Natural selection is about the survival of the fittest, but it is not perfect. How can we fix it?
Section 3
Re-evolution Of Human Vision And Sight Through Engineering
27:00 – 29:00
Photo-Transistors As Artificial Imitators Of Natural Photo-Transduction.
We are at the Bell Laboratories (New Jersey, USA) where John Shive invented in 1948 the first photo-transistor.
A photo-transistor does the same as a photo-receptor cell, converting light into electricity, but at a much higher efficiency.
In other words – human technology can surpass the evolutionary design and produce a more efficient light-detector.
We walk the halls and corridors as Info-Graphics appear providing information on the different machines and artifacts that are exhibited.
We arrive at where Shive developed the first photo-transistor.
Bell Lab scientists talk about the development of photo-transistors and modern application of photo-transistors in everyday life, from cell phones to solar panels.
We touch on the photodiodes and photovoltaic effects.
29:00 – 31:00
The Limitations Of Artificial Photo-Transduction (Shockley-Queisser).
“Just like with our retinas, artificial light detectors and photo-transistors have limitations too.
Some of these limitations arise from the physical and chemical properties of the materials we use to build photo-transistors, while other limitations have to do with the Laws that govern the Universe”.
We are in the offices of the Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory, Beckman Instruments, Silicon Valley, California.
Here, with engineers and scientists, The Shockley-Queisser Limit is presented as we discover the limitations of the photo-conversion and solar cell efficiency.
We learn how this limit can be overcome by new technologies.
Using animation on the physics behind the Shockley-Queisser Limit we find out the theoretical solutions to this limit.
31:00 – 32:30
How Artificial Photo-Transduction Shapes The Future Of World Energy
We are in a helicopter viewing the biggest solar panel array in the world, currently under construction in the Moroccan part of the Sahara Desert.
Its design and construction are presented by the engineers in charge that join us in the helicopter as well:
“The project is aimed at maximizing photo-transduction so much, that it will create electricity from solar power with the goal of powering entire countries and eliminate the need for fossil fuels.
Our own retina can be an inspiration for scientists and engineers, but it cannot provide a perfect model to work on.
The future of humanity depends on maximizing our ability of fully utilizing the endless power of the sun, and for that, we need to break the bondages of biology.“
32:30 – 34:00
Introducing Blindness
“The strongest limitation our retinas have is probably the fact that, like everything else in our body, retinal cells get old and sick, and eventually die. When our light-detecting cells are dead, there is no one that can translate the language of light spoken by the stars, to the language of electrical currents, spoken by the brain”.
We are in the Museum for Kids, in Holon, Israel.
We follow the ‘Dialogue in the Darkness’ tour.
We now have night vision capabilities.
The tour is completely in the dark, the participants experience what it is to live life as a blind person.
After the tour the participants share their experiences in the dark.
Museum for Kids, Holon, Israel: We follow the “Dialogue in the Darkness” tour
34:00 – 37:00
Blindness
Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) and Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD), the two most common forms of blindness are presented with animation while pointing to the genetic and molecular causes of these diseases.
In both diseases, the photoreceptors die, and so the process of photo-transduction cannot happen.
In RP, photoreceptor cell death occurs very early in life, while AMD is usually a disease of old age.
As the retinas degenerate through years of disease, vision changes in different ways, until patients become completely blind.
In this part, we explore the works of Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), who suffered from retinal disease due to diabetes, which influenced the way he saw the world, and therefore his paintings.
In Israel we meet with Jewish and Arabic RP and AMD patients at the Center for the Blind. Losing one’s sight is a debilitating and terrible disease, and as such it breaks down the barriers of culture and religion between people, even in the most conflicted part of the world.
Paul Cézanne - La Maison du pendu
Paul Cézanne Les Grandes Baigneuses
37:00 – 40:00
Rewiring The Retina To Cure Blindness (Part 1)
We are in the lab of Prof. Richard Kramer at the University of California, Berkeley (see min. 20:30 – 24:00) dealing with the efforts into developing a drug aimed at curing blindness for RP and AMD patients.
The inventor of the ‘photo-switching’ technology, presents the type of experiments conducted in the lab (using footage and animation).
We now see how the photo-switch molecules work inside the retina to restore vision in blind mice.
“Photo-switches are molecules that have two key properties: they are sensitive to light, and they make the cells in the retina respond to that light. In other words: the wiring of the retina has been changed.
In the ‘Before’ phase, light hits the photoreceptors which communicate to retinal neurons.
In the ‘Now’ phase, photoreceptors are dead, the chemical compound makes the retinal neurons themselves respond to light directly.
Photo-Switching
40:00 – 43:00
Rewiring The Retina To Cure Blindness (Part 2)
We are at the headquarters of Second Sight, a company developing retinal prosthetic devices (Sylmar, CA, USA).
Their approach is different.
We see how instead of a chemical approach to restoring vision in the blind, at Second Sight they develop prosthetic devices.
With animations and footage, we can see that these artificial chips are photo-diodes (min. 27:00 – 29:00, Bell Labs), which are basically tiny solar panels.
They convert the light into electricity in the absence of photoreceptors. Instead of bypassing them, the intraocular prosthetic replaces them.
43:00 – 45:00
Addressing The Future Of Vision Science And Human Sight
We are at the top of a very high building.
"We have shown that the human retina and the optics of the human eye are very limited.
Today, new technologies are arising to eradicate blindness. But, what about a future in which there is no blindness and technologies keep developing?
Will humans want to truly overcome the limitations of their sight by implanting their retinas and lenses with enhancing devices?
Will there be a future in which I, standing on the top of this building, can see as far as the horizon, with amazing resolution and precision, like in Sci-Fi movie?
What if in the future, we are already born with enhanced vision through genetic engineering?"
Two topics are presented using animations and footage:
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The future of devices that are implanted in people to enhance normal vision
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How genetic engineering can create humans with super-vision abilities.
The two topics are being regarded by all the scientists we have met in this episode as they voice their opinions and ideas about the future.
It is here when and where we witness what we can do vis-à-vis enhanced vision, if indeed we had bionic/genetically enhanced eyes.
(This style of having all the participants of an episode voicing their futuristic agenda is used throughout the series)
