Top Stories 
Published On July 23, 2009
TECHNOLOGY
No Prescription is Necessary
These glasses offer a low-tech, low-cost, no-doctor solution for poor eyesight.
No prescription is necessary for a special pair of eyeglasses called Adspecs. Their sturdy plastic frames encase flexible, oil-filled membranes that change the refractive power of the lens as the wearer pumps oil in or out with a syringe. Pumping oil out draws the membranes together, curving the lens inward and correcting for nearsightedness. When oil is pumped in, the membranes (and lens) bow outward, improving close-range vision. Manufactured for around $19 a pair, Adspecs—short for adaptive spectacles—are a boon in places like sub-Saharan Africa, where there is one optometrist for every million people. With Adspecs, wearers need only an eye chart to fine-tune their vision.
Dispatches
Your Brain on Drugs, Revisited People with drug addictions produce more of a certain brain chemical—and research may point to new ways to block it.
Podcast: Polar Lessons Researchers are untangling how animals can live in the Arctic and Antarctic cold. The applications for human medicine could be vast.
Putting the Dead to Rest Students at the New York Academy of Art are using their sculptural and artistic training to reconstruct the faces of unidentified remains.
First Thoughts Tiny models of the brain are becoming more complex. When should the ethicists step in?
On Her Wavelength Indoor light can affect health in good ways and bad. Photobiologist Mariana Figueiro wants to get patients the optimal exposure.
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