blindness - Gizmodo

posts about #blindness more →
MIT's Eyeball Chip Could Make the Blind See
Stem Cell Contact Lenses Cure Blindness in Less Than a Month
I See No Possible Dangers to Embedding Swarovski Crystals in Contact Lenses
Touch Sight Camera Lets the Blind Take Pictures, Sort Of
Russian Ravers Blinded By Best (and Last) Laser Show They'll Ever See
Cats Getting "Bionic Eyes;" Humans Next
K-NFB, Helping the Blind Read Again
Solar-Powered Implant: Cure for Blindness?

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Fractal the Meek
09/24/09

In reply to MIT's Eyeball Chip Could Make the Blind See
Not entirely comfortable with power being wirelessly transmitted... through my skull. But holy awesome.
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Phroby
09/24/09

@Fractal the Meek: It doesn't seem like it's any different from other radiation going through your skull, like radio waves, etc.
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Fractal the Meek
09/24/09

@Phroby: That's why I take my cue from this guy.
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GitEmSteveDave_HurtHisKnee
09/24/09

@Fractal the Meek: You should try Velo-stat, like my lovely assistant. [www.stopabductions.com]
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lessthantito
09/24/09

@GitEmSteveDave_WillingToBeTased: Can I have a cute assistant too?
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Fractal the Meek
09/24/09

@GitEmSteveDave_SaysHappy40thJesus: His Alieometer wasn't calibrated during original design. Clearly the pads inside aren't spaced correctly for alien frequency bands.
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GitEmSteveDave_HurtHisKnee
09/24/09

In reply to MIT's Eyeball Chip Could Make the Blind See
If their not blind, would my Ex still screw them?
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Anonymoose
09/24/09

@GitEmSteveDave_woot'sOffSoHard: depends...are they your buddies?
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GitEmSteveDave_HurtHisKnee
09/24/09

@Anonymoose: He wasn't my buddy, pal.
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Anonymoose
09/24/09

@GitEmSteveDave_WillingToBeTased: i'm not your pal, friend.
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cbstryker
09/24/09

@Anonymoose: I'm not your friend, guy.
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Jrsy Devil's Advocate®
09/24/09

@cbstryker: I'm not your bro, man.
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ppark
09/24/09

@Jrsy Devil's Bright Idea®: OMG, why would you do that!? You're not supposed to break the chain, what you should have done is "I'm not you're guy, bro" or something of that sort.
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Jrsy Devil's Bright Idea® promoted this comment ppark was starred ppark was unstarred

Jrsy Devil's Advocate®
09/24/09

@ppark: I'm not your guy either, bro.
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Eric Kramer
09/24/09

In reply to MIT's Eyeball Chip Could Make the Blind See
Just wait till the 'enhancements' come out ... then plenty of people will want to sign up!
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Bertone77
09/24/09

@Eric Kramer: Sweet!
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fate47 - Meh.
09/24/09

In reply to MIT's Eyeball Chip Could Make the Blind See
CORNWALL: "Lest it see more, prevent it. Out, vile jelly!
Where is thy luster now?"
GLOUCESTER: "On the back of mine eye
which thou now holdest in thy cruel hand."
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Anonymoose
09/24/09

@fate47 - Meh.: so what movie is that line from?
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AkkiRonin
09/24/09

@Anonymoose: The play King Lear ... in case you weren't joking.
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Anonymoose
09/24/09

@AkkiRonin: oh? so it's a play? is that something like a straight to dvd movie?
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AkkiRonin
09/24/09

@Anonymoose: You were joking then... got it.
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Anonymoose
09/24/09

@AkkiRonin: no, you were supposed to continue and say, it's a play. something like a book. and then i was going to reference twilight, because it's probably the best book of all time. and then we were supposed to go on for around 30 more comments in an enthralling version of why won't anonymoose let this die part 2? part 1 was my goldfish that i had on life support. and by goldfish, i mean great aunt.
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Barry99705
09/24/09

@Anonymoose: Vampires don't fucking sparkle........
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Anonymoose
09/24/09

@Barry99705: when they're hot they do!

*puts hands on hips and pouts authoritatively*
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Curves
09/24/09

In reply to MIT's Eyeball Chip Could Make the Blind See
This is why I want to go to MIT when I grow up.
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selfprofessedgeek
09/24/09

In reply to MIT's Eyeball Chip Could Make the Blind See
Who's gonna sign up for this?
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bucklefilledbird
09/24/09

@selfprofessedgeek: Blind people. ;)
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iatacs19
06/03/09

In reply to Stem Cell Contact Lenses Cure Blindness in Less Than a Month
Can they also start using this technology to get rid of glasses?
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Who Shot Who in the What Now?
06/03/09

@iatacs19: I love my glasses. They are a part of me now. I understand that people who have really terrible vision without their glasses hate their specs, but I'd never give mine up.
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Kaiser-Machead
06/03/09

@Who Shot Who in the What Now?:

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Dave Lindsay
06/03/09

In reply to Stem Cell Contact Lenses Cure Blindness in Less Than a Month
Guys, read the article before pissing yourself with excitement.

