A new technique promises to beat Viagra by offering rock-hard erections triggered by flashes of coloured light – without needing sexual stimuli (which Viagra relies on).

The possibilities for office boners and so on are mind-boggling.

Just as with Viagra, blue means, ‘Go!’

We should point out at this point that while scientists in Switzerland have reliably induced erections using blue light, so far they have only done so in mice.

But human trials could be on the way, using a technique where DNA from a pond algae which responds to light is inserted into neurons – making the brain respond to flashes of light.

The signals work even in the absence of sexual stimuli – making ‘optogenetics’ potentially more powerful than drugs such as Viagra.

Martin Fussenegger, from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, says that the technique works using technologies already approved for human gene therapy.

‘Current treatment strategies focus either on restoring erection-promoting pathways or maintaining an established erection, but fail to provide a trigger-inducible erection on demand,’ the team writes.

‘EROS decouples penile erection from physiological control, bypasses the causes for erectile dysfunction, and providers trigger-inducible erection on demand by simple illumination with a portable commercial light-therapy device.’

The possibilities for office boners and so on are mind-boggling.

Just as with Viagra, blue means, ‘Go!’

We should point out at this point that while scientists in Switzerland have reliably induced erections using blue light, so far they have only done so in mice.

But human trials could be on the way, using a technique where DNA from a pond algae which responds to light is inserted into neurons – making the brain respond to flashes of light.

The signals work even in the absence of sexual stimuli – making ‘optogenetics’ potentially more powerful than drugs such as Viagra.

Martin Fussenegger, from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, says that the technique works using technologies already approved for human gene therapy.

‘Current treatment strategies focus either on restoring erection-promoting pathways or maintaining an established erection, but fail to provide a trigger-inducible erection on demand,’ the team writes.

‘EROS decouples penile erection from physiological control, bypasses the causes for erectile dysfunction, and providers trigger-inducible erection on demand by simple illumination with a portable commercial light-therapy device.’