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Wellcome Image Awards 2016 Sight Seeing
06 May 2016

Sight Seeing

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, or so the saying goes. But it probably isn’t a tiny network of caves and tunnels that old romantics are thinking about. This view of the blood vessels at the back of the eye was assembled from laser eye scans that have been digitally cleaned and coloured. The resulting 3D terrain has been artificially illuminated – a bit like the landscape of a video game – and looks inviting to explore. Mapping the eye out in this way is not just for miniature tourism, though. These vessels, from the choroid, supply around 70% of blood circulation to the eye and their damage can lead to blurred vision or even blindness. The technique used here, called optical coherence tomography, is being tested as diagnostic tool for spotting the early signs of retinal diseases and unexpected bumps in the landscape that may be cancerous.

Written by John Ankers

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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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