This treatment does not miraculously give you perfect vision. It's a treatment method for people with physically damaged corneas. Not nearsightedness.
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KhaiJB
06/03/09

@Dave Lindsay: agreed. I have a friend who'll be looking at this with interest, since she's blind in one eye.

the question now is, can the cells be used to rebuild the optic nerve and retina?
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weatherman
06/03/09

@Dave Lindsay: um, you don't think curing blindness is worth pissing yourself with excitement for (figuratively speaking, of course)?
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thatericguy
06/03/09

@KhaiJB:

most likely not - since the contact lens with the cells are on the surface of the eye and do not migrate actually deep into the back of the eye where the retina and optic nerve attach. basically this is just a novel way to keep cornea cells actually on the cornea so that it can regrow. if there was a way to put retinal stem cells on the retina to regrow (where it doesnt diffuse into the eye), then it might work.
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KhaiJB
06/03/09

@thatericguy: thats what I was actually thinking - not applying the cells via a lens, but if they can be injected(?) into the right places...
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weatherman
06/03/09

In reply to Stem Cell Contact Lenses Cure Blindness in Less Than a Month
That's some real living-in-the-future shit right there. Amazing. I guess I really will be living to the age of 140.
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KhaiJB
06/03/09

In reply to Stem Cell Contact Lenses Cure Blindness in Less Than a Month
if the results remain stable this is going to open up whole new fields of treatment...
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TheSaint
06/03/09

In reply to Stem Cell Contact Lenses Cure Blindness in Less Than a Month
I'd love to see what it would do to someone who isn't as blind...as opposed to lasik or in conjuntion with lasik maybe we can get back to 20/20 and if it doesnt revert then that'd be awesome
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Hello Mister Walrus
06/03/09

@TheSaint: Laser eye surgery can already give you better than 20/20 vision. Combining it with stem cells will probably give you laser eye powers or something.
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jonhapimp
06/03/09

@Hello Mister Walrus: or x ray vision hopefully
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ripfire
06/03/09

@TheSaint: I don't think this would work on people who have simple myopia since there really isn't anything wrong with the eye other than the eyeball being more oblong.
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CubeRat
06/03/09

@jonhapimp:

With X-ray vision though, would you ever be able to turn it off? I am not sure if I would like seeing through everything 100% of the time. Might make driving a bit difficult.
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Hello Mister Walrus
06/03/09

@CubeRat: Well, if you had 100% x-ray vision, you'd basically be blind. So, I guess there must be some sort of happy medium.
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GitEmSteveDave_HurtHisKnee
06/03/09

In reply to Stem Cell Contact Lenses Cure Blindness in Less Than a Month
Wow, so Adult Stem Cells, and or Cultured Stem Cells from the patient cured something? Who would have thunk it.
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tok3ninja
06/03/09

@RideMyDiscoStick?_GitEmSteveDave: I know! And to think we all believed Bush when he said stem cell research was evil.
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GitEmSteveDave_HurtHisKnee
06/03/09

@tok3ninja: Well, I mean, just because private industry and every other nation on Earth could study/experiment with them during that whole time, that's the ONLY reason there hasn't been advances.
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PurpleMonkeyDishwasher:
06/03/09

@RideMyDiscoStick?_GitEmSteveDave: Except for this advance?
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GitEmSteveDave_HurtHisKnee
06/03/09

@Purple Monkey Dishwasher: This wasn't embryonic stem cells, the ones covered by the funding ban. This was a type FUNDED by the feds.
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Sacchinftw
06/03/09

@RideMyDiscoStick?_GitEmSteveDave: Except that embryonic stem cells could be used to do exactly this and more. Just think of what we would have been able to do if there hadn't been a ban at all...
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Rabid Penguin
06/03/09

@Sacchinftw: I know. We'd probably have the cure for cancer by now if only we could kill babies and harvest them for the cure.
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Stuart Bradley Newsom
06/03/09

@tok3ninja: "I know! And to think we all believed Bush when he said stem cell research was evil."

Oh don't forget the tons of liberals that stood by Bush in thinking the research was wrong.

