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Allvar Gullstrand was a Swedish eye doctor who made major contributions to ophthalmology and won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1911. He was born in 1862 in Landskrona, a small town in Sweden, and graduated from Uppsala University with a medical degree in 1888.(1)

Some highlights from his life include:

In 1911, he gave his first demo of the slit lamp and came up with the reflexless ophthalmoscope, which helped doctors get a better look at the cornea. That same year, he won the Nobel Prize.

By 1913, he became president of the Swedish Ophthalmological Society.

In 1922, he traveled to Washington, D.C., to represent Sweden at the International Congress of Ophthalmology. He showed off the slit lamp again, and to celebrate his 60th birthday, the Swedish Society of Medicine created the Gullstrand Gold Medal, which is awarded every 10 years.

In 1925, he became president of the Swedish Academy of Sciences, and in 1927, he received the Graefe Medal from the German Ophthalmological Society. (1)

(1) https://retinahistory.asrs.org/retina-pioneers/allvar-gullstrand-md ‍

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Hans Lippershey, a Dutch eyeglass maker, made a major contribution to the field of optics in the early 1600s. In 1608, he filed a patent for what would become the first refracting telescope. This device used a convex objective lens paired with a concave eyepiece to bring distant objects into clearer view (1).

As the story goes, the idea came to him in a rather unexpected way. Two children were playing in his shop, holding up lenses and noticing how objects far away suddenly appeared much closer. That simple moment of curiosity sparked something big. It marked the beginning of a new era in magnification and optical science, eventually paving the way for more advanced instruments built with multiple lenses and more precise technology (1).

(1) https://www.space.com/21950-who-invented-the-telescope.html

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Did you know that one of the very first tools ever used to help people see better dates all the way back to around 1000 AD? These were known as reading stones, and they were first used by Italian monks who needed a little extra help reading their manuscripts. Over time, these simple yet powerful tools became common among people with visual impairments, offering them a clearer view of the world around them.

Reading stones were essentially the earliest form of magnifying glasses, just smooth, dome-shaped pieces of glass placed over text to enlarge the letters. It’s amazing to think that something so small could have such a big impact. And who knows, they may have been in use even earlier than we think! (1)

(1) https://entokey.com/history-of-spectacles/

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The earliest description of an optical instrument, specifically a telescope, was by Leonard Diggs in a 1571 edition of Pantometria:

"Marvellous are the conclusions that may be performed by glasses concave and convex of circular and parabolicall formes. By these kinds of glasses, or rather frames of them, placed in due angles, yee may not onely set out the proportion of an whole region… ye shall discerne any trifle or reade any letter lying there open,… as plainly as if you were corporally present, although it be distante from you as farre as the eye can decrie." (1)

(1) https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Joukowsky_Institute/courses/13things/7334.html

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An excimer laser is a type of ultraviolet laser that has a wide range of applications, from microelectronics manufacturing to eye surgery, particularly in procedures like LASIK (1).

The use of an excimer laser in eye surgery dates back to 1988, when it was first used to sculpt tissue from the stromal bed under a hinged flap, which had been created manually using a trephine and scalpel (2). The process evolved further in 1990 with the incorporation of a microkeratome, leading to the development of laser in situ keratomileusis, or LASIK, as we know it today. The first LASIK vision correction was performed at the LSU Eye Center, where a 60-year-old woman allowed surgeon Marguerite McDonald to perform the procedure on her damaged eye (3).

LASIK was officially approved in Canada in 1991 and in the United States in 1995. It remains a widely used and effective procedure for vision correction to this day (3).

(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excimer_laser#:~:text=An%20excimer%20laser%2C%20sometimes%20more,%2C%20eye%20surgery%2C%20and%20micromachining.4

(2) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22496438/#:~:text=An%20excimer%20laser%20was%20first,as%20we%20know%20it%20today.

(3) https://socaleye.com/2021/03/lasik-history/#:~:text=The%20first%20laser%20vision%20correction,procedure%20on%20her%20damaged%20eye.

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The history of optics stretches back centuries, and along the way, we’ve uncovered some truly fascinating early inventions. One of the most important milestones was the creation of the first wearable eyeglasses, credited to Salvino D'Armate of Italy. He crafted lenses out of a glass or crystal-like material and designed them with handles so they could be held up to the face. While they may seem simple by today’s standards, this early invention marked a major step forward in helping people with vision problems see more clearly (1).

