Body Electric Part 3: Why Our Eyes Are Elongating

TED Radio Hour

NPR

Social Sciences, Society & Culture, Science, Technology

4.4 • 21.3K Ratings

🗓️ 17 October 2023

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In part three: host Manoush Zomorodi explores how our tech habits are causing our eyes to change shape—to elongate—which causes nearsightedness. She investigates why rates of myopia among kids are soaring. She speaks with Maria Liu, an optometrist with a quest to slow down the progression of myopia in children by opening the first ever myopia control clinic in the United States.

Later in the episode, we hear from a team of employees who tried incorporating "movement snacks" into their days for one week.

Click here to find out more about the project: npr.org/bodyelectric

Are you signed up for Columbia's study, or following along with the series? We want to hear your thoughts! Send us a voice memo at [email protected]. Talk to us on Instagram @ManoushZ, and on Facebook @tedradiohour.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, it's Manouche.
0:03.5	All right, and let's get you a line to read.
0:05.6	Can you read down this line for me?
0:07.0	And I want to introduce you to 12-year-old Harmony.
0:10.4	E-S-T-L.
0:14.1	I don't think I can see the last one.
0:16.1	This is her getting her regular eye checkup
0:18.6	at a clinic in Berkeley, California.
0:20.8	O-P-L-O-T.
0:24.4	All right.
0:25.3	And then I'm really pushing you here.
0:26.6	How about this one?
0:27.5	So Harmony has myopia.
0:29.4	That means she's nearsighted.
0:31.1	She and her mom, Ching-Tai, can't quite remember exactly
0:35.4	when she first got diagnosed.
0:37.0	I was in first grade.
0:38.6	I think I was second.
0:41.2	OK, second grade.
0:42.4	How old was I?
0:43.4	Second grade is six or seven, I think.
0:46.8	So Harmony wore glasses for a while.
	...

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