Doritos are a favorite snack for many people. Recently, researchers discovered that one component found in these triangular tortilla chips possesses a remarkable ability: it can render mouse skin transparent.

A team from Stanford University explained in the September 6 issue of *Science* how they achieved the phenomenon of seeing through the skin of living mice by applying a combination of water and tartrazine, a vibrant yellow-orange dye commonly used in Doritos as well as in various foods, medications, and cosmetics.

These experiments were driven by a desire to improve methods for visualizing tissues and organs inside the body. The researchers selected tartrazine due to its molecular properties that absorb blue and ultraviolet light, thus facilitating light penetration through the skin of the mice.

“For those who grasp the basic physics of this, it’s logical; but to others, it appears as if by magic,” stated Zihao Ou, the lead author of the study and now an assistant professor at The University of Texas at Dallas, as described on the university’s website.

The Doritos Effect: Snack Component Creates Transparent Mice

After experimenting with the dye on samples of mouse tissue and raw chicken, the researchers applied the dye and water mixture onto the mice’s skulls and abdomens. Within minutes, as the dye was absorbed, the researchers could observe “the skin, muscle, and connective tissues transparent in live rodents,” according to their journal publication.

Once the dye was washed off, the mice regained their original opacity and excreted the dye through their urine, as mentioned on the university’s website. “It’s vital that the dye is biocompatible – it’s safe for living beings,” Ou noted. “Moreover, it is highly affordable and effective; only a small amount is needed for it to work.”

However, do not rush to cover yourself in Doritos – while the dye is present in several flavors like Nacho Cheese, Cool Ranch, and Flaming Hot Nacho, tartrazine won’t grant humans the ability to become invisible like in Harry Potter stories.

This is because human skin is approximately ten times thicker than that of a mouse, and it remains unclear how much dye would be required to achieve similar effects in humans, or how it might be administered, Ou remarked.

The research team intends to explore this further and test additional substances that might surpass tartrazine.

“Optical tools, such as microscopes, usually cannot be utilized to examine live humans or animals due to light’s inability to permeate living tissue,” Ou shared. “However, with the ability to render tissue transparent, we can now investigate more intricate dynamics. This advancement could fundamentally change current optical research in biology.”

In a related commentary article published in the journal, biophotonics researcher Christopher Rowlands along with experimental optical physicist Jon Gorecki, both from Imperial College London, stated that this discovery recalls H.G. Wells’ 1897 novel *The Invisible Man*.

They noted that when combined with other techniques, the tartrazine method could enable “deeper imaging than either could accomplish alone.”

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