38 posts · 29,406 views
Optics Confidential is a blog with questions and answers on optical research, with emphasis in Visual, Ophthalmic and Biomedical Optics. The social impact of science and career development of young scientists is also covered.
Pablo Artal
38 posts
Sort by: Latest Post, Most Popular
View by: Condensed, Full
- January 31, 2012
- 06:00 AM
- 95 views
Correcting presbyopia with corneal inlays: ¿reinventing the wheel or the advantages of simplicity?
by Pablo Artal in Optics confidential
A simple method to correct for presbyopia is evaluated...... Read more »
Tabernero, J., Schwarz, C., Fernandez, E., & Artal, P. (2011) Binocular Visual Simulation of a Corneal Inlay to Increase Depth of Focus. Investigative Ophthalmology , 52(8), 5273-5277. DOI: 10.1167/iovs.10-6436
- December 27, 2011
- 11:00 AM
- 159 views
Optics research and the eye in Spain during the XX century: a brief history
by Pablo Artal in Optics confidential
A brief historical account on