Imagine if we told you that there is a color that has never been seen by a human being—and that even if you try, still, you can’t see it. That is essentially the mind-bending premise behind new research from scientists at the University of California, who report having discovered an unprecedented color experience that they’re terming “olo.”
No, it’s not on a paint chip or in Photoshop. Olo is an ultra-saturated blue-green that even goes beyond the range that is perceivable to the human eye. And although it sounds like it’s on some sci-fi movie set, science does support it.
Imagine a color that’s sort of like teal or turquoise—but turned up to a level of vividness that your eyes simply aren’t wired to process. That’s how researchers describe “olo.” It’s a dazzling, deeply saturated mix of blue and green, but not in the way we normally experience color.
Here’s the kicker: you can’t see olo—not in your daily life, not on your phone screen, and not even if you stare at a rainbow. The only people who’ve seen it are five study participants in a lab, looking through a laser-based device that tickles the eye in a very unusual way.
The discovery comes from the vision lab at UC Berkeley, where researchers built a special tool called “Oz”—a machine filled with lasers, mirrors, and tiny optics. Think of it like a microscope, but for your eyeballs.
Here’s the basic idea: your eyes use three kinds of color sensors called cones—S-cones for blue, L-cones for red, and M-cones for green. Normally, when you look at something, light stimulates a mix of these cones at the same time. But the Oz system does something different: it isolates just the M-cones by firing a very precise laser straight at them.
The result? A color that isn’t red, blue, or green—or even any combo of them. Instead, the brain creates a brand-new hue to make sense of the unusual input. And that’s olo.
In the wild, light doesn’t play favorites. Every color you see is the result of multiple cones being triggered at once. That’s how we get everything from lavender sunsets to forest greens.
But because this system only tickles one type of cone at a time, it sidesteps the usual rules of color perception. That opens a small window into a realm of color we never knew existed—one our eyes aren’t naturally built to access.
your brain is capable of experiencing olo. But your environment—and even your devices—can’t show it to you.
Like any scientific breakthrough that pushes boundaries, this one comes with its share of skeptics.
Professor John Barbur, a vision scientist from King’s College London, applauds the experiment’s technical finesse but isn’t fully on board with the “new color” label.
“It’s a remarkable trick of the eye,”
he says,
“but whether it qualifies as an entirely new hue—or just an exaggerated version of existing ones—is up for debate.”
Others argue that because olo can’t be reproduced or shared, it might be more of a perceptual curiosity than a true addition to the color wheel.
Despite the debate, olo’s discovery could have real-world impact—especially in the fields of vision science and eye health. Researchers think this new way of stimulating individual cone cells might eventually lead to better treatments for color blindness, or help us build tools to simulate full-spectrum vision for people with limited sight.
It also gives scientists a deeper understanding of how we perceive the world—and how much of it might still be hidden in plain sight.
Word of their discovery rapidly circulated on social media, accompanied by the usual combination of awe, memes, and misapprehension. One viral post showed a bright turquoise square, claiming it was “olo.” But researchers were quick to point out that this is impossible: olo cannot be shown on screens that use standard RGB color models.
Still, that hasn’t stopped comparisons to everything from Dodge Neons in the early 2000s to vintage jewelry from New Mexico’s turquoise mines. Let’s just say, the internet has questions.