Get the New GE Transparent Mouse!

WaPoo, Scientists use food dye found in Doritos to make see-through mice"Food dye transformed the skin of mice into a living window revealing blood vessels, muscle fibers and gut contractions, according to a new study."

Scientists have discovered a surprisingly simple way to potentially peer inside the body, using a common yellow food dye found in Doritos to create see-through mice.

In a series of experiments that could have been plucked from the pages of science fiction, researchers at Stanford University massaged a solution containing tartrazine, the chemical found in the food dye known as “yellow No. 5,” onto the stomachs, scalps and hind legs of mice. About five minutes later, the opaque skin of the mice transformed temporarily into a living window, revealing branching blood vessels, muscle fibers and contractions of the gut, they reported Thursday in the journal Science.

These results may sound like magic, but they are grounded in the basic science of optics — and are a major step forward in the long quest to see what’s beneath the surface of bodies without using a scalpel.

“You could see through the mouse. I’ve been working in optics for 30 years, and I thought that result was jaw-dropping,” said Adam Wax, a program officer who specializes in biophotonics at the National Science Foundation, one of the funders of the research.

I assume you have to give them a good close shave for this to work.

The technique may help scientists answer long-standing questions in biology — for example, allowing researchers to observe a mouse’s brain activity, including in the deepest parts of the brain. It could be used to diagnose deep-seated tumors without surgery, help locate a vein for a blood draw or make cosmetic procedures like tattoo removal more precise, said Guosong Hong, a materials scientist at Stanford and one of the study’s leaders.

“It’s not like Harry Potter. … We’re not making an actual invisibility cloak,” said Christopher Rowlands, a biophotonics researcher at Imperial College London who was not involved in the study but plans to try the technique in his lab. Even if this feat falls short of some of the most fantastical notions of invisibility, Rowlands said the new work was “a big deal,” allowing researchers to look 10 times deeper into living tissue with a simple topical application of a common food dye.