Bad misinformation. HIV virus can sometimes be _detected_ in tears but there are _no_ known cases of transmission via this route. If possible, it must be _extremely_ rare and difficult or it would have been seen by now. That is not to say there is no worry since many infections _can_ be spread eye-to-eye but HIV is not one of them. Please, please get facts straight on this very serious topic. Robin Colgrove MD Laboratory of Molecular Retrovirology Division of Infectious Diseases Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Harvard School of Medicine
I was relieved to see that many slashdotters quickly grokked the difference between iris scanning and retinal scanning but alarmed at many totally clueless misconceptions about what goes where in eye-land. C'mon folks, this is the kind of uninformed blathering for which we love to bash the non-geek world. If it's not worth the effort to get the facts before posting, it's not worth the rest of our eyeball-time for reading. At the risk of slashdotting this great site, check out the interactive cow's eye dissection at the San Francisco Exploratorium (URL deleted to slow down the slashdot effect). As a bonus, here's an experiment to impress you about the amazing active control of the eye: Stand in front of a mirror close enough to see the patterns in your iris. Now, tip your head slowly left and right and watch what happens to the eyeball. Tres Cool, I think. I knew all those years in med school must've been good for something.
I remember seeing the original Star Wars in 1977 on one of those humongus screen theaters in the pre-megaplex era. Frank Capra (a Caltech alum!) also treated us nerds-in-training to a pre-showing of TESB on the huge screen at Caltech's Beckman Auditorium. Now the new SW cries out for a big screen but stuck here in Boston I can only find little postage stamp screens in theaters where you have to listen to all the sound effects in the next movie over. I have asked all over but no one seems to know if there are any big screens left. An early 20th century hall with late 20th century equipment would be ideal. Willing to do a road trip for this!
Slashdot Mirror
Bad misinformation. HIV virus can sometimes be _detected_ in tears but there are _no_ known cases of transmission via this route. If possible, it must be _extremely_ rare and difficult or it would have been seen by now. That is not to say there is no worry since many infections _can_ be spread eye-to-eye but HIV is not one of them. Please, please get facts straight on this very serious topic.
Robin Colgrove MD
Laboratory of Molecular Retrovirology
Division of Infectious Diseases
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Harvard School of Medicine
I was relieved to see that many slashdotters quickly grokked the difference between iris scanning and retinal scanning but alarmed at many totally clueless misconceptions about what goes where in eye-land. C'mon folks, this is the kind of uninformed blathering for which we love to bash the non-geek world. If it's not worth the effort to get the facts before posting, it's not worth the rest of our eyeball-time for reading. At the risk of slashdotting this great site, check out the interactive cow's eye dissection at the San Francisco Exploratorium (URL deleted to slow down the slashdot effect). As a bonus, here's an experiment to impress you about the amazing active control of the eye: Stand in front of a mirror close enough to see the patterns in your iris. Now, tip your head slowly left and right and watch what happens to the eyeball. Tres Cool, I think. I knew all those years in med school must've been good for something.
I remember seeing the original Star Wars in 1977 on one of those humongus screen theaters in the pre-megaplex era. Frank Capra (a Caltech alum!) also treated us nerds-in-training to a pre-showing of TESB on the huge screen at Caltech's Beckman Auditorium. Now the new SW cries out for a big screen but stuck here in Boston I can only find little postage stamp screens in theaters where you have to listen to all the sound effects in the next movie over. I have asked all over but no one seems to know if there are any big screens left. An early 20th century hall with late 20th century equipment would be ideal. Willing to do a road trip for this!