Slashdot Mirror
Eye Transplant Enables Blind Boy to See
Chris Gondek points to this story carried by the Sydney Morning Herald, excerpting: "A one-year-old Pakistani boy saw the world for the first time yesterday through an eye donated by an Indian. Mohammed Ahmed gained partial vision after a difficult operation at the Agarwal Eye Institute in the southern city of Madras. Doctors said Ahmed, who was born blind, would get near-normal sight by the time he heads back to Karachi next week."
The title is very misleading and is born of sloppy reporting. The whole eye was NOT transplanted, rather the cornea was what was transplanted. The cornea had adhered to the boys iris clouding his vision. Technically and surgically, this is nothing of note as corneal replacements have been happening now for years and years. Politically however stuff like this is good for Indian Pakistani relations.
The title suggests that the whole eye was transplanted which would indeed be very exciting as I myself work in vision rescue focusing on diseases that cause blindness through degeneration of the retina. However, the concept of rescuing vision once we have lost it due to trauma to the retina or degenerative diseases is much more difficult than simply replacing the tissue with a healthy donor tissue. We are working with a number of folks on bionic and biological therapies and replacements for retinal vision loss, but it is a challenging prospect despite what some commercial organizations would have the media believe.
In addition to the above mentioned corrections, there are other problems with this story. In particular, apparently the child was born blind from birth which would suggest that depending upon how old the child is, there will be problems due to vision being occluded during certain critical periods of vision pathway development. This means that there may be no vision in the eye that was clouded anyway, or that vision may not be fully "normal" and likely will never be.
(yes, I am a vision scientist)
Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
How can they tell that it worked?? Did they ask him - or is it some sort of objective test??
-FP??
If this is nothing special, why was it submitted? If I understand it correctly, this is just a PR issue, and nothing of scientific interest.
/.
And no, I'm not new to
Comment removed based on user account deletion
"An eye for an eye, and soon the whole world is blind." -- Gandhi
Oh, wait.
Maybe this is of note beacuse it is a poorer country with less medical support or maybe its beacuse he was born blind.
Have you metaroderated recently?
Though my understanding of the human eye is far from perfect, I believe this technique will work for patients who are born blind as well as those that become blind through trauma or degenerative disease. That is, this technique can, I suspect, be used on *anyone*. I am particularly fascinated by this approach. While it certainly has some drawbacks (e.g., imperfect donor eyes, organ rejection), it definitely gets around the technical issues that one reads about in the U.S. Most of the research I've read about in the past couple years (see, e.g., article 1 and article 2) involves the use of electronic fixtures of some sort with electrodes connected to the optic nerve or onto the brain itself. It's interesting--though perhaps not entirely surprising--that the low-tech approach might, at present, be more successful than the high-tech one.
Which would you rather have? A human replacement eye, or a pinhole camera mounted behind a pair of sunglasses?
The link is in Delhi so it probably won't take too much slashing.
Regardless, the story does certainly make you wonder what's up for the future. Misleading or not.
Maybe they are just trying to establish prior art for some patent?
In the last 8 years of being a programmer my eye sight has gone from perfect to shithouse. I actually read this slashdot article title and it gave me hope - once my eyeballs fall out, I can just get new ones!
Though from the first few comments here looks like I shouldnt hold my breath. Better keep waiting for the video camera borg-eyes.
So there is an Eye in team afterall. :)
Revolutionary eye surgery to make the blind see, and we get a BLACK AND WHITE picture??? Is it safe to call BS on this story yet?
Only victims make excuses
Cornea transplant?
Anyone else reminded of The Eye?
After the eye transplant, the pakistani boy began to see the world... AS AN INDIAN WOULD. When he looked at the Kashmir territory, he saw Indian territory. The horror! With time the Indian cornea began to take over his entire body, and he began speaking in 18 different languages.
THIS FILM APPROVED BY THE PAKISTANI FILM COMMISSION
I feel feel squicked just thinking about this, but I wonder if that kid will ever have really useable vision.
Google News results for those of us rejecting cookies and unable to bypass the Syndney Morning Herald's bogus "Register later and continue to your Article" link.
I saw a documentary from 1971 which is even scarier then all this eye transplant stuff.
