My 6-year-old daughter has glasses, and yesterday afternoon I took her to the optometrist for her yearly checkup. After initially being a bit skeptical about getting the eye drops to dilate her pupils so her retinas could be visualized, she was won over after seeing the cool pictures of her eyes. She even asked for a printout of the picture, and proceeded to take it to school and point out her optic nerve, blood vessels, and macula to her friends. Yep, that's my girl...
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Those moments are so great. When you see your child discover somethng new (at least to them) that required rational thought by them it reminds you that you have engaged in the job of human making and that you might be doing a decent job of it.
Now if you could only get her to tell her friends that the location of the optic nerve pretty much blows off intelligent design:)
Cool!
Now that's what I call an extreme close-up.
Good opportunity also to point out the backwards wiring of the nerves of the human eye that give optomotrists cause for concern about the retina in the first place.
Maybe we'll work on the ID angle next year. :) Maybe get one of those 3D models of the eye. The funniest thing was the look on the doc's face when she asked for a picture of it to take home. Obviously it's not a request he gets very often, especially from a kid.
Now that she's interested in science, do you think you could get her to come and help me out on my PhD! I need someone to dilute the tedium of pollen counting.
You should see a picture of my eyeball. I have a scar from a nail caused injury.
Yikes.
Spam! I hate spam!
Me too--gone.