Nong Youshi, The "Cat Eyes Boy" Who Can See in The Dark

Kompas.com | Fri, 3 Feb 2012 | A young Chinese boy who was born with brilliant blue eyes - like those of a Siamese cat - claims to have the ability to see in pitch darkness. Nong Youshi from Dahua has eyes which, it is claimed, reflect neon green when when a light is shined on them.

Nong who enjoys playing outside with his schoolmates but struggles with in bright sunlight, claims he can see perfectly clearly even in complete darkness.
His father said: 'Two weeks after he was born I was told his eyes were different.

'We took him to hospital and doctors told me not to worry as his eyes would be fine when he grew up.'

To test his abilities, a Chinese journalist recently prepared a set of questionnaires which he was able to finish in a pitch black room. Video footage of the youngster, whose current age has not been revealed, first emerged in 2009, but has only recently been picked up online.

However many experts remain highly sceptical. In animals, night vision is made possible by the existence of a thin layer of cells, called the tapetum lucidum. This is demonstrated in videos of leopards or other big cats taken at night when their eyes literally glow in the dark.

Although Journalists claim Nong's eyes react in a similar way the video footage does not appear to back up this claim. And for such a feature to occur in a human would require multiple mutations to happen at once, which experts say is impossible.

James Reynolds, a pediatric ophthalmologist at State University of New York in Buffalo, sauggests Nong simply has extremely good eyesight rather than true night-vision. He told Live science.com: 'Evolutionarily, mutations can result in differences that allow for new environmental niche exploitation.

'But such mutations are modified over long periods.

'A functional tapetum in a human would be just as absurd as a human born with wings. It can't happen.'

Dennis Brooks, professor of ophthalmology at the University of Florida's College of Veterinary Medicine told the website: 'It is hard to say what the truth is about this boy.

'A good ophthalmic examination by a physician ophthalmologist is in order, I think.'

 www.AstroDigi.com (Nino Guevara Ruwano)