Welcome to day #20 of my daily learning journal. My goal is to watch one Ted Talk and one cataract surgery each day. In addition, I plan to read one journal article and read/listen to a book chapter, short story or significant work.
Here’s today’s list:

1. Ted Talk = Frederick Balagadde – Bio-lab on a microchip (April 2010)- “Drugs alone can’t stop disease in sub-Saharan Africa: We need diagnostic tools to match. TED Senior Fellow Frederick Balagadde shows how we can multiply the power and availability of an unwieldy, expensive diagnostic lab — by miniaturizing it to the size of a chip.” (ted.com)
“TED Senior Fellow Frederick Balagadde invented the micro-chemostat, a first-of-its-kind, dime-sized piece of transparent plastic that can orchestrate the behavior of living cells.” (ted.com)
This was a “Surprise me!” Ted Talk pick. Excellent 6-minute talk.
2. Cataract Surgery – Uday Devgan MD – The subtleties of cataract surgery – Another superb post by Uday. It’s less than 4 minutes and worth watching many times.

3A. Journal articles. Ocular Toxoplasmosis: A Refresher. Written By: Nikhila Khandwala, MS, and Cagri G. Besirli, MD, PhD. Edited By: Ingrid U. Scott, MD, MPH, and Bennie H. Jeng, MD. This infection of the retina and choroid caused by the intracellular parasite Toxoplasma gondii is the leading cause of posterior uveitis worldwide. EyeNet April 2020
3B. A Case of Corneal Crystals. Written By: Kenneth J. Taubenslag, MD, Daniel Geisler, MD, Alex Mammen, MD, and Jean C. Harwick, MD, FACS
Edited By: Ingrid U. Scott, MD, MPH. EyeNet April 2020
3C. Pictures & Perspectives – Natural Course of Ruptured Retinal Arterial Macroaneurysm: red to white to resolved, count fingers to 20/25 in one year. Kuan-Jen Chen, MD. Ophthalmology Retina, Volume 4, Number 6. (With thanks to the AAO social media team for posting great cases).

4. Book Chapter – Herman Melville – Moby Dick. I love the free podcasts available by LoyalBooks.com. Listened to Chapter 4-16. Starting to review Sparknotes to appreciate the subtleties in the narration.
Ophthalmology colleagues, you may enjoy Melville’s comment in Chapter 1, “Were Niagara but a cataract of sand, would you travel your thousand miles to see it?” (Guttenberg.org)

5. Please check out my July 4th blog post on #FireworksSafety: Fireworks, COVID-19, and the risk of eye injury: 10,000 reasons to leave fireworks to the professionals!
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