identifying a huge problem and then providing a radical solution that could be implemented using a breakthrough technology.

For Malta, the idea was to find a way to maximize the use of energy generated from renewables. Theirradical solution is bridging the gap between renewable energy and grid-scale energy storage technologies using a breakthrough technology developed by Stanford physicist and Nobel laureate Robert Laughlin.

According to the projects website,this technology is still theoretical and involves storing electricity as either heat within molten salt or cold within a liquid similar to the antifreeze used in cars. They claim this energy could remain stored for up to weeks at a time.

Essentially, Malta is hoping todevelop clean and cost-effective energy storage devices, which is similar to the concept behind Teslas Powerpack. The difference between the Malta projects tech and the Powerpack is mostly whats inside. While Teslas energy storage device uses 16 individual battery pods, Maltas relies on molten salt or the antifreeze-like liquid.

Additionally, the tanks used to store the salt used by Maltas system could potentially last for up to 40 years, which the project claims is three or more times longer than other current storage options. That extended lifespan would make Maltaa cheaper alternative to other renewable energy storage devices.

After two years of developingand designing their system, the Malta team is now gearing up to test the commercial viability of their technology. The next step is to build a megawatt-scale prototype plant which would be large enough to prove the technology at commercial scale, according to their website.

We now have multiple ways to generate energy from renewables, but if we ever hope to fully transition away from traditional energy solutions, we need better storage devices. Though they are clearly betterfor the environment, renewables arent as consistent as fossil fuels, and that unreliability is a huge barrier to widespread adoption.

Storage systems like those proposed by Malta could collect the energy generated by renewables and ensure it is available to power grids whenever needed, putting us one step closer to a future completely free of fossil fuels.

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Google's Parent Company Will Soon Compete With Tesla for Energy Storage Solutions - Futurism

In BriefMost people are trichromats, possessing three types of conecells to see color with. A woman in northern England has four typesof working cone cells, which means she has the ability to see farmore colors than most of us can.

After more than 25 years of searching, neuroscientists in the UK recently announced that theyve discovered a woman who has an extra type of cone cell the receptor cells that detect color in her eyes.

According to estimates, that means she can see an incredible 99 million more colors than the rest of us, and the scientists think shes just one of a number of people with super-vision, which they call tetrachromats, living amongst us.

Most humans are trichromats, which means we have three types of cone cells in our eyes.

Each type of cone cell is thought to be able to distinguish around 100 shades, so when you factor in all the possible combinations of these three cone cells combined, it means we can distinguish around 1 million different colors.

Most people who are color blind only have two functioning types of cone cells, which is why they can only see around 10,000 shades and almost all other mammals, including dogs and New World monkeys, are also dichromats.

But theres one doctor in northern England who has four cone cell types, taking the potential number of colors she can distinguish up to 100 million colors most of us have never even dreamed of.

Identified only as cDa29, the scientists finally found this woman two years ago, but theyve been searching for more than 25 years and think there are more tetrachromats like her out there.

So how do you get a fourth type of cone cell?

The idea of tetrachromats was firstsuggested back in 1948by Dutch scientist HL de Vries, who discovered something interesting about the eyes of color blind people.

While color blind men only possess two normal cone cells and one mutant cone thats less sensitive to either green or red light, he showed that the mothers and daughters of color blind men had one mutant cone andthree normal cones.

That meant they had four types of cone cells, even though only three were working normally something that was unheard of before then.

Despite the significance of the finding, no one paid much attention to tetrachromats until the late 80s,when John Mollon from Cambridge Universitystarted searching for womenwho might have four functioning cone cells.

Assuming that color blind men pass this fourth cone cell onto their daughters, Mollon estimated that around12 percent of the female populationshould be tetrachromats.

But all of his tests showed that these women could only perceive the same colours as the rest of us which meant only three of their cone cell types were working, so they werent true tetrachromats.

Then, in 2007, neuroscientist Gabriele Jordan from Newcastle University in the UK, who had formerly worked alongside Mollon, decided to try a slightly different test to look for this super-vision.

She took 25 women who had a fourth type of cone cell, and put them in a dark room. Looking into a light device, three colored circles of light flashed before these womens eyes.

To a trichromat, they all looked the same, but Jordan hypothesized that a true tetrachromat would be able to tell them apart thanks to the extra subtlety afforded to her by her fourth cone.

Incredibly, one of the women tested, cDa29, was able to differentiate the three different colored circles in every single test.

I was jumping up and down,Jordan told Veronique Greenwood fromDiscovermagazine.

So if so many female children of color blind men have four cones, why have we only been able to find one true tetrachromat?

For starters, the team was only looking within the UK. But the bigger issue that Jordan thinks most true tetrachromats would never need to use their fourth cone cell type, and so would never realize they had special vision.

We now know tetrachromacy exists,she told Greenwood. But we dont know what allows someone to become functionally tetrachromatic, when most four-coned women arent.

Jay Neitz, a vision researcher at the University of Washington, who wasnt involved in the study,thinks that it might take practiceand specially designed hues to truly unlock the power of tetrachromats.

Most of the things that we see as colored are manufactured by people who are trying to make colors that work for trichromats,he said.It could be that our whole world is tuned to the world of the trichromat.

In other words, the colors we use are so limited that the fourth cone cell never gets a work out.

The research on cDa29 hasnt been peer-reviewed or published as yet, and Jordan is continuing her research and search for more tetrachromats.

Theres a lot more work to be done and Jordans results need to be replicated and verified. But if we can confirm that tetrachromats really do exist, it wont just teach us about the limitations of human senses, it could help scientists develop better artificial sensing devices, and also help us figure out more about how vision works.

One thing we might never be able to understand, sadly, is exactly what the world looks like through cDa29s eyes, seeing as its our brains that truly perceive color our cone cells just receive the data to be processed.

This private perception is what everybody is curious about,Jordan toldDiscover.I would love to see that.

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A UK Woman Has an Extra Cone Cell in Her Eyes and Can See More Colors - Futurism