The science story I chose to research was the recent a study published in  the science journal Nature that revealed that colorblind monkeys were able to gain basically full color sight through gene therapy.  The monkeys were squirrel monkeys, who are red and green color blind because they only have two photoreceptors, which means they cannot see either red or green light. Normal full color vision is caused by three photoreceptors, one for red, one for green, and one for blue, allowing humans to see the full color spectrum.

            The monkeys were given gene therapy, which involved an insertion of a third photoreceptor into the eye of the monkey, near the retina. Nine to twenty weeks later, the eye produces color pigment protein and trains the eye to see red and green. Two years after the monkeys received the gene therapy, they could still see in nearly perfect full color vision.

            The monkeys were prescreened by being given a color-blindness test identical to those given to humans, in which their rewards were juice. The changes in their vision were observed by retesting the monkeys after the experiment.

The two sources I consulted to research this news were NewYorkTimes.com and Technologyreview.com.

I initially read the story on the New York Times site, a site that I consider very trustworthy since it is a well-respected newspaper. I was surprised that this site, which has a very general audience, used such specific science terms. There were a couple of words that I had to look up to understand the rest of the story.

The second source I consulted was technologyreview.com, which is published by MIT. I trust this source because MIT is a well-established university with a great scientific background. I was surprised again when I read this source, because I expected it to be even more “science-y” and technical than the New York Times article, but it was written in very clear laymen’s terms and was very easy to understand. This source also went a lot more in depth on both the prescreening process, and the post experiment time. It also went further than the other article, using quotes from sources outside the experiment but inside the scientific community.  The further potential of this research was also considered more in this article than in the first.

I found the second source to be more reliable than the first, not because any of the information in the first article was false, but because the second article gave its audience a better understanding of the full spectrum of the experiment.

I find this science news revolutionary because it has the potential to be the beginning of more research in the visual field. The success of this experiment in monkeys, translates to a high chance of success of the experiment in humans. Also, the timing of this experiments shows that using gene therapy to correct vision doesn’t necessarily need to be done early in life, and shows that the visual system is not hardwired. 

One application for this research outside colorblindness correction is a military application suggested in the Technologyreview.com article. Since the visual system has the ability to be altered after development, there is an opportunity to have infrared vision inserted into the eye of soldiers through the same gene therapy. There is hope that this research could be a touch off point for research on how to correct blindness, or degenerative eye disease through gene therapy.

Wade, Nicholas. "With genetic gift, 2 monkeys are viewing a more colorful world." New York Times 21 Sep 2009. .

Singer, Emily. "Color-Blind Monkeys get Full Color Vision." Technology Review (2009): 1-2. Web. 23 Sep 2009. .

Dutton, Frank. "Ishihara Test for Color-blindness." Colors for The Color Blind. Web. 23 Sep 2009. .