Bionic Eye Opens New World Of Sight For Blind

October 20, 2009
Stem cells and electronics can help restore vision to people who've been blinded by retinal diseases, scientists reported in Chicago at Neuroscience 2009, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience.

Diseases of the retina cause blindness by damaging the cells that line the back of the eye, where images of the world are normally transformed into nerve impulses that go to the brain.

"There's very little therapeutic treatment out there right now for people with diseased retinas," says Brian Mech, a vice president of Second Sight Medical Products in Sylmar, Calif.

But Second Sight is hoping to change that. The company has developed an experimental bionic eye that has been tried in more than 30 patients with macular degeneration or retinitis pigmentosa

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Listen to the story at the above link.

[edit on 26-10-2009 by Aquarius1]

thats incredible. . . it seems to me that this could not only be used to help the blind but to enhance the vision of people who see fine.

Stem cell research and treatments are the future and its imperitive that we do not allow philisophical idealogs to block advancements in these fields of research. . .