Essay/Term paper: Seeing the vessels of the retina

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Biography

Seeing the Vessels of the Retina


Have you ever seen a doctor look into a patient's eye with an instrument
called an "ophthalmoscope"? The instrument lights up the inside of the eye and
magnifies the vessels of the retina in the rear of the eye.

This gives the doctor an idea about how healthy you are as he looks at
all the vessels in the back of your eye.

HYPOTHESIS


I wanted to know if a person could see the blood vessels in the back of
their own eye without using the instrument that the doctor uses in the eye exam.

I am really interested in eyes because I have an uncle who got in a car
accident and now he is blind. I hope someday doctors can help all those who
are blind to be able to see.

I guessed that a person could not see the blood vessels in the back of
their own eyes.



EXPERIMENT

My experiment was not about the tiny blood vessels that you can easily
see on the surface of the eye. It's to do with the larger vessels

All I had to do was take a person into a dark room with my flashlight.
I had them cover their left eye and look down at the floor with their right eye.
I held the flashlight up towards the ceiling under their right eye, but they
kept looking at the floor, not the light.

RESULTS

I am writing down what everyone recorded for me. I am first:

JOSH: I could see black blood vessels with orange in the background...it looked
like a lot of dead tree.

BRENDA: The blood vessels resembled jagged lighting bolts or trees in the winter
time.

LAURA: I saw crooked lines that didn't stand still, but kept changing.

DARWIN: The image appeared to be in front of the body and quite enlarged. I
found that it takes practice to see this.

BRYAN: Sometimes your eye gets tired before you can successfully do this, so you
may have to use the other eye or take a rest and try it again.

MATT: I saw black lines that branched out and kept moving. I also saw orange
and red colors along with the black lines.

JOSH (second time): Sometimes if you suddenly change the direction of your eyes
from left to right, you will see very bright blood vessels for just a second.


CONCLUSION:

I found out that you can see the vessels in the back of the eye without
using the doctor's instrument.

I was glad to know that this is possible.