Photonics for a Better World

On left, the patient’s left eye has no cataract and all structures are visible. On right, retinal image from fundus camera confirms the presence of a cataract. (From Choi, Hjelmstad, Taibl, and Sayegh, SPIE Proc. 85671Y , 2013)   Article by guest blogger Roger S. Reiss , SPIE Fellow and recipient of the 2000 SPIE President's Award. Reiss was the original Ad Hoc Chair of SPIE Optomechanical Working Group. He manages the LinkedIn Group “ Photonic Engineering and Photonic Instruments .” The human eye and its interface with the human brain fit the definition of an "instrument system."   The human eye by itself is also an instrument by definition. After the invention of the microscope and the telescope, the human eye was the first and only detector for hundreds of years, only to be supplemented and in most cases supplanted by an electro-optical detector of various configurations. The evolution of the eye has been and still is a mystery.   In National Geogr...

The Washington Post “Ideas@Innovations” blog recently profiled winners of National Academy of Engineering awards , including Rangaswamy Srinivasan, James J. Wynne, and Samuel E. Blum. All are being recognized for their work in developing what have come to be known as PRK and LASIK corrective eye surgery. They will share the $500,000 Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ Prize. The Post embedded the 2011 SPIE Advancing the Laser video of Wynne describing how the discovery of surgical applications of the excimer laser developed in 1981. (The highlight is the description of Srinivasan bringing his leftover Thanksgiving turkey carcass to the lab to test the laser on.) Wynne, still working for IBM, has more recently developed excimer laser treatments for removing necrotic lesions of the skin. See the video