My frustration was more directed towards the UV-Vis-NIR part (and I read night vision as thermal IR, but who knows), but I wouldn't say that your linked article

My frustration was more directed towards the UV-Vis-NIR part (and I read night vision as thermal IR, but who knows), but I wouldn't say that your linked article is something of substance. To quote the article, quoting the experimenter/ee, "In Licina’s own words: 'Let’s be fair here. It’s kind of crap science.'" I wouldn't even know where to begin in criticizing their study as disseminated on their website except to say it is completely unscientific. There are no proper controls, for one. I think it's wholly irresponsible of the press to report on this work in this fashion at such a premature stage. I respect the enthusiasm of the citizen science crowd and think it's a neat idea, but stuff like this is going to quickly earn it a very bad reputation.