Sight has never merely meant the detection of light. In almost every culture, the eye serves as a sacred symbol: the all-seeing Eye of Horus in Egypt, the divine eye of Odin in Norse mythology, and the third eye of inner knowledge in Hinduism. Like the heart, this organ carries mythological weight and has been intimately linked to the soul. But unlike the heart, vaulted away behind layers of tissue and bone, eyes are exposed, leaving them vulnerable to debris and external damage. Also, unlike the heart, the lens of the human eye has no blood vessels, no nerves, and no interaction with the immune system, meaning it cannot absorb medicines, respond to immune signals, or recover from structural injury.1 Throughout much of history, then, when an eye was damaged, there was little that could be done to heal it. And even today, ophthalmologists like myself struggle to address the idiosyncrasies of this organ when treating ocular and vision disorders. And such disorders are rampant: In...
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