American researchers have been able to make the skin of mice transparent in order to examine their internal organs and skulls by simply applying a mixture of water and a yellow food coloring called tartrazine to their bellies and heads.

Zihao Ou, assistant professor of physics at the University of Texas in Dallas, and Guosong Hong, an assistant professor of materials science at Stanford University in California, published their findings in the journal Science on 5 September.

Ou, who conducted the experiment as a postdoctoral researcher at SU, explained that the synthetic dye matched the refractive index of the water, proteins and fat in the skin.

Refractive index is a measure of the way a substance bends light. Once the dye had completely diffused into the skin, it became transparent, CNN reports.

The mice were not harmed in the experiment and the transparency of their skin disappeared when the solution was washed away.

The technology, which allows veins to be visible, makes blood extraction and injection easy if applied on humans, according to Hong. It can also assist in the early detection of skin cancer as well as remove tattoos, according to CNN.

Meanwhile, a pastor of a church in Brighton, Michigan, got into trouble for his penetrating way of looking at the church workers.

Will Johnson, 37, was charged on 15 September with spying on an unclothed person after a hidden camera was discovered by an employee inside a non-public, unisex bathroom at the 2/42 Community Church.

Church leaders confronted Johnson about the camera and he confessed to putting it there to spy on employees using the bathroom the past two years.

Aside from being charged, he was removed from the church.