Gizmorama - February 18, 2015

Good Morning,

Are you ready for your contact lenses to see more that before? Researchers at the American Association of the Advancement of Science have created working contacts that have a built-in zoom feature. I'm sure when these hit the market people won't believe their eyes!

Learn about this and more interesting stories from the scientific community in today's issue.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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*-- Researchers unveil contact lenses with zoom capabilities --*
SAN JOSE, Calif. (UPI) - A group of researchers at the American Association of the Advancement of Science conference on Friday unveiled a working contact lens prototype with a built-in zoom feature.

The contact lens is really two lenses in one -- one lens for seeing the world as it is, another to magnify one's surroundings by a factor of three. A single wink (the blink of one eye), will trigger the switch back and forth between the two lenses. In order for the unique function to work, the user must couple the contact lenses with a special pair of electronic glasses.

The glasses recognize winks, while ignoring blinking. A wink triggers the glasses to filter and concentrate light through the telescopic portion of the contact lenses, enabling instant magnification of what lies in the forefront of the user's field of vision. Magnification is triggered with the right eye, while a return to normal is signaled with the left eye.

"The most compelling reason why you would want to have this is to help people with serious visual problems, such as macular degeneration, or other retinal illnesses where people have severe vision loss," lens designer Dr. Eric Tremblay, a researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, explained to The Telegraph.

"In a lot of cases, magnification is very useful," Tremblay said. "So what people usually use are head-mounted telescopes, which doesn't work for everything. It doesn't track with vision, and it's quite bulky and interferes with social interaction."

The work of Tremblay and his colleagues was made possible by a grant from DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

"DARPA funds things that are really out there -- forward-thinking stuff," Tremblay told Engineering and Technology Magazine.

The new lens is only a prototype, and is just being tested by volunteers for the first time. Initial reviews have been mixed, with several users saying that while the functionality was good, their vision was blurred.

Tremblay says it could be two years before they have a lens that's ready for market.


*-- USDA approves new biotech apple for growth in U.S. --*
WASHINGTON (UPI) - They say an apple a day keeps the doctor away, but a new genetically modified variation of the fruit -- approved Friday for growth in the United States -- also keeps the spoiling away. At least for a while.

The apple, developed by Canadian company Okanagan Specialty Fruits, is genetically altered to resist bruising and browning once it's sliced. Developers say that will lead to greater use of the fruit and less waste.

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) approved the special fruit for commercial planting in the United States on Friday. The agency wanted to determine whether the tree that produces the new apple is a plant pest -- which are organisms that can cause harm to agricultural crops or other plants.

Once it was learned the tree does not pose an agricultural threat, APHIS -- an arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture -- was required to issue approval.

"If APHIS finds through its rigorous scientific review that a new [genetically engineered] plant is unlikely to pose a plant pest risk, then under the law and its regulations, it is required to deregulate the [genetically engineered] plant," the agency said in a statement on its website.

APHIS also determined that deregulation of the apple is unlikely to significantly impact the human environment.

Okanagan believes the biotech apple will make the fruit more popular and appealing, but some in the apple industry are worried that it might ruin the fruit's wholesome image and affect exports to nations that don't favor consuming genetically altered foods.

The agency deregulated two variants of the Okanagan apple, which are called Arctic Golden and Arctic Granny.

According to Okanagan's official website, the company is also working on genetically modified variants for peaches, pears and cherries.

The genetically modified, Arctic-labeled apples are designed to produce less of the chemicals that lead to browning. The more resistant apples will eventually still brown eventually, just not as quickly as its unmodified counterpart, the New York Times said in a report Friday.

Although the new apple trees have been cleared for planting, Okanagan is still in consultations with the USDA concerning the overall safety of the apple itself -- a process that virtually all genetically modified foods must go through.

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