I wonder if he'd get it if we sent him letters reading:
Dear Geordi,
Congratulations on your eyesight.
More power to the engines,
Captain Your Name Here
Here I thought a boys WHOLE eye was replaced! That would have been amazing and something for the whole world to rejoice for. Then I remember that we can not currently do eye transpants, and then I confirmed it by reading the article and other posts. You assholes should burn in hell for giving me that huge lump of amazment then slaping it down.
Amazing that it's possible to do this... I wonder what'll be next.
Yes but it might be a little hard to aquire one of the eyes that would make it through the security system.
(Sorry I did not get to read the whole thing bc I wanted to get this post in quickly... back to reading)
||| I still can't believe Parkay's not butter.
There are also simpler tests. wave a hand a quickly in front and note reaction, move a light and watch if the eye follows it.
How much he sees and how well is of course another question. But if you had the choice between being completly blind and being able to see a ball on a table what would you choose?
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
move along now
For a whole eye to be transplanted successfully, wouldn't there need to be a serious advance in stem cell research in order to regenerate the severed ocular nerve? Yet another reason why those ethics lobbyists and the Bush administration should just pack their bags and allow scientists to continue research in that particular area. Maybe that way a slashdot article with the same title would be accurate within a few years ;)
_____ omgwtfbbqroflmao
You know, it'd be really cool if you and some of your vision scientist buddies set up a lab like Chew's "EyeWorld" in Blade Runner. Come on wouldn't that be your wet dream?
The way to peace is not to make one country depend on another. It only works if both need each other to be at peace. Even just needing each other is not enough, one of them might decide they need the other really badly and invade.
The best way for peace is if two countries just ignore each other. This kind of "poor backward pakistan" needs "powerfull smart india" is not going to do any good. The indians might get the smugness of americans and the pakistanies the resentment of the arab nations. We all know how well they get along.
For another example, currently the US is extremely dependant on russia for its space program. It was only thanks to russian hardware and knowledge that americans managed to get some duration in space (mir) and the current space station needs russian rockets a lot more then the space shuttle. Yet if you watch american media you would hardly be able to tell this.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Sure, this kind of science has a long way to go. But doesn't everything? This is frickin' amazing! For me personally, I always had this weird fear growing up of anything making me blind. When I was a kid I actually wanted to get glasses specifically for the purpose of having a shield over my eyes! If there is eventually full transplant success, the possibilities would be incredible. I'm not sure if there's another physical feeling that would be as powerful and emotional as someone who has lived their life blind getting the opportunity to see at last.
Its really heartening to see the social ties the two countries still have inspite of the tussle at the top.I hope the recent talks between the two countries gets more bonds between the two countries.
fifteen jugglers, five believers
does he like what he sees?
I know you are psychotic, but please make an effort.
Since then a steady stream of Pakistani children has flocked to India...
;)
So we're not the only ones?
Although as I understand it, they try to give people transplants from people of a similar age. When this boy is fifty he'll have 99 year old corneas and will probably need another transplant.
Democracy Now! - your daily, uncensored, corporate-free
I remember some pop psychology book (author forgotten) with a story about some blind person getting vision when he was an adult. The problem was that he couldn't cope with it and got psychological problems. When his vision started deteriorating again he felt relieved.
Will this boy have the same problems?
It's not that bad. I'm not blind, but I do know and work with quite a lot of people who are, and you would be amazed at their independence and their quality of life. Like you suggested, many people who have never been able to see are perfectly content with their 'disability', and indeed can't imagine anything else. One of my friends says that if sight-restoring operations were possible in an everyday sense (which they certainly aren't), he would probably not take it. I'm not sure how typical of the blind community this is though.
The people who do really have trouble, obviously, are people who go blind later in life. They suffer more because they obviously didn't grow up blind, and thus didn't develop braille skills and other blind-person tricks like click-navigation (Seriously, a few people I know can point unerringly at furniture, doors and windows after clicking their fingers a few times!) These things take time, and a lot of older people unfortunately believe too strongly in the 'old dogs can't learn new tricks' maxim. The shock of this and the isolation that can come with blindness sometimes cause as many problems for older blind people than their actual physical condition.
Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time.
-- Terry Pratchett, Hogfather
Stem cells seem to know what to wire though. Putting stem cells near kidney cells turns them into kidney cells. The cells themselves must have known how to wire it in the first place (since we can see).
