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Insane! Research Team Figured Out How To Give Humans Night Vision (Photos)

by Emily Arata

With just a few eyedrops and a blink, Gabriel Licina could see in the dark.

Licina is a key member of biohacker group Science for the Masses, a group that recently discovered a way to enable enhanced low-light vision in the human eye for up to 50 meters (164 feet).

With the help of 50 microliters of Chlorin e6, which is found in some deep-swimming fish, and a "miniaturized turkey baster," Licina suddenly found himself with enhanced low-light eyesight.

Licina witnessed a "greenish-black" flash cross his field of vision. After allowing his eyes to adjust for an hour, the team began trials.

In low-light conditions, they asked Licina to identify objects and people standing among trees at distances between 10 and 50 meters away.

His success rate was 100 percent while subjects without the drops were successful 33 percent of the time.

Encouraged by its results, the team published the open-source biohacking discoveries online.

Now that they've shown the Chlorin e6's efficacy, the researchers hope to reproduce their results on a larger scale.

A note to would-be superheroes: Don't try this at home, kids.

A tech dribbled a small amount of Chlorin e6 into Licina's conjunctival sac.

Licina told Mic, "To me, it was a quick, greenish-black blur across my vision, and then it dissolved into my eyes."

As the drops began to work, Licina's eyes began to change.

Soon, he was able to correctly identify people over 100 feet away.

Although the black color faded by the next morning, Licina will never forget his superhero-like experience.

Citations: Wanna be a Superhero? Get Night Vision Injected in Your Eyeballs (Discovery News)