The day finally arrived for Dr. Hillary Rono to test a technology that could help blind people see again.
He was so pumped, and rightfully so.
A revolution! GIFs via DiamondJubileeTrust/YouTube.
He only needed his phone to do it.
And let's be real, we all know he was going to bring that with him anyway.
Rono and his team were finally going to put Peek — the Portable Eye Examination Kit — to the test. It's a genius idea that Rono, Dr. Andrew Bastawrous, and many others worked hard to develop.
Peek was developed by Bastawrous, Rono, and many others. It's a smartphone technology that makes eye exams easier, more affordable, and more accessible from anywhere in the world. There are no fancy machines or expensive gear involved. Instead, it's all done through your phone.
Rono had every right to be excited. Especially because the technology worked during the test.
“I thought we'd probably find 4 or 5 people with eye problems," he said. "But to my surprise, we've seen 50 to 100, and all have eye problems."
That was just in one trip to the village. And in every village, Rono used the Peek adapter over the built-in camera on his phone to see high quality images of the eye. Then he was able to determine the overall health of the eye and what steps needed to be taken next for treatment.
The app can help detect cataracts, glaucoma, diabetes, and even signs of malaria.
And it's catching on. In Kenya, where there are only two eye doctors for every one million people, Rono can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that he can reach more people than ever before.
"When I began in the hospital, I was alone with one nurse. We were seeing 15 people in outpatients every day, and that year we operated on only 98," he said in a feature by Duck Rabbit.
"At the moment, we are seeing now 20,000 people treated for avoidable blindness and operating on 2,000 [people] a year."
20,000?!! That's progress. People who live in remote areas, who normally go without health care, are now able to access these services a lot more easily because they're so portable.
And considering that 80% of blindness in the world is preventable and curable, technology like Peek has the potential to change eyesight as we know it.
It's not meant to replace other eye equipment, but rather allow eye care to happen in areas that never used to have it. And it doesn't take a highly skilled person to use the technology, either. You simpy snap the photos and send them through your phone to a trained professional.
You'll probably be hearing about Peek more because it's planned to be released more widely in early 2016. Until then, see more about the incredible impact it's made so far in testing:



A Generation Jones teenager poses in her room.Image via Wikmedia Commons
An office kitchen.via
An angry man eating spaghetti.via 
At least it wasn't Bubbles.
You just know there's a person named Whiskey out there getting a kick out of this. 


An Irish woman went to the doctor for a routine eye exam. She left with bright neon green eyes.
It's not easy seeing green.
Did she get superpowers?
Going to the eye doctor can be a hassle and a pain. It's not just the routine issues and inconveniences that come along when making a doctor appointment, but sometimes the various devices being used to check your eyes' health feel invasive and uncomfortable. But at least at the end of the appointment, most of us don't look like we're turning into The Incredible Hulk. That wasn't the case for one Irish woman.
Photographer Margerita B. Wargola was just going in for a routine eye exam at the hospital but ended up leaving with her eyes a shocking, bright neon green.
At the doctor's office, the nurse practitioner was prepping Wargola for a test with a machine that Wargola had experienced before. Before the test started, Wargola presumed the nurse had dropped some saline into her eyes, as they were feeling dry. After she blinked, everything went yellow.
Wargola and the nurse initially panicked. Neither knew what was going on as Wargola suddenly had yellow vision and radioactive-looking green eyes. After the initial shock, both realized the issue: the nurse forgot to ask Wargola to remove her contact lenses before putting contrast drops in her eyes for the exam. Wargola and the nurse quickly removed the lenses from her eyes and washed them thoroughly with saline. Fortunately, Wargola's eyes were unharmed. Unfortunately, her contacts were permanently stained and she didn't bring a spare pair.
- YouTube youtube.com
Since she has poor vision, Wargola was forced to drive herself home after the eye exam wearing the neon-green contact lenses that make her look like a member of the Green Lantern Corps. She couldn't help but laugh at her predicament and recorded a video explaining it all on social media. Since then, her video has sparked a couple Reddit threads and collected a bunch of comments on Instagram:
“But the REAL question is: do you now have X-Ray vision?”
“You can just say you're a superhero.”
“I would make a few stops on the way home just to freak some people out!”
“I would have lived it up! Grab a coffee, do grocery shopping, walk around a shopping center.”
“This one would pair well with that girl who ate something with turmeric with her invisalign on and walked around Paris smiling at people with seemingly BRIGHT YELLOW TEETH.”
“I would save those for fancy special occasions! WOW!”
“Every time I'd stop I'd turn slowly and stare at the person in the car next to me.”
“Keep them. Tell people what to do. They’ll do your bidding.”
In a follow-up Instagram video, Wargola showed her followers that she was safe at home with normal eyes, showing that the damaged contact lenses were so stained that they turned the saline solution in her contacts case into a bright Gatorade yellow. She wasn't mad at the nurse and, in fact, plans on keeping the lenses to wear on St. Patrick's Day or some other special occasion.
While no harm was done and a good laugh was had, it's still best for doctors, nurses, and patients alike to double-check and ask or tell if contact lenses are being worn before each eye test. If not, there might be more than ultra-green eyes to worry about.