This year has been incredibly difficult for everyone, especially when it comes to remaining productive and enthusiastic about your work. At least this has been the case for me in 2020, into the beginning of 2021. In 2020, work commitments took up my brain space and made me lose all enthusiasm for my blog, “Crystals and Catalysts” and science writing in general. I would be so exhausted by the weekend, I wouldn’t have the energy to focus on anything else. After speaking to a couple of friends, I felt that I needed to have a clear focus on what I am communicating and who I am communicating to. Thanks to their advice and encouraging words, I am now working on a new project which has a clearer focus and it is something that I enjoy reading and writing about. This doesn’t mean “Crystals and Catalysts” is going anywhere, it’s still my ‘beloved first-born’ but sometimes you need to try something new. So you will be seeing some changes to this account (including the social media handles!) and
A study published earlier this year in The Journals of Gerontology found that staring at a deep red light (of a specific wavelength) for three minutes a day can significantly improve declining eyesight that comes as a result of the ageing process. Over 40, our vision starts to decline and our retina starts to age. Our retina’s photoreceptor cells are rich in mitochondria as they have high energy demands. Subsequently, this results in the retina ageing faster than other organs in the body and losing most of its photoreceptor function over life. To try to prevent or delay this natural phenomenon, Professor Jeffery and his team at University College London (UCL) focused on the sensitivity the retina’s photoreceptors. Photoreceptors are made up of cones which mediate colour vision and rods which provide peripheral vision and adapt vision in low/dim light. They recruited 24 people (12 male, 12 female) aged between 28 and 72 who had no ocular disease. They were all tested for the sensiti