從此不用戴美瞳:激光染色心靈的窗户
If you've always wanted blue eyes, but have brown instead, there might be something you can do to change that. A doctor in Laguna Beach called Stroma Medical says it can use laser technology to change brown eyes to blue — permanently — without damaging vision.
棕色瞳孔的你一直渴望擁有一雙碧藍的眼睛，現在實現夢想的機會來了。來自拉古那海灘的一所醫療機構聲稱可以用激光技術改變瞳孔的顏色，從棕色變為藍色，而且顏色終身不褪，並不會對視覺造成損傷。
Dr. Gregg Homer has been working on the technology for 10 years. Homer says it is possible because even brown-eyed people have blue eyes underneath the brown layer of pigment.
霍姆醫生研究這項技術長達10年，並認為改變瞳孔顏色是有可能實現的，因為在棕色瞳孔的色素層下也有着藍色因子，這就給變換瞳孔顏色創造了條件。
"We use a laser, and it's tuned to a specific frequency to remove the pigment from the surface of the iris," Homer says. The procedure takes about 20 seconds.
霍姆醫生説，“我們用激光技術，把它調到特定的頻率，去除虹膜表面的色素。這一過程會花20秒的時間。”
When laser energy is absorbed by the eye's brown pigment, Homer says the pigment tissue changes and then the body sheds the altered tissue, changing brown eyes to blue within two to three weeks. The brown tissue never regenerates. Homer says tests have shown no signs of tissue damage. He still has another year of research to complete on the procedure.
霍姆醫生認為，當眼睛中的棕色色素吸收了激光的能量之後，色素組織就會產生變化，這些改變了的組織會在人體內擴散，大概需要兩到三週的時間，棕色瞳孔就會變成藍色。改變之後的棕色組織不會再生。霍姆醫生表示，實驗中還沒有顯示出這項技術會對組織產生危害。該項研究還將進行一年才得以完成。
Researchers believe the procedure will be available outside the United States in 18 months, and in the U.S. in three years. It will cost about $5,000. Homer says thousands of people have already emailed him expressing interest.
研究者們認為，在美國本土還需要三年時間來完成研究，而在國外只要一年半就夠了。這項技術花費在5000美元左右。霍姆醫生表示，已經有上千名客户來郵件表示對此技術感興趣了。
"Eyes are the windows to the soul," he says. "A blue eye is not opaque, you can see deeply into it, and a brown eye is very opaque. I think there is something very meaningful about this idea of having open windows to the soul."
霍姆醫生説，“眼睛是心靈的窗户。藍色的眼睛清澈透明，很容易看得透徹，而棕色的眼睛就比較混濁了。我認為改變瞳孔顏色的這個想法很有意義，它可以使我們的心靈之窗更透亮了。”
