Common Food Dye Can Make Skin Temporarily Transparent: Report

The idea behind this echoes the approach of a character in the popular 1897 novel, The Invisible Man.

Wouldn't the doctors have it easier if our skin were transparent and they could see everything beyond or underneath it? Sounds hypothetical, no? Even with advanced technologies and highly sophisticated imaging techniques, doctors get unclear results while peeking inside a living body. However, recent research showed this distant dream may soon be a reality, surprisingly by just applying a common food dye.

Researchers at Stanford University have managed to peer into the bodies of living animals with the help of common food dye, making their skin, muscle and connective tissues temporarily transparent, The Guardian reported.

Published in Science on September 5, the research details how rubbing the FDA-approved dye solution on a mouse's skin allowed the researchers to see through the skin, without making an incision. They were able to do this with the naked eye.The liver, intestines and bladder of the mouse were visible through the abdominal skin after the dye was applied to the belly. Not just that, the researchers even witnessed the blood vessels in the rodent's brain.