I think much more money should be spent in this kind of research. Immortality is just around the corner if successful brain transplants can take place. As well people inprisoned in quadriplegic bodies can be helped by this research along with many others with similiar neuron/motor neuron problems.
One more tribute to the Indian doctors. heard UK NHS is planning to outsource soon, its medical services..guess to which country ?
Chris ,
Php Programmers.
In Cringely's latest "pulpit" column, he talks about a video compression technology which uses one aspect of human vision physiology -- namely losses in the path from retina to brain via optic nerve -- to compress video. Apparently the bandwidth of the optic nerve isn't all that high, and not all the data available at the retina is transmitted to the brain. The brain makes up for this by filling in the gaps. I'm rather interested in this from a philosophical standpoint, having touched upon philosophy of colour recently. Is it true that much of what we perceive visually is imagery generated by the brain rather than directly produced in us by external stimuli?
proof, n. A demonstration that a conclusion is implied by certain premises and axioms.
Now the kid can watch Gumnaam, thank god.
http://www.commaecho.com
One more child is eligible to work on outsourced US projects.
I could understand if the boy was made blind, or was blind in one eye, that he would be able to see after a transplant, but for boy to be able to see (with the transplant) having not seen befor? I just don't see it. His optic nerves and brain having not had the input would not be used to the signals he was recieving and would take alot longer to get used to them if they were recieved by the brain at all.
It could be a case of 'Blind' as in 'technically blind' such as light reception through the optic nerve but completely fuzzy due to interference? How about "There is a ball on the desk in front of you. Reach out and grab it if you can" ball being black on white table he could see it. Please post next article if there is full eyeball and op nerve transplant and subsequent vision recovery, thank you.
"Persistance is Fertile" - Me. I can quote myself if I want to.
if a persons eye is completely removed (due to an accident), and just used an artificial eye (the type you have to remove and wash constantly, so it wouldnt look so ugly at the very least) for 20 years, can that person still get his vision back if he is given an eye transplant? do the optic nerves (or whatever they're called) eventually die after say 20 years of inactivity?
thanks!
Watch the photograph. I can pick up a ball that big with my eyes closed! Especially when it's right in front of me. :)
Damn...I really need to find the link. But basically, it was about cloning eyeballs and having them grow inside a chicken egg. As the organ develops (such as the eyeball) it would feed off the yolk.
:)
As funny and strange as it sounds, bio-mechanically I don't see why this wouldn't work. If this is possible, maybe in the future I can have a cloned heart grown in an ostrich egg. Just a thought.....
None the less, it does make for good SciFi material.
Life is not for the lazy.
So did he figure he had 2 and could spare an extra?
who rated that one off topic!!!! that should at least be a +3 funny! remod this with both eyes :)
-Cnik
I think poking fun at the whole dupe thing is just good humor.. But the mods very rarely agree.. Or maybe it isn't the mods at work here...
Joke about dupes at your karma's peril!
At first I thought that this was an impressive feat, I dont think anyone has successfully successfully transplanted a whole eyeball before and had the patient seeing. Having read the article, it seems that the boy has simply had a cornea transplant; Not exactly a groundbreaking medical acheivement these days (well, at least not in the west).
...
I suppose the politcal statement is fairly important in terms of pakistan / india relations.
nick
Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
Thank you. I'm here 'til Tuesday.
My mother was a therapist at a day care center for people with mental illness..
;)
One of the patients there had serious mental problems (she said he really needed full time supervision, ie. mental hospital but was farmed out to the 'care in the community' program instead) and one day decided to kill himself by throwing himself off a bridge..
He survived but was totally blind afterwards.
However the odd thing is it seemed to completely cure his mental problems and he has been happy and 'normal' ever since..
Dunno if its directly due to being blind or just getting hit on the head but either way its kind of weird.
*Health Warning*
Jumping off bridges is NOT recommended as a cure for mental health problems..
Knowing the relations between those two countries you can expect exactly one eye to be missing from a Pakistani now.
Next they'll work on teeth.
I guess the most difficult part of the whole procedure was to convince the Pakistani family to accept the donation from an Indian. =)
What is best in life? To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you and to hear the lamentations of their women.
My father had a cornea transplant in his left eye back in 1987.
They first had to do a plaster mold of his eye (the first one broke). And then he had to sit and wait for an acceptable donor.
When the cornea came in, they numbed his eye completely (locally) and all the surrounding area (he was fully awake when the procedure was done). And stitched in the new cornea.
Late one night, I was sitting in the hospital room with my dad -- this is late the very same day (mind you, I was only 14 when this was done) -- the nurse came in to change dad's eyepatch, reapply some goo, and just do a general check. Soon as the nurse walked out of the room, my dad grabbed me and said, "Holy shit, son. I JUST saw DEPTH! I can't f*ckin' believe it. I saw in three dimensions!!!!" -- I've never saw my dad so excited over something. I told him something to the affect of "welcome to the world of depth" or something stupid like that. He told me to wear one of his eyepatches for a day, then take it off and look at how different the world was.
Later on some months, I couldn't handle driving with him. "The TREES are coming AT ME!!!"
I guess we stereoptic folks take this stuff for granted sometimes.
--Xan
"Congratulations, Boots. Your robot has become self-aware. You're a daddy now." -- Dr. Rho Bowman
The input really comes from external stimulis, but yes in a way, what we see is the brain's own interpretation of those stimulis.
:
The information is never used as-is by the brain, but at each stage it processed, and information is extracted and spareted.
The vision, for exemple, doesn't work at all like in a computer with a pixel grid.
The input from the cones and the rods (the "pixels") is not sended as-is to the brain. Instead, in other layers of the retina, value from rods close to each other is compared (for : exemple you have "off-/ and on-centers", a signal is genrated only if surrounding cones are off and central cone are on, meaning there's something in the middle of that region).
The information transmited in the optical nerve isn't "pixel at coordinate (150,175) is color rgb(126,129,32)" but "there a change between these points and their neighbours, so there must be something there".
Further stages in the brain works the same way
point are compared together to extract edges (comparing point close together), or motion directions (comparing the timing between two near region).
Then motion, shape, colour, etc... is processed independently in deffirent arrea of the brain.
This analysis is also done at different frequencices : some region compare difference between point very close to eachother, where other regions compare global differences between the two half of your field-of-view.
So : when you see a red pen falling, you're brain isn't processing the images at a whole (not like a sequences of pictures of the pen falling).
But one region of your brain say it found a red object, another region of your brain tells there's an object that is long and thin, a third region see ther's motion going downward, etc...
Also, it isn't possible to have a single nerve fiber for each "pixel" while keeping a high resolution. So there's some kind of information drop : only the center of the view has a high density of receptors (cones & rods), the rest of the field of view has much less receptors.
Only the center of the view can see fine details.
The rest cannot give details, but can still give an alrt if there's something, and you'll automatically point your eyes int that directions to bring the interesting objet in you "high resolution" zone.
The whole scene is the kept reconstucted in some kinf of mental visual scratch pad.
So when you look at a plant you can see it well with all details, leaves, etc...
Then when you look at your computer screen, you can't see that plant that well, but even in your peripheral vision you can still a bullry green spot, and you remembre that you saw a plant there. Even if you can't see details anymore, your brain can still notice that the green spot has suddenly turned brown-orange. You turn your eyes and see that you can is trying to eat your plants....
This also explains why we don't "see" our blind spot. (Due to some poor cabling, the optical nerve is running thru the retina, and there's no receptor in that place, to leave room for the nerve).
It's like a grid with some pixels missing.
The vision works by comparing points. It's just that in the blind spot, the brain is comparing receptors that are VERY far appart. So if something small is located just in the blind spot, we won't see it, but we won't even realise that we are missing it, because when the brain compare the points above, below and on the sides of this spot, it doesn't notice any change, so the brain thinks the background is continuous. (That's what some call 'filling the gaps').
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
It's a true story. It was made into a movie and played by Val Kilmer. The problem was the brain never developed things like depth perception and never distinguished between colors and edges. It drove him crazy until his vision once again diminshed due to a genetic defect.
check out http://www.lexpress.mu/display_article.php?news_id =21527
Getting a transplant is fine, but not if you killed a child to reap his/her organs first, don't you think?
This article actually mentions the organs often go to Pakistan.
AC
The biggest factor that influence if one can have it's vision back or not is the age and the brain itself.
It is because the center of vision finish developping at a certain age.
In your exemple, if the person is a ful grown adult when he looses his eyes, he has an already functionnating center of vision. And when he has a new eye, he'll be able to use it again.
If he lost his eye when he was a baby, and he waits until he's 20 before gettint a new eye, the new eye won't work, because during the childhood, the brain has only learned to use 1 eye.
The person has developped what is called "amblyopia" (he has only monoscopic vision).
That's why the article mentions that the transplantation happened when the child was only 1 year old. That means the child is still young enough to learn using both his eyes.
Another exemple are retinoblastomas. They are a form of cancer that can happen inside the eyeball. If it happens to an adult, as soon as the cancer is removed, the adult can see again.
But if this happens to a baby, the doctors have to be quick, because if they wait too long before diagnosting it and removing it, the child will develop "amblyopia" and won't be able to use this eye, even after the removal of the cancer.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
The average /. reader can't see.
/. you might be interested to know that India and Pakistan aren't the most friendly of neighbors. So things like this are good for improving the way people in those two countries think about each other.
If you had RTFA you would know that it wasn't about the technical details of some new surgery. Far from it.
For those who wont RTFA, it was mostly about doctors in India helping children from Pakistan. And for thost who won't read anything but
. Quit playing Monopoly with Bill. Switch to one of many non-Microsoft products today.
Where, then, do you suppose personhood resides? Since the brain is where *all* cognition and feeling happens, we're kind of short on other candidates, aren't we?
+++ATH0
Human eye transplant sounds good. However I'd like to see a more useful eye transplant. I'd like to see a Borg style transplant; this will give you the ability to zoom, night vision, sun proctection, x-rays in one package.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Second, the US-backed forces in Afghanistan in the '80s largely preceeded the Taliban, which is mostly a Pakistani export.
From an accident with a stick in the fourth grade (it's funny until someone gets his eye poked out...). I leapt on the "Read More" link. Dammit. It's my understanding that the complexities of the optic nerve would make it near impossible to just stick together and make work. Millions of nerves. Similar to a cable with millions of wires all the same color. The body does amazing things in healing and regeneration, but that might be a little too much. I also wonder about how the brain would react. People with lazy eyes become functionally blind in the lazy eye because the brain just doesn't accept signals from it...
Oh, well...
01100101 01111001 01100101 01100010 01101001 01110100 01100101 01110010
It can work for some organs. But not for all.
:
Not all organs do pop out of nothing during embrionic developpment. Some of them are formed by complex interaction between a lot of structure.
- The heart is formed by the folding arteries, so you need atleast a complete circulation system.
- The eye are formed by complex interaction involving a lot of structure, sincluding the brain.
To grow an eye, you'll need almost everything except for some internal organs.
But it can work very easily for some other organs
the cells inside the pancreas that produce insuline and are damaged in type I diabetis have no structure at all. As long you find the correct chemicals to make a stem cell change into a insulin producing cell, you can use it.
Growing skin in vitro for implanting it has already been done. (But it is not used : there are other methods that cost less and have better succes...)
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
100 years is a pessimistic estimate; *real* (not Innovation(tm) ) innovation takes everyone by surprise, and drastically alters future estimates (and denounces other estimates as unnecessary). And one thing we can be sure of is that our rate of innovation is increasing (as in the acceleration is increasing).
Besides, i know i would be first in line if they started offering synthetic eyes that could register a wider spectrum of wavelengths, at a much grater range of magnitude. Then I would promptly sign up for Adamantium skeleton graftings.
I would not want a biological body. I want to be turned into a cyborg, just like "Cain" from RoboCop 2. Given the assumption that it is technically feasible to transplant a brain, I'm would guess grafting biology to technology would probably be easier.
Wasn't there a movie involving a brain transplant between a woman with a broken body and another who was brain dead?
Live forever, or die trying.
Cringely seems to think that instead of upgrading their networks with high bandwidth equipment which would enable them to deliver video, the telephone companies should spend decades, and no doubt billions of dollars, developing video codecs which can do DVD quality at modem bitrates, which would fail.
I remember seeing something on telly about a blind kid getting some kind of sonar (which looked a bit like a helmet) that made it possible for him to "hear" the distance and direction to things around him (and possibly their texture, but I am not sure about that). Of course, it took some training, but it seemed to work. Anyone knows what happened to that?
http://www.angelsacolyte.com/epguides2/18deadend.h tml
Ha, less than 50yrs before the real thing's done. Many specialists are too focused into their particular areas to see the wave of exponential change that's taking place around them. Most odontologists would say you're fucked if you loose a teeth, and will require fake ones or perpetual loss. Fact is, stem cell R&D has allowed new teeth to grow, and human trials will begin soon, in about a decade it could be available commercially. Same with cancer, many doctors might tell you you've got just a few months, but you go across the street and go into a late clinical trial of promising, from previous trials, drug, and voila you might actually have some chance.
My girlfriend had a problem very similar to this when she was born. A cataract clouded her eye, but none of the doctors (!) said it was anything to worry about. Finally after six or eight months her parents found a pediatrician who knew what he was doing. She had a surgery to correct the initial problem. She wore a patch over her good eye until she was five years old to try to train her brain to see correctly out of the bad eye. She has had around ten surgeries on her eye, but she continues to have problems simply because her brain did not develop correctly to support both eyes. For instance, she has no depth perception whatsoever, she describes her vision out of her afflicted eye as "a little blurry", her vision is always double and sometimes when she gets tired her eyes tend go crossed.
Read the article, hope his rehabilitation is not as painful as hers was.
1.) the restored site to a one year old... Definitely a good thing.
2.) The Pakistani couple had the work done in an Indian hospital by Indian doctors using Indian donors. Ok, it happens all the time; but, given the political climate in that part of the world, this is worth mentioning too.
Afghanistan got a lot of its aid from japan so they were so gratefull they blew up statues important to japan's religion.
You are mistaken. Those who blew up the statues were not all Afghanis, but a few who were in power at the time (Taliban). And it was not directed at Japan at all, nor any other nation. It was mainly adherence to literalist anti-idol laws. Do not read into it more than it bears.
Afghanistan was helped by the US in the war against the USSR so they fly planes into US buildings.
Where did you read that Afghanis had anything to do with Sept 11? No wonder the Bush propaganda works, tying Sept 11 to Iraq, ...etc. You are simply misinformed here. Totally!
There are many more examples, immigrants from the arab world into the western world come to mind.
Care to elaborate on that? You are just being racially stereotypical here. Just like the detention camps of the Japanese during World War II in the USA! Guilt by association, racism, creating enemies out of nothing. Wake up and get informed.
The way to peace is not to make one country depend on another. It only works if both need each other to be at peace. Even just needing each other is not enough, one of them might decide they need the other really badly and invade. The best way for peace is if two countries just ignore each other. This kind of "poor backward pakistan" needs "powerfull smart india" is not going to do any good. The indians might get the smugness of americans and the pakistanies the resentment of the arab nations. We all know how well they get along.
Well, you can make some good points. Why is your intelligence hampered by being prejudiced and/or ill informed then?
For another example, currently the US is extremely dependant on russia for its space program. It was only thanks to russian hardware and knowledge that americans managed to get some duration in space (mir) and the current space station needs russian rockets a lot more then the space shuttle. Yet if you watch american media you would hardly be able to tell this.
Another good example. Get more information, and shed the prejudice. You seem to have potential.
Second, the US-backed forces in Afghanistan in the '80s largely preceeded the Taliban, which is mostly a Pakistani export.
You are partially right here. The Taliban came into being in the mid 1990s.
However, they are not mostly Pakistani export. They are a reaction to what happened over the decades of foreign invasion, international neglect, civil war, insecurity, ...etc.
After the USSR pulled out of Afghanistan, the US (and the rest of the world) lost interest. The Mujaheddin who fought the Soviets and successfully drove them out formed a week government. The various factions started fighting among themselves, and in 5 years (I think 1990 to 1995) more than 50,000 civilians died in Kabul alone because of the fighting.
The factions included many warlords who were later part of the Northen Alliance, and who are now in power. Among them are General Abdul Rasheed Dostum (Uzbek Communist), Ahmad Shah Masood (who was killed prior to the US invasion shortly after 9/11), Gulbuddin Hekmatyar (currently a fujitive wanted by the USA), Rabbani (ex-president), ...etc.
Apart from the fighting, there were looting, rape, and general insecurity.
Afghan people at the time were disillusioned by all that is going on, how can they manage to drive out the USSR, but then fail miserably and turn against each other?
Some religious students living in refugee camps formed militias to fight the thiefs, extortionists, ...etc. This developed into the Taliban as we knew them.
They were supported by certain elements in Pakistan (where they spent a lot of their youth, in refugee camps), but I would not call them mostly a Pakistani export just because of that.
2bits.com, Inc: Drupal, WordPress, and LAMP performance tuning.
Well, these two old ladies walk into a hat shop, and the first one says "What do you think of this?", and the other says "That's the one I'd get".
I work in Ophthamology. The test is real.
Democracy Now! - your daily, uncensored, corporate-free
We are the borg...
-Rights? What rights?
yeah of course, but what else do you need for a carb and a smoke? I wish I could have two so not one person has four of a kind.....
keanmarine.com
To transplant a whole eye is practically impossible at this stage. In fact, the complications are very significant! From a medical perspective, CN I, aka: the optic nerve is huge, and is made up of at least several million neurons. Also, despite the childs age, it is unlikely that it could regenerate. Second, there are several other cranial nerves associated eye sensory and motor function. For example, the occulomotor nerve, CN III, is responsible for the proprioception of the eyes, as well as the motor function for the superior, medial and inferior rectus muscles, inferior oblique, and levator palpabrae. Not to mention the parasympathetic fibres innervating the iris and the lens. The trochlear nerve, CN IV, also has some proprioceptive functions, as well as motor functions for the superior oblique muscles. Finally, the Abducens, CN VI, too has propriocetive functions, and is responsible for the lateral rectus muscles.
So, while this story had a positive ending, the notion of a whole eye transplant, however, is quite unlikely right now. There are far too many nerves involved.
Indian? Do you mean Indian as in Injun Joe, or Indian as in where all our jobs are going?
I'm thoroughly confused.
I'll have to SEE it to believe it.
A few people I know can use a reasonably simple form of echo-location (sonar!) to "see" the layout of a room, furniture, doors and windows etc. By listening to the echoes of a sound (for example the finger-click noise) a blind person can build up a spatial picture of their environment. Doesn't work so well outdoors for obvious reasons though.
Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time.
-- Terry Pratchett, Hogfather
I've got my eye on You! ... heh
Umm you mean like the one a couple of posts up that talked about a *patch* over the kittens eye?
Wow and it only took like 3 posts to come up with that eh?
A loop, by its nature, continues. If that didn't make sense, start reading this sentence again.
Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase 'trying to see the world through someone else's eyes.'
If that is what the world's really looks like, then I will paint no more.
-Claude Monet, upon recieving glasses for the first time
Sure, this kind of science has a long way to go [...] I always had this weird fear growing up of anything making me blind. When I was a kid I actually wanted to get glasses specifically for the purpose of having a shield over my eyes!
:
;)
I'm not so sure that it would be advances in optical science that would benefit you the best.
I guess you should either
- avoid sticking things into your eyes
- be more cautious when moving your head
- learn how to get rid of this childish need to protect yourself from the outside world
So actually, you should probably seek help from your nearest psychologist rather than from some foreign optical scientist
Put an eye chart on a wall 15 feet away, and look at it every 15 minutes. Your eyesight WILL improve.
Either that, or your memory will.
What about that 50 year old cornea-donater? Donating a body part is not like giving spare cans of food to homeless shelters at thanksgiving... I wonder if he genuinely donated it, or sold it to some eyeball Chiba or something...
-- _ music: http://www.quantazelle.com _ _ label: http://www.subVariant.com _ _ magazine: http://www.modsquare.com _
Sure, there's ethical problems. Look up the horrible little flick called "Parts: the Clonus Horror" http://imdb.com/title/tt0078062/ summarized "Politicians scheme to clone themselves, assuring immortal life". They grow the bodies to optimum physical health then freeze them until the "original" needs a transplanted organ. Of course you've functionally killed a person with a complete personality to do it. Far worse than stem cell research in almost anybody's book.
It's the will of Allah to make him blind.
It's the will of the modern medical science to make him see again.