I always kind of assumed that the whole “dry eyes” condition was just something that affected stoners and people who owned more than three cats. Apparently though, and according to the students over at Houston’s Rice University, I’m wrong. Turns out, the condition is actually called Keratoconjunctivitis sicca and science (with the help of Ben Stein) has been trying to combat it for years. While it’s nothing new for an ophthalmologist to diagnose Keratoconjunctivitis sicca in a patient, test data has always been skewed by environmental conditions, like the humidity of where the tests were being conducted, the temperature at the time of testing, whether or not the patient was a Scorpio, etcetera. Well, thank God for ClimaTears, the latest invention to roll out of the lab at Rice University. Using high tech sensors and climate monitors, the ClimaTears are worn just like any pair of regular lab goggles, only these ones eliminate any exterior forces that could influence the conditions inside the goggles, thus making tests much more accurate. So what does this all mean? Basically that doctors can now diagnose Keratoconjunctivitis sicca from inside a volcano, atop a skyscraper or even at a funeral.
Video after the jump from inside the Rice University lab. I hope you combed your hair today, because let me just warn you guys that delicious science students lay ahead:
[via Medgadget]