December 7, 2012 3:32 pm Humans navigate the world predominantly
by sight. And yet there are colors and worlds we cannot see.
Infrared light—light whose wavelength is longer than our eyes
can detect—exists all around us. But we do not see it. Yet.
Scientists have engineered some proteins to “see” infrared. New
Scientist writes: The team created 11 different artificial
protein structures and used spectrophotometry – a technology
that compares the intensity of light going in and out of a
sample – to identify which wavelengths they could absorb.
Chromophores within one particular protein were able to absorb
red light with a wavelength of around 644 nanometres –
tantalisingly close to the wavelength of infrared light, which
starts at around 750 nanometres. This was unexpected since
natural chromophores have a maximum absorption of around 560
nanometres. “We were surprised,” says Borhan. “But I still don’t
know if we’re at the upper limit of absorption yet. I’ve
speculated about 10 times and been proved wrong.” Ju