Posts

January 07, 2013

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Enhancing your level of vision on demand sounds like something out of a comic book. Superman, if you recall, had the power to turn his x-ray vision on and off like a light switch. So is x-ray vision possible? I’m sorry to say: no. The ability of our naked eyes to see through layers of [...]

August 16, 2012

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11:45 AM | To Spot a Liar: An Offices of SciAm Mystery

Congratulations. You have been hired for your first detective gig. Report immediately to the downtown Manhattan office of Scientific American magazine. There’s been a robbery of their archival issues. They think it was an inside job. You will be interviewing members of the staff on their recent activities and whereabouts. Upon arrival, report to the [...]

August 09, 2012

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11:55 AM | When Seeing isn’t Believing: Charles Bonnet Syndrome

Liliputs and little people, cartoon characters dancing on your desk, a civil war soldier in your living room, a zebra walking down the street. Typically not what we’d expect to see with our own eyes. But for some, it happens almost every day…for a year or so anyway. The “visions” aren’t always complex or bizarre. [...]

May 25, 2012

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5:12 PM | Visualize and Score… BIG!

I love optical illusions. They make me feel clever if I can figure them out and even when I have to peek at the answer, it’s still fun to find out how my brain was tricked. But do they serve any purpose in the real world? Can we use them to make us sharper in [...]

March 01, 2012

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3:18 PM | Music can change (the way we see) the world

When I was fourteen years old, I broke up with my first love. The colors of the world seemed to fade, my head hung low and I played the song “November Rain” by Guns N Roses all day long on my gigantic stereo. The solemn smooth violins and soulful guitar riffs struck the right chord [...]

January 18, 2012

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12:49 PM | Hey, Did You Hear? …Why We Don’t Listen

Why do we sometimes not register sounds and voices around us? A wife asks her husband for the third time, “did you take the garbage out yet?” He is so glued to the big game and he still hasn’t issued a response. A kid doesn’t hear her mother tell her dinner is ready because she [...]

December 30, 2011

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10:52 PM | Speaking of Crystals, check out the Specs on Times Square’s New Year’s Eve Ball

Ball Dropping tomorrow in Times Square said to have more lights this year yet is more energy efficient At the beginning of this week, my article on the science of Snow Crystals was published here on the Guest Blog. If you haven’t read it yet, you can check it out here. This weekend millions of [...]

December 26, 2011

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5:00 PM | It’s Snow Wonder

Ok, I admit it. I love snow. There I said it. As a kid growing up in Central New York, we always had plenty of snow thanks to the lake effect off of the Great Lakes. I would sled and ski, cross country and downhill constantly. Each year once Halloween passed, I found myself with [...]

November 23, 2011

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3:36 PM | Tom Turkey’s Terrific Vision

Not since Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd has there ever been such a set of rivals as Tom Turkey and Hunter Bob. Hunter Bob just can’t seem to get a turkey today. He’s new to hunting and said he wanted to ‘bag his own bird’ this Thanksgiving. Tom, on the other hand, isn’t about to [...]

November 01, 2011

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12:15 PM | Learning the Look of Love: In your Eyes, the Light the Heat

Setting the mood for romance on date night is easy and restaurants have the right idea by dimming the lights and placing candles on each table perfectly set for two. As the soft music plays in the background, love is in the air and also in the diners’ eyes. But how do we know this [...]

October 17, 2011

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12:18 PM | Learning The Look of Love: That Sly ‘Come Hither’ Stare

Series Intro While it might not be witchcraft, the formula for ‘love at first sight’ remains a mystery. However, if you pop the following ingredients into a kettle: large pupils, long glances, and a lovely, attentive smile, you may not have concocted a bona fide love potion but your witch’s brew could contain some insight [...]

September 20, 2011

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12:01 PM | Lost in the Details or just paying attention?

We see with our brain, not with our eyes. That is, while our eyes help to capture images of the world around us, it is our visual system as a whole, the eyes and the brain that have the all important task of organizing and making sense of what we are seeing. As it turns [...]

August 12, 2011

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11:00 AM | Psssstt!!! Gossip and the Link to Your Vision

Gossip can be juicy, but can it also be useful? The unwritten rules of society imply that gossip should be avoided and dismissed as an unnecessary distraction. However, a recent study at Northeastern University has shown that our subconscious values gossip and that our eyes and mind pay particular attention to negative gossip. It seems [...]

August 03, 2011

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5:00 PM | Will Carrots Help You See Better? No, but Chocolate Might

I can’t count the number of times I have been asked by patients if carrots really can improve their eyesight. I think some are looking for carrots to be a magical cure for their refractive error. They want to eliminate their need for glasses and want carrots to give them perfect 20/20 vision. While proper [...]