Fucking idiots. Always insulting bush at every turn. Hmmm, don't forget when Clinton cut funding to a lot of Military and NASA research. Oh wait, don't talk about it. Clinton and Obama are gods.
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Kaiser-Machead
06/03/09

@Stuart Bradley Newsom: Psshhhh, Clinton's an imp, a cigar-nymph at best.
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GitEmSteveDave_HurtHisKnee
06/03/09

@Sacchinftw: So what exactly stopped the rest of the world, places which according to Michael Moore have better health care and services, and also private industry(including IN the USA) from showing us?
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philibuster
06/03/09

@Sacchinftw: Good idea, but no. The stem cells would be rejected by the host body as foreign bodies, just like any other implant taken from a different organism.
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mferrari
06/03/09

@Rabid Penguin: It's not like anyone gets abortions to further stem cell research. If they're happening anyway, why not help people with the fetuses?

And, I'd like to point out that even though some are pro-choice, no one is pro-abortion. Everyone who makes up their minds on issues based on what some group (political party, church, etc.) says automatically tries to make the other side seem completely wrong and/or evil, instead of realizing there are always pros and cons to every opinion and as a result people who don't blindly abide by what someone else says are hurt. Contrary to what some idiots say, an abortion clinic will not suck out a baby the second you walk in, they are against it as well and only use it as a last resort, after offering assistance in the adoption process and suggesting other alternatives, as well as giving you a waiting period to think about it.

Even if you believe abortion is murder (it's your opinion and I wont fight you on it), if it happens, WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU NOT USE IT TO HELP PEOPLE. If you can save 10 lives for something that some don't even consider wrong, why not go for it?

Not funding stem cell research is not something that deters people from getting abortions, so shut up and let the human race advance without dragging the catholic church kicking and screaming along the way.
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Rabid Penguin
06/03/09

@mferrari: I'm not sure what you mean by your last statement. I'm not Catholic. You don't have to be Catholic to know baby killing is wrong.

Abortion is legal. Sure. But why should I have to give my money to someone because they want to kill the baby that's inside them? They should have to pay for it themselves or get the money from some place that is not the government (ie tax payer money).

I'm all for advancement, but not at any cost. To me, the ends does not justify the means. And in the case of embryonic stem cell research, we're not even sure what the "ends" are.

And if you take this article for instance. The eye was repaired without the use of embryonic stem cells. Babies didn't have to die.
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pangelboy
06/03/09

@philibuster: There are ways to get around the assumed notion that the body would reject ESCs, for example, giving people who are injected with these cells, immunosuppression injections. This would theoretically prevent a body with a healthy immune system from rejecting the ESCs before they could do their job.

Of course this all is just a theory seeing as no one has injected a human being with ESCs to see if they'd be rejected or not, just mice. The fact is that former President Bush's ban significantly delayed research in a critical area of science.
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GitEmSteveDave_HurtHisKnee
06/03/09

@pangelboy: Again, how? There was only a ban on federal funding of research on lines that were not in existance before the ban. NOTHING stopped the rest of the world AND private "big pharma" from researching. I hate to say it, but if the only way something is getting cured in this world is if it has US federal funding, I'm scared.
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poorGeek
06/03/09

@RideMyDiscoStick?_GitEmSteveDave: big pharma actually relies fairly heavily on federally funded, published research to base their work.

Embryonic Stem cell research has taught us a lot about how stem cells work, and using that knowledge we'll be able to use adult and placental stem cells for actual therapeutics.
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GitEmSteveDave_HurtHisKnee
06/04/09

@poorGeek: You mean "we are able" not "we will be able", right?

@killerpotato: Again, so if the US government doesn't fund it, it can not be done? Scary thought. I mean, we're in financial trouble as a country, so does that mean the world will not get another cure or treatment for anything until OUR economy improves?
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Eimor
06/04/09

@WiiPoleNotIncluded_GitEmSteveDave: Given the fact that the U.S. has the higest consumption per habitant rate of world resources and money expenditure, it`s not so hard to think that "if the U.S. does not pay attention to something, said something will not develop or even exist". If you look carefully at the flow of goods and money, you will see that they usually tend towards the U.S.. In order to sustain the american lifestyle, resources from every corner of the world should be focused to the U.S. economy and thats exactly what is happening today. So, yeah, if the goverment of the country that rules the world econmy does not fund something or bans its investigation .... ok, i think you get what im trying to say here.
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GitEmSteveDave_HurtHisKnee
06/04/09

@Eimor: BUT, the "ban" was just a "ban" of federal funding on research involving ESC lines NOT in existence before the date it was enacted. It in NO WAY stopped private funding or non-federal subsidized research. There was not ANYTHING forbidding research by anyone on ESC, just federal funding.

If this was something that was so promising, how hard could getting private funding to research it, or getting federal funding from another country? Again, just b/c the US government didn't fund something, don't say that so much "progress" was lost.
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