Fast forward to today, and we now have thousands of different eyeglass frames, lens options, and even contact lenses. From stylish glasses to high-tech vision correction tools, it all traces back to this early innovation. Salvino’s work helped pave the way for the modern eyewear industry and improved the quality of life for millions of people around the world.

(1) https://www.eyediologyopticians.co.uk/home/glasses/the-history-of-glasses/#:~:text=A%20concise%20history%20of%20spectacles,frame%20and%20later%20lorgnette%20glasses).

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Allvar Gullstrand also developed a schematic model of the human eye that introduced several features never previously represented—such as lens curvature, the distance between the lens and cornea, and the eye’s refractive indices (1). This model became essential for understanding how the eye focuses light and is still used today to calculate the size of images projected onto the retina.

One key concept introduced in the schematic eye is the nodal point, the spot where incoming light rays pass through the eye without bending. This point is central to calculating retinal image size using the formula:

Retinal Image Height / Snellen Letter Height = Nodal Point to Retina Distance / Chart to Eye Distance (2).

(1) https://retinahistory.asrs.org/retina-pioneers/allvar-gullstrand-md

(2) https://www.aao.org/education/bcscsnippetdetail.aspx?id=30bf26c8-801d-40bb-8bc6-9dea73fd1adf

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Allvar Gullstrand made a lasting impact on eye care when he developed the slit lamp, a device designed to safely and precisely illuminate the front part of the eye, especially the cornea. By focusing a narrow, intense beam of light, the slit lamp allowed doctors to examine the eye’s structures in much greater detail than ever before. This was a major breakthrough in the field of ophthalmology, changing the way eye conditions were diagnosed and understood.

Gullstrand’s invention quickly became a standard tool in eye care. Even today, slit lamps are used all over the world during routine eye exams to help detect and monitor a wide range of eye conditions, from cataracts to corneal injuries and more (1).

(1) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23264115

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One of the most groundbreaking texts in the history of science and vision is The Book of Optics, written by the brilliant scholar Ibn al-Haytham. This work had a huge influence on the development of optics and laid the foundation for what we now know as modern physical optics. In it, Ibn al-Haytham redefined how light and vision were understood, challenging old theories and introducing a more scientific, experimental approach to studying the eye and light (1).

But the book didn’t just change science. It also touched on the human mind. It contains some of the earliest recorded discussions of the psychology behind optical illusions and introduced ideas that would later form the basis of experimental psychology. In the fields of medicine and ophthalmology, The Book of Optics was a game changer. It led to major improvements in eye surgery and offered one of the first accurate explanations of how we actually see.

This was especially important during a time when medical knowledge was limited and many so-called “treatments” were harmful or even inhumane. With the introduction of this text, people began to understand the science behind sight, helping to move medical practices toward safer and more informed methods (1).

(1) https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=2047

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Isaac Newton made groundbreaking contributions to the study of light and color. Through his experiments, he demonstrated that a prism could split white light into a spectrum of colors. He also discovered that by using a second prism, he could recombine those colors to form white light again (1).

This led to the development of his theory, known as Newton's Theory of Colors. Newton concluded that any refracting telescope would suffer from the dispersion of light into separate colors. To solve this problem, he invented the Newtonian telescope, a new design that helped eliminate the color distortion. This was a significant advancement in optics, laying the groundwork for the development of future optical instruments and technologies.

(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_optics

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This picture above is from Ancient Babylon in 2250 BC. This shows that the practice of ophthalmology has been documented and practiced for long before we ever could imagine. It has a reference of eyes, "If a physician performs eye surgery and saves the eye, he shall receive ten shekels in money." It later talks about the practice of the eye. (1).

It has 9 pages of medical manuscript devoted to eye conditions. These following conditions were in the text: Pterygium, Staphyloma, Trichiasis, Cataract, and Ophthalmoplegia. All these were described in the text in detail. (1)

(1) https://eyewiki.aao.org/History_of_Ophthalmology

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AMD - Dry-Age Related Macular Degeneration

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AMD - Dry-Age Related Macular Degeneration

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In 2012, Pub Med posted an article about AMD. AMD is the leading cause of irreversible blindness in elderly people. This risk increases with those over 75 years old. AMD is a gradually progressing disease that evolves through stages (1).

But, in recent years there has been significant progress made towards developing treatments for AMD. Some treatments are as follows: Laser Photocoagulation, Photodynamic Therapy, and Intra-ocular Drug Therapy.

With all these, none have proven to effectively prevent vision loss, most have seen to be working. (1)

(1) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4204600/