A small research group has figured out how to give humans night vision, according to reports.

Science for the masses, a US group of ‘biohackers’, used a chlorophyll analog called Chlorin e6 (or Ce6) to allow them to see over 50 metres in the dark for a short time.

Ce6 is found in some deep sea fish and is used to treat night blindness, Science.Mic reported.



Jeffrey Tibbetts, told Mic that they used that research to move ahead with their plans.



"There are a fair amount of papers talking about having it injected in models like rats, and it's been used intravenously since the '60s as a treatment for different cancers. After doing the research, you have to take the next step,” he explained.



Armed with a turkey baster, Tibbetts dripped 50 micro-litres of Ce6 into volunteer Gabriel Licina's conjunctival sac.

Gabriel Licina. Source: Science for the Masses More

Licina said the procedure was a lot less disturbing than it sounds.



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



Within an hour it started to work. Before long recognise symbols and identify moving subjects against different backgrounds.

"At 50 meters, we could figure out where they were, even if they were standing up against a tree." Each time, Licina had a 100% success rate. The control group, without being dosed with Ce6, only got them right a third of the time,” Tibbetts explained.



The group will work on getting ‘hard’ scientific evidence.



"Once you get the hard numbers, that's it," Licina says. "You take it and quantify it and write it down, and release it. ... This is how science works. It isn't flashy. But it makes it more accessible. It shows it can be done. If we can do it in our garage, other people can, too."



