Word: retina
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...problem is that lasers produce beams of light so intense that if directed or even reflected into the human eye, they can blister and burn the retina, causing instant and permanent damage. To avoid that possibility, the FDA wants light-show operators to use low-powered lasers and to design the shows so that the beams of light are aimed far above the heads of spectators...
...that chance discovery 17 years ago has emerged a new and highly controversial treatment for helping flawed vision. It is called "orthokeratology." In myopia, images of the outside world do not focus precisely on the retina but rather in front of it, either because the eyeball is too long or because the cornea and lens bend light rays too much. Just as orthodontists use braces to correct the position of crooked teeth, orthokeratologists employ hard contact lenses to alter the curvature of the cornea to improve vision. At least 300 optometrists now specialize in "ortho-k," and tens of thousands...
Things first began going wrong for Ed when he was five and his right eye hemorrhaged. Then at age nine, his left retina became detached, leaving him sightless. Ed says that he doesn't remember anything about losing sight in his right eye, except the operation. But when he couldn't play baseball anymore, the full three years I wondered 'Why the hell am I in this situation,'" Ed says. And he mentions his grandmother, a member of the Holiness Church in Wyoming, Del., where Ed has lived all his life, who told him that if he prayed hard enough...
Coming to Harvard during the depression years of the '30s, Wald started as an instructor and tutor in Biochemistry, receiving tenure in 1948. He was named to the Higgins chair in 1968. Wald had isolated Vitamin A in the human retina before he came to Harvard and eventually won the Nobel Prize in Physiology for his vision research. Today, Wald says it is his dedication to and understanding of science, rather than belief in any specific political philosophy, that has compelled him to become a social activist. He admired Salvadore Allende's Marxist government but says, "I don't know...
Last time I heard ol' Retina's call...