A synthetic eye that 'sees' like a human
Nature Podcast
podcast@nature.com
4.5 • 893 Ratings
🗓️ 20 May 2020
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, crafting an artificial eye with the benefits of a human's, and understanding how disk-galaxies formed by peering back in time.
In this episode:
00:45 Biomimetic eye
Researchers fabricate an artificial eye complete with a human-like retina. Research Article: Gu et al.; News and Views: Artificial eye boosted by hemispherical retina
09:27 Research Highlights
Dazzling elephant seals to avoid predation, and helping blind people ‘see’ through brain stimulation. Research Highlight: Mighty seals humbled by prey that flickers and flashes; Research Highlight: Blind people ‘read’ letters traced on their brains with electricity
11:36 Early disk-galaxy
There’s an open question about how disk-galaxies form, but now new observations are pointing to an answer, from the very early Universe. Research Article: Neeleman et al.; News and Views: Galaxy disk observed to have formed shortly after the Big Bang
17:47 Pick of the Briefing
We pick our highlights from the Nature Briefing, including a HIV ‘vaccine’, and incredibly hardy bacteria. Science: Long-acting injectable drug prevents HIV infections; Quanta Magazine: Inside Deep Undersea Rocks, Life Thrives Without the Sun
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | nature in an experiment i really know yet why is like so far like it sounds so simple they had no idea |
| 0:10.7 | but now the data's i find this not only refreshing but but at some level astounding nature |
| 0:20.4 | welcome back to the next Nature. |
| 0:25.5 | Welcome back to the nature podcast. |
| 0:28.8 | This week, making an artificial eye... And how disk galaxies formed in the early universe. |
| 0:32.6 | I'm Nick Howe. |
| 0:33.6 | And I'm Charmany Bundell. |
| 0:44.8 | Yeah. And I'm Charmany Bandelle. First up, Darwin once pointed to the human eye as an example of evolution through natural |
| 0:50.1 | selection that people might find hard to accept. |
| 0:53.5 | An eye is an incredibly complex organ, |
| 0:56.1 | but researchers working on artificial vision have managed to craft an eye that mimics our own, |
| 1:02.8 | complete with a working retina. Reporter Jeff Marsh spoke to the scientists involved to find out |
| 1:08.0 | more. |
| 1:16.6 | Because I used to see a lot of sci-fi movies, they have the artificial eyes. So I found this technology is very interesting. |
| 1:20.6 | My name is a Zion Phan. |
| 1:24.6 | I'm a professor working in Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. |
| 1:33.4 | What's your favorite sci-fi film with an artificial eye? Oh, Star Trek for sure. |
| 1:40.3 | In 2012, we developed some enabling technologies. Then 2016, we started with the actual work to fabricate our biomimetic eyes. |
| 1:56.7 | We have cameras already with incredible resolution. |
| 2:01.7 | What's so special about the layout of the human eye? |
| 2:04.7 | Why is that something to aim for? |
| 2:07.1 | One of the unique features, everybody knows, our eyes are spherical shape. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from podcast@nature.com, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of podcast@nature.com and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.