Want better vision? How about. . . squishing your eyeballs?
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
Eye shape is the key to perfect vision. But most of us have eyes as wonky as a Picasso portrait. Lasik eye surgery fixes vision by reshaping the eye’s lens. And by blasting bits of your eye off with a laser! Scary!
The Vukelic group from Columbia hoped to find a gentler way to reshape the eye. Their big break came while blasting pig eyeballs with lasers! They found that with the right amount of power the eye would MORPH. The laser linked together fibers that make up the lens. It SQUISHED the eye into shape without removing anything.
But did this damage the eyes? To find out, the researchers took nearsighted bunnies and lasered their eyes. Did their lenses send light to the right place? Yes! They made twenty – twenty bunnies!
So, perfect vision could be in sight! Hmm, what other problems could be solved by squishing? Maybe… lovehandles?