US researchers have effectively given laboratory rats a “sixth sense” using an implant in their brains. (1)

An experimental device allowed the rats to “touch” infrared light – which is normally invisible to them.

The team at Duke University fitted the rats with an infrared detector wired up to microscopic electrodes that were implanted in the part of their brains that processes tactile information. (see the paper “Perceiving invisible light through a somatosensory cortical prosthesis” here)

It is amazing how we can alter our barin or sensor organs to “see” or “feel” things we normally cannot “see” or “feel”. But this also poses great questions on the valitity of our senses overall. If they can be modified so easily, which guarantees us that they are “correct”? What really lies in this layer we call “reality”?

At the end, we are all blind. Deaf. Speechless.