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Make Those Brown Eyes Blue

randomErr writes A new procedure has been developed that can turn any brown eye to blue. The procedure uses a laser that disturbs the melanin in the pigmented part of the eye. Over the course of a few weeks your body would eliminate the disturbed pigment revealing the blue layer below all people have. The procedure costs about $5,000 and only takes a few second to complete. You can't get it yet in the U.S. because it still going through clinical trials and some ophthalmologists fear that process could increase pressure in the eyes.

29 of 208 comments (clear)

  1. Filed under... by kuzb · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...things not worth $5000

    --
    BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
    1. Re:Filed under... by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 2

      Indeed. Stupid ways to spend $5K ...

      * Laser Blue Eye Surgery
      * Watches

    2. Re:Filed under... by BoRegardless · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And people with blue eyes get more eye damage from bright sunlight.

      Messing with my eyes is not my idea of being safe.

    3. Re: Filed under... by MrBigInThePants · · Score: 2, Funny

      You are completely missing the point here troll. You arrogant assumption is that watches are for keeping time. PATHETIC. You show your lack of class with every word.

      They are most certainly NOT. If I want to know the time, I will ask some gimp like you.

      They are for:
        - "Reading the time" at the appropriate moment to show a new acquaintance how wealthy and fashionable you are.
        - Indicate to ladies that they too could have such expensive gifts if they sleep with you. (lol - yeah right!!)
        - Making other people like yourself but less wealthy jealous.
        - A conversation piece - although make sure you PRETEND not to care how good it is why showing it off.
        - Striking poses involving your wrist near you head for that glamour photo. (this is no joke and requires hours of practice in front of a mirror)

      You watch does not even need batteries or be wound to do these thing!?

      So you see how pathetic you are?

      "Watches are for reading the time". PLLEEEEAAASSSSEEE....

    4. Re:Filed under... by UncleTogie · · Score: 4, Funny

      ...things not worth $5000

      ....unless you're a criminal trying to change your identity...

      --
      Don't tell me to get a life. I'm a gamer; I have LOTS of lives!
    5. Re:Filed under... by jellomizer · · Score: 4, Informative

      There is plastic surgery (reconstructive surgery)and a subset is cosmetic surgery.
      I had plastic surgery, I had a cyst on my jaw line that was infected. So a plastic surgeon removed it in a way that it didn't scar or damage all the nerves in my face.
      Then there is cosmetic surgery where people get procedures done for no medical reason other to match what is currently fationable.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    6. Re:Filed under... by Grishnakh · · Score: 2

      It's not necessarily to match "what is currently fashionable"": lots of studies have found that there is an objective measure of beauty in humans, and that's symmetry. Humans who look more symmetrical are perceived as more attractive; it's hard-wired into our brains as a measure of reproductive fitness. So any plastic surgery to make you look more symmetrical (such as removing moles or other facial blemishes) isn't a matter of fashion, it's a matter of beautification according to our biological preferences.

      Now, something like a nose job to make your nose smaller or pointer is definitely a fashion thing, as a preference for big clown noses vs. small pointy noses is likely either a matter of fashion, or of culture.

    7. Re:Filed under... by Hognoxious · · Score: 2

      Perfectly symmetrical faces look weird. Try it in your favourite image editor.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    8. Re: Filed under... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Yeah, but less likely to go snow blind.

    9. Re:Filed under... by Hognoxious · · Score: 2

      they take a bunch of people's faces, merge them all together in an image editor, then show the various faces plus the merged face to a group of people

      I realise English isn't your first language, but why do you think merging is the same as making them symmetrical?

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  2. Modern medical science is amazing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm an older gent (I'm in my late 70s). I've witnessed a lot of change of my life, including the rise of computers and the Internet. But nothing amazes more more than medical science. Here we are, able to turn brown eyes blue. I never would have thought that would be possible during my lifetime. And I've also heard that thanks to modern surgical techniques, it's possible to turn a woman into a man, and a man into a woman. Sometimes the surgery is so effective that it's nearly impossible to tell the difference! Back when I was a young man, if somebody had blue eyes, it's because they always had blue eyes. And if somebody had a penis, it's because they always had a penis. But thanks to advancements in medical science, what I knew to be true when I was a young man is no longer the case now. Brown eyes can become blue. Penises can be surgically crafted, and be indistinguishable from the real thing. Medical science: it's amazing!

    1. Re:Modern medical science is amazing. by Guppy · · Score: 2

      There's also a drug that can turn blue eyes brown:
      http://io9.com/why-does-this-e...

    2. Re:Modern medical science is amazing. by Kjella · · Score: 2

      Well, yes and no. If you look at Roman Emperors like Augustus and Tiberius they became 75 and 77 years old, respectively and those dates are fairly certain. For sure they're not representative but there were certainly those who lived longer. Looking at modern mortality tables here in Norway some 23% and 27% of the population would already be dead at this age. And 50% will be dead by 85, 90% by 95, 98% by 100. Far fewer people die young, but 2000 years of medicine has bought us maybe 20 years of life span, in fact it seems less likely they'd live to be 95 and 97 today.

      I think that's a bit underwhelming. Even more so because in those final decades you're so old and frail a light breeze will blow you over, the main reason they live longer is basically because they're "bubble wrapped" in a nursery. Can't we invent medicine to rejuvenate the body and I don't mean hair transplants for baldness but to genuinely restore strength, dexterity, endurance and so on? You see it in pretty much all professional sports that depend on physical prowess, around 35 give or take a few they all retire. After that it's all "in good shape for an X year old" but not if you were 20.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
  3. How lost these people must be.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    To imagine that changing their eye color will make them happier.

    I have brown eyes. Of my 8 great-grandparents, only 1 had brown eyes. Of my 4 grandparents, only 1 had brown eyes. Of my parents, 1 had brown eyes. These are the eyes I was born with and these are the eyes I will die with.

    Of all the things one could change, eye color would be way down on the list. Perhaps someday one will be able to buy intelligence or self-respect.

  4. Is this a good thing??? by andydread · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm not sure this is a good thing. The extra melanin apparently gives the eye extra protection from UV rays. I guess if you live in the far north its no big issue but if you live in the southern hemisphere near the equator you may want to thing twice about this. That melanin is there for a reason

    1. Re:Is this a good thing??? by geekymachoman · · Score: 2

      Of course it's not a good thing. But as I see it... only people that worry more about "looks" (some people like blue eyes, especially in asia) will bypass thousands and thousands of years of evolution in favor of "looking good", and nature has a way of dealing with stupidity.

    2. Re:Is this a good thing??? by Ogive17 · · Score: 2

      My wife is Japanese so her physical traits are quite easy to predict. I have dark brown hair and hazel eyes (brown or green depending on the light). Our son was born with blue eyes, which did not surprise me because I knew most babies were born with blue eyes (but I did not know why). Apparently in Japan (and the rest of Asia I assume) this does not happen. This makes me wonder if such a procedure would be successful there.

      I can definitely see it becoming very popular in S. Korea, though.

      --
      "Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
    3. Re:Is this a good thing??? by chihowa · · Score: 2

      Yeah, functionally, blue eyes kind of suck. Sunny summer or snowy winter, I can't leave home without sunglasses. I remember the first time I went skiing with a guy from Korea and he found out that we don't just wear sunglasses to look "styling".

      --
      If you want a vision of the future, imagine a youtube comments section scrolling - forever.
  5. Woah woah woah!!!! by SoVi3t · · Score: 3, Funny

    What's this you're doing to my brown eye?

    --
    Defender of Microsoft and Communism!!!
  6. Re: Godwin by Black+Parrot · · Score: 2

    AIUI, the blue is caused by refraction and all other colors by pigments.

    --
    Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
  7. Golden yellow by staalmannen · · Score: 2

    Anyone know how some animals get the golden yellow colour? That would be cool.

    1. Re:Golden yellow by slew · · Score: 2

      Anyone know how some animals get the golden yellow colour? That would be cool.

      Actually, wikipedia has a pretty good explanation...

      Unfortunately, the appearance of yellow in the iris can sometimes be associated with macular degeneration in humans... That is definitely not cool...

  8. Donuts by itzly · · Score: 2

    I used donuts. After all, just like Crystal Gale was singing: "donuts make my brown eyes blue..."

  9. Re:Brown eyes are beautiful... by TeknoHog · · Score: 2

    That depends on where do you live. If you live in a northern country where everybody has blue eyes, you may find them "unremarkable".

    I wonder if there are such countries. Here in Finland, most people seem to have greyish eyes with green or blue overtones, but a lot of natives also have very dark eyes, not to mention immigrants. So we do regard blue eyes as somewhat special and attractive -- though we also have "blue-eyed" as a synonym for "gullible".

    At school we were taught that the gene for blue eyes is recessive when compared with brown eyes, which might explain the global trend, but it didn't matter either way to our class of 25 shades of grey.

    --
    Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
  10. Re:rip off by ledow · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I once charged $1000 equivalent in local currency to walk into a place, press a power button and press Enter and then walk out again (server "wasn't working", whole business was down, told them to try various things, ended up in them requesting and emergency callout, had to move clients around and rush over there, to find that the display on a server wasn't switched on. On the screen, it had "Press Enter to boot from...." message. I pressed Enter. Waited around a bit to ensure that was all that went wrong, charged a day's callout, went home).

    It's not the action you take, it's the knowing that the action you take is the correct action to fix things, guaranteed. Back then, I wasn't paid by the hour, or paid by the qualification, or paid by the years of experience, or paid by the number of things I did. I was paid to solve the problem. And solving the problem often needed a whole lot more insight than just pressing a button but often that's what it LOOKED like. "Should we just restore from backup?" Woah, no, hold fire. Let's stop, think. And that stopping and thinking saved my arse on more than a few occasions rather than launching into fixing the symptoms of the problem.

    And I bet medical school costs a FUCKING lot of money and the laser costs a FUCKING lots of money and the insurance if you get things wrong costs a FUCKING lot of money and the sterile building full of nurses and other equipment costs a FUCKING lot of money too. Plus, it's cosmetic surgery, so it's profit-based. To be honest, I'm amazed it's that cheap. You can barely get laser correction surgery for that price.

  11. Re:Turning Japanese by Pikoro · · Score: 2

    I don't think it would matter much. Japanese already have a social reaction to this which would fill the gap. Tattoos are shunned in public places. This would probably fall along the same lines.

    Dying your hair is also more socially acceptable now, but not in a business setting.

    Besides, a Japanese driver's license doesn't even have a place for hair or eye color. ( I am a permanent resident of Japan and have a Japanese license)

    --
    "Freedom in the USA is not the ability to do what you want. It is the ability to stop others from doing what THEY want"
  12. Re: Godwin by Grishnakh · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Nope. Only brown eyes are caused directly by pigments. Blue eyes and green eyes actually don't exist per se: there is no blue or green pigment. Blue eyes look blue for the same reason the sky looks blue: Rayleigh scattering. Green eyes, much more rare, are in-between, and don't even look green in certain lights or certain angles.

  13. Old news? Similar 2011 article by yakumo.unr · · Score: 2

    Here's an article on basically the same thing from 2011:

    http://news.discovery.com/huma...

    Is this a new system of doing this, a new group following previous working, just rehashing old news?

    Or is it the same group getting a lot closer to being approved for use?