Scientists in China just made contact lenses that let you see in the dark -- and they work better when your eyes are closed.

The research, published May 22 in Cell, details how these lenses use embedded nanoparticles to absorb infrared wavelengths (800-1,600 nanometers) and convert them into visible light. Which means: you can pick up signals from a part of the light spectrum your body was never built to access.

"Super-vision" is what the team is calling it. "Our research opens up the potential for non-invasive wearable devices to give people super-vision," said neuroscientist Tian Xue, the study's lead author from the University of Science and Technology of China. While that sounds like a Marvel pitch, the real-world uses include surveillance, encrypted communications, counterfeit detection, and search-and-rescue tech.

Unlike the bulky night-vision goggles your conspiracy-theory uncle keeps in a box somewhere, these lenses don't need batteries or wires. The key is a cocktail of rare-earth metals -- ytterbium, erbium, gold -- embedded into flexible polymers typically used for soft contacts. The particles translate otherwise invisible light into something your eyes can actually read, layered right over your usual visual field.

In testing, mice wearing the lenses started avoiding areas lit with infrared -- while the control group didn't react at all. When human participants tried them, they could not only perceive flickering infrared LEDs, they could even tell which direction the light was coming from.

It gets weirder. The infrared signals became clearer when the participants closed their eyes. According to Xue, near-infrared light cuts through the eyelid better than visible light, so there's less interference. Basically, your eyes become more effective sensors when you shut them.

The researchers also tweaked the lenses to map specific infrared wavelengths to visible colors like red, green, and blue. This opens up potential applications for people with color blindness, letting them see shades their eyes would normally miss -- not by "fixing" their vision, but by translating the spectrum.

Still, these aren't ready for everyday use. Right now, the lenses only work with high-intensity LED sources, and the image quality is limited. For sharper visuals, the team built a glasses-based version using the same tech.

You might not be getting military-grade night vision next week. But the idea that your next pair of lenses might let you see a little more than meets the eye? That's not sci-fi anymore.