Happy Birthday Prevent Blindness! An Exploration of The Eye

Happy Birthday, Prevent Blindness!

115 years bring with them much to celebrate.?It all began in 1908, when Miss Louisa Lee Schuyler (the great-granddaughter of Alexander Hamilton) began her successful crusade to eliminate a condition that led to unnecessary blindness among infants during the turn of the century.?I like to imagine Louisa today – looking back with fulfillment over all we have accomplished in the many years since.?You can discover more about our rich history in this Birthday Message from our Board Chair, Jim McGrann, Jim McGrann , or read about our fascinating origin story in this JAMA Ophthalmology article (The Most Urgent Voice in Eye Research—The Patient’s), co-written with my colleague, Kira Baldonado .

But for my part, today I’d like to turn our attention to what’s at the heart of our work – the fascinating organ that is the eye!?I spent many childhood hours flipping through the flimsy, yellowing pages of comic books, and so was elated to find that we share a birthday with the debut of #Superman – in the first issue of DC Comics ' Action Comics!?Now we all know that Superman has x-ray vision; but the powers contained within Clark Kent’s eyes go well beyond just seeing through walls.?Also aiding him in saving the universe time and again are his heat vision, telescopic vision, microscopic vision, and even electromagnetic vision – always useful when trying to trace broadcast signals!

Yes, Kryptonian eyes are quite powerful.?But equally wondrous are those of us mere earthlings!?A few super facts about this ? ounce fascinating organ

• The eye is the fastest muscle in the body – it takes between 100-150 milliseconds to blink and you blink more than 4 million times per year (how’s that, Superman!) – hence the phrase “in the blink of an eye."
• For many uses, it seems retinal scans are replacing fingerprints for identifying people.?That’s because the iris in your eye has 256 unique attributes (compared to a fingerprint’s 40).
• Did you know we all start our lives with color blindness??While more males than females are color blind, all of us are born so.?Babies begin developing color vision about a week after they are born.?By the time they are six months old, they can see as many colors as an adult.
• Are you one of the 8-10 percent of people with blue eyes??If so, you could share a common ancestor with the rest of your blue-eyed friends.?This condition is the result of a mutation that causes the irises to lack pigment, a mutation that first appeared in a single person who lived in Europe between 6,000-10,000 years ago.
• As intriguing as the eye is by itself, even more so is the power-duo of the eye and the brain!?Did you know that our eyes themselves only produce two-dimensional images??It takes the brain stepping in to compare the pictures taken by each eye to create the illusion of depth that enables our 3-D view.
• Our eyes alone, through the cones of the retina, can only see three colors – red, blue, and green.?And yet, by joining with the brain the average person can perceive at least a million colors – and a rare few, with a condition called tetrachromacy that gives them an extra type of cone, can see as many as 100 million colors!

Thank you for taking some time to join me in celebrating the eye itself.?To engage in further dialogue as we explore the question Why the Eye? please join us for this Summer's free, virtual Focus on Eye Health Summit (July 12-13).

For now, we’ll leave Superman to go about the business of saving the solar system; meanwhile, Prevent Blindness will continue our work protecting the eye and the visual system for years to come.?We’re here as a resource to you, your colleagues, family, and friends.?And if you’re so inclined, consider donating $115 at PreventBlindness.org/Birthday at PreventBlindness.org/birthday, to ensure our sight-saving efforts continue for another 115 years, and beyond!

Yours in sight!

Jeff Todd, President + CEO