FDA Approves Argus II - First Bionic Eye

Posted by Andreas Christodoulou

Description : 

The ability to give sight to a blind person via a bionic eye depends on the circumstances surrounding the loss of sight. 

A visual prosthesis, often referred to as a bionic eye, is an experimental visual device intended to restore functional vision in those suffering from partial or total blindness. 

They are usually modeled on the cochlear implant or bionic ear devices, a type of neural prosthesis in use since the mid 1980s.

Argus II, manufactured by Second Sight Medical Products Inc. is the only such device to have received marketing approval by the United States FDA on 14 February 2013, as the first Artificial Retina technology. 

Argus II is the first approved prosthesis to restore limited vision to those blinded by retinitis pigmentosa. The prosthetic technology was developed at Second Sight, USC, UCSC, CalTech, and other research labs, with support from three major US government funding agencies (National Eye Institute, Department of Energy, and National Science Foundation - NSF).

The Argus II is manufactured by, and will be distributed by, Second Sight Medical Products of Sylmar, California later this year. Check out the video!

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The Hottest thing on earth : X- Rays heat metal to 2 million °C

Posted by Andreas Christodoulou

Description :

With the help of the most powerful X-ray laser in the world researchers of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy have heated a piece of aluminum to a temperature of two million degrees Celsius (3.6 million degrees Fahrenheit). They also managed to verify the temperature achieved. This work could be an important step to a better understanding of nuclear fusion processes that go on in the cores of stars and giant planets like Jupiter.

Up to now it was possible to create plasmas out of gases and study them with conventional lasers, but doing the same thing with solids that laser beams cannot penetrate is new. The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) is capable of generating very short X-ray pulses. The researchers used these to create a little ‘plasma cube’ with vertexes of about 10 µm and a temperature of two million degrees Celsius.

*by andreascy*