BENDING LIGHT
https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/bending-light
https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/category/physics/light-and-radiation
How the Eye Focuses Light
http://sciencelearn.org.nz/Contexts/Light-and-Sight/Science-Ideas-and-Concepts/How-the-eye-focuses-light
Faith Drives A Father To Create A Test For Childhood Cancer
by Joe Palca
May 07, 2014
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/05/07/310104315/faith-drives-a-father-to-create-a-test-for-childhood-cancer
At 4 months of age, Noah was diagnosed with a rare form of eye cancer called retinoblastoma. Children with the disease form tumors at the back of their eyeballs. Children like Noah with the inherited form of retinoblastoma start to form tumors before they’re even born.
B. SHAW: if I can make good come from this bad stuff that happened to my son, and I can show him when he grows up, what happened to you, son, isn’t as bad as it might seem.
PALCA: Because your disease, Noah, led to an invention that saves other kids’ lives.
The Shaws were determined not to let another one of their children suffer from retinoblastoma. So to prevent that, they chose to have a second child using in vitro fertilization. That way they could screen the resulting embryos and only implant the ones that did not carry the damaged copy of the RB1 gene.
Where We Learn That Artificial Eyes Really Aren’t Round At All
by Rebecca Davis and Joe Palca
August 11, 2014
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/08/11/338329842/where-we-learn-that-artificial-eyes-really-arent-round-at-all
He was born with a rare eye cancer called retinoblastoma, and as part of his treatment he had to have an eye removed.
Joe: And then there was the time that Noah took his eye out when they were on a city bus.
Elizabeth Shaw: I didn’t realize it until after I got off the bus and looked at him, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, your eye is gone!’
Crashing Through
by Robert Kurson
May 24, 2007
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10382528
Michael May was blinded at age three, and lived 42 years of his life without sight. In 1999, at age 45, May was given the possibility to see again through a revolutionary stem-cell transplant surgery.
related:
macular degeneration
http://www.npr.org/2014/10/14/356202695/study-finds-human-stem-cells-may-help-to-treat-patients
‘Toy’ laser macular burns in children
Eye advance online publication 17 January 2014
N Raoof, et al.
Department of Ophthalmology, Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, UK
http://www.nature.com/eye/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/eye2013315a.html
Clinically, three children had an acute vitelliform-like maculopathy which resolved to leave sub-foveal retinal pigment epithelium changes with reduced vision. One case was complicated by a choroidal neovascular membrane.
Examination of the ‘toy’ laser pointers bought by the family revealed three separate laser devices made in China, blue (405 nm), green (532 nm), and red (650 nm) with outputs of 57 mW (blue laser), 42 mW (green laser) and 72 mW (red laser) respectively.
The British Standard states Class 3R lasers should be <5 mW.
Device Offers Partial Vision for the Blind
February 14, 2013
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/15/health/fda-approves-technology-to-give-limited-vision-to-blind-people.html
a technology called the artificial retina.
The device allows people with a certain type of blindness to detect crosswalks on the street, the presence of people or cars, and sometimes even large numbers or letters. The approval of the system marks a milestone in a new frontier in vision research, a field in which scientists are making strides with gene therapy, optogenetics, stem cells and other strategies.
The artificial retina is a sheet of electrodes implanted in the eye. The patient is also given glasses with an attached camera and a portable video processor. This system, called Argus II, allows visual signals to bypass the damaged portion of the retina and be transmitted to the brain.
The F.D.A. approved Argus II, made by Second Sight Medical Products, to treat people with severe retinitis pigmentosa, in which photoreceptor cells, which take in light, deteriorate.
The eyeglass camera captures images, which the video processor translates into pixelized patterns of light and dark, and transmits them to the electrodes. The electrodes then send them to the brain.
franzcalvo 