If infrared vision is the superpower you’d choose, your big day could be right around the corner.

If infrared vision is the superpower you’d choose, your big day could be right around the corner.

Scientists at the University of Michigan have developed a material that makes the possibility of infrared vision contact lenses a potential reality.

Typically, the technology is bulky as it runs hot and requires cooling devices.

The team is intent upon making a thinner, lighter reader that can operate at room temperature.

To do so, they’re working with graphene, which is light, thin, and able to pick up the entire infrared spectrum as well as those of the visible and ultraviolet variety.

There’s one big problem with it, though.

As is, it can only absorb a little over 2% of the light that it comes into contact with.

According to one of the developers, that’s up to a thousand times less than what’s needed to make it work for their purposes.

To boost graphene’s power, they used some quantum mechanics trickery and created a buffering layer.

When it’s placed between two sheets of graphene, it allows for better light absorption overall.

Someday, their ingenuity could provide doctors with a new way to check blood flow and give scientists an upper hand in detecting environmental chemicals.