I was just doing some revision on the eye for my biology exam and I was thinking it might actually be possible to make a human see in infra-red spectrum.
From my knowledge we have three types of cone cells, each with a type of a pigment called opsin in the rhodopsin in that cell. The cone cells allow us to see red/green/blue (colour vision) so if the three different types of opsin can be isolated in a lab and the factors in the DNA (or whatever controls the differences) can be obtained and manipulated then couldn't we be able 2 make the opsin react to the infra-red spectrum or any spectrum of electromagnetic radation? therefore allowing the cone cells to see not only visible light but a whole new range.
The trouble is how to grow the cells on the retina (fovea) of an animal without damaging the eye?
What would it be like looking at infra-red and visble light at the same time? You can visibly see a wall but then you have got a slight red glow of a person behind that wall? I just think it would be so weird, and yet so interesting, but the possibility of creating a race that would think they are more dominant to the rest of us just because they can see more?