American neurobiologist Mark Changizi has developed eyewear that corrects colour-blindness and clearly enhances colour vision.

 

This innovation is based on a new colour vision theory, proposed in 2006 by Mark Changizi and his colleagues. According to the leading hypothesis at the time, colour vision evolved to help us recognize nutritious fruits and vegetation in the forest. Mark Changizi, however, says that it evolved to perceive oxygenation and hemoglobin variations in skin in order to detect social cues, such as emotions and the state of mind of our friends or enemies.

 

Mark Changizi later co-founded 2AI Labs with Dr. Tim Barber, and designed the O2Amps eyewear to help medical staff better identify veins and bruises in patients. However, while trying out the glasses, Dr. Daniel Bor at the University of Sussex, who is himself colour-blind, was suddenly able to see colours he had never seen before. With the glasses, he passed the Ishihara test, which he had previously consistently failed.

 

The glasses are being marketed under the name Oxy-Iso.

 

Source:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=new-eyewear-could-help-people-with-red-green-color-blindness

 

American President Barack Obama awarded Gholam Peyman, the inventor of  LASIK eye surgery, the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. This is the highest honour that scientists, engineers and inventors can receive in the United States.

 

The professor of optical sciences and engineering at the University of Arizona received his medal at a White House ceremony on February 1, along with eleven other scientists honoured for their discoveries or inventions.

 

“When Gholam Peyman first accepted a position at the office of the University of Illinois, his office was a converted restroom,” President Obama said. “But he carved out enough space for himself, his secretary and his lab equipment, and today he is known as the father of LASIK eye surgery.”

 

Gholam Peyman has more than 135 patents, in addition to the LASIK invention. His inventions cover medical devices, intraocular drug delivery systems, surgical techniques, laser and optical instruments and new methods for diagnosis and treatment.

 

The National Medal of Technology and Innovation was created in 1980.

 

Sources:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/12/21/president-obama-honors-nation-s-top-scientists-and-innovators

http://www.visionmonday.com/ViewContent/tabid/211/content_id/39064/catId/103/Default.aspx

 

A new type of therapeutic soft contact lenses developed in Russia by Liomed could soon greatly contribute to healing eye burns.

 

The new lens would act like a unique dressing and could be applied immediately after the injury occurs. It consists of a hydro-gel base and absorbents (ion-exchange resins used in the pharmacology and food industries). Applied directly to the eye, the lens plays the double role of a sterile dressing and a medication, removing harmful substances and bacteria from the surface of the eye and the ocular cavity.

 

“Our lens can be directly applied onto the eye, and while the patient is still being transported to the hospital the lens would already be performing its function,” explains chemistry analyst Violetta Les.

 

The lens has undergone toxicology testing at the Research Institute of Physical-Chemical Medicine of the Russian Federal Medical-Biological Agency. Clinical trials are in progress. If these tests are conclusive, the lenses will be distributed to medical institutions, teams in the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, and organizations in high-risk industries.

Sources:

http://indian.ruvr.ru/2013_01_24/Magical-Lens-for-Eyes-Developed-in-Russia/

http://www.acuite.fr/articles.asp?REF=8301

A new study by Johnson & Johnson Vision Care shows that 90% of patients only feel exposed to UV rays in summer.

 

Only 6% of respondents thought to protect themselves from UV rays on cloudy days. Daska Barnett, optometrist and director at Specs of Kensington, reminds people that the dangers of UV rays still exist in winter, when half of the UV radiation our eyes receive comes from indirect sources, such as reflections from ice and snow on the ground.

 

“Not only can UV rays pierce cloud cover, they reflect off all surfaces in any weather,” he adds. “New research shows eyes are particularly vulnerable to UV light exposure in the early morning and late afternoon, when people least expect it.”

 

According to him, it is therefore necessary to build a dialogue with patients, not only to educate them on the dangers to their health but to ensure they make a well-informed decision on the right product to help protect their eyes.

Source:

http://www.opticianonline.net/Articles/2013/01/18/30553/Patients+unaware+of+winter+UV+risk+to+eye.htm

A method used to determine hair and eye colour using human remains is able to specify what people from the Middle Ages must have looked like.

 

The HIrisPlex DNA analysis system is normally used to study modern forensic samples. However, a study carried out by researchers from Poland and the Netherlands, whose findings were published in the journal Investigative Genetics, shows that it can also be used to help historians.

 

“This system can be used to solve historical controversies where colour photographs or other records are missing,” explained Dr. Wojciech Branicki, of the Institute of Forensic Research and Jagielonian University, in Poland. The system uses 24 natural variations (polymorphisms) to predict eye and hair colour.

 

That is how it was determined that General Wladyslaw Sikorski, who died in a plane crash in 1943, had the blue eyes and blond hair present in portraits painted years after his death. This system was also able to identify a mysterious woman, buried sometime between the 12^th and 14^th centuries in the crypt of the Benedictine Abbey in Tyniec near Krakov, as having dark blond hair and brown eyes. 

Source:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130113201136.htm