‘Magic trick’: Scientists use dye found in Doritos to make mice transparent

(WJW) — In a new study, scientists used a common yellow food coloring mixed with water to make the skin and skulls on live mice transparent.

“For those who understand the fundamental physics behind this, it makes sense; but if you aren’t familiar with it, it looks like a magic trick,” Dr. Zihao Ou, an assistant physics professor at the University of Texas at Dallas, said in a news release.

Ou was the lead author of the study, conducted while he worked at Standford University. It was published in “Science” earlier this month.

As part of the experiment, water and the dye called tartrazine were applied to the skin on the abdomen and skulls of mice. Tartrazine is commonly used in orange- or yellow-colored candy coating and snack chips, according to UT Dallas’ website, including Doritos.

Once the water and dye were absorbed into the skin, according to the study, the skin became transparent. Washing off the water and dye reversed the transparency.

“We combined the yellow dye, which is a molecule that absorbs most light, especially blue and ultraviolet light, with skin, which is a scattering medium,” Ou said. “Individually, these two things block most light from getting through them. But when we put them together, we were able to achieve transparency of the mouse skin.”

It took a few minutes for the transparency to occur. Ou likened it to the same way a cream or face mask works.

It’s not yet been tested on people. Human skin is 10 times thicker than that of a mouse, so snacks won’t make people transparent.

But scientists hope the technique can be one day used on humans to detect tumors and other ailments without surgery.

Fox 8 did reach out to FritoLay, the owner of Doritos, for comment.

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