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Seeing the Light
21 February 2014

Seeing the Light

In India, many thousands of children are born blind every year. Some of them can now be given the gift of sight through surgery or other treatments – such as the child in these 'before' and 'after' pictures – thanks to the efforts of doctors like those from Project Prakash. Prakash means light in the Indian Sanskrit language, and so far they've helped bring sight to nearly 2,000 children. This has created a unique population of children of differing ages who are all seeing the world for the first time. So as well as providing life-changing treatment, the Project Prakash team are carrying out research aimed at understanding the changes that happen in the brain as children start to see and learn to recognise things. The team hopes to literally shed light on some of the complex processes that underpin vision, and bring a brighter future for India's blind children.

Written by Kat Arney

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BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

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