Method To Dye The Brain Clear Will Significantly Speed Up Brain Anatomy Research [VIDEO]

Talk about scientific clarity. A breakthrough technique to study the brain's neural networks without having to slice the organ into pieces has scientists excited because of the new research potential as well as the technique's novel approach: the organ is soaked in a chemical bath that turns it completely clear.

According to a Stanford news release, the new process, called CLARITY, "ushers in an entirely new era of whole-organ imaging that stands to fundamentally change our scientific understanding of the most-important-but-least-understood of organs, the brain, and potentially other organs, as well."

Scientists reported Wednesday that they made a whole mouse brain, a fish brain and preserved parts of a human brain transparent, which allows the neural networks in the organ to be highlighted with incredible clarity.

"What these guys have done is just stupendous," said Dr. Bernardo Sabatini of Harvard Medical School. "You can just peer into the brain" and get "incredible" images, he said, according to the Associated Press.

Terry Sejnowski of the Salk Institute said it's "exactly the technique everyone has been waiting for," and that it would speed up brain anatomy research by 10 to 100 times.

To make the brains transparent the scientists had to remove the structure-providing fat in the brain that blocks light from passing through. They soaked the brain a chemical hydrogel that forms a supportive mesh around the brain without binding to the fat cells. Researchers can then away the fat to leave a transparent brain behind.

"We thought that if we could remove the lipids nondestructively, we might be able to get both light and macromolecules to penetrate deep into tissue, allowing not only 3-D imaging, but also 3-D molecular analysis of the intact brain," said Karl Deisseroth, who led the research.