New glasses help color blindness

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EnChroma Labs founder Don McPherson (a materials scientist) had originally engineered the glasses with surgeons in mind. The lenses contained rare earth iron and absorbed a ton of light to protect surgeons performing laser eye surgery. The boosted absorption also made colors pop more vibrantly, allowing them to more easily distinguish among different tissues during surgery. But the stellar eye protection and vibrant colors meant that many surgeons wanted to wear them outside the operating room. McPherson himself started using them as regular sunglasses. And when a color-blind friend tried them on, he was amazed: He could distinguish orange traffic cones from the grass and pavement around them. He was perceiving color in a way he never had before. Now EnChroma sells the glasses (which have been specifically tailored for color blindness since the accidental discovery) for a few hundred bucks a pop.

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