The boy who can see in the dark?

"A boy has stunned medics with his ability to see in pitch black with eyes that glow in the dark," claims a recent post on a Facebook page. The story goes like this:

A Chinese boy named Nong Youhui has bright blue eyes that glow in the dark like those of a cat. His father was assured by the doctors that the boy's eyes would become and look normal once he grew up but that did not happen. Later, a series of medical tests were claimed to have been conducted confirming that the boy could see clearly (even read) in complete darkness.

It appears that there is some truth in this story. Nong Youhui does have bright blue eyes. In fact, he received some media attention way back in 2009 but it's only recently that his eyes are being talked about all over the Web. If the claims that he can see and read in the dark are also true, then he would be an interesting subject for analysis by vision scientists, evolutionary biologists, and genetic engineers alike.

However, according to the experts, such an ability would require multiple genetic mutations, which don't just happen all at once. "Evolution happens incrementally, not by leaps and bounds," say the experts. But having said that, no authentic tests have been conducted on Youhui's eyes yet and the claims to the boy's supernatural ability to see in the dark have not been entirely dismissed. I hope we will hear more on this soon because if the claims are proved true, then we may have to redefine a couple of terms – mutation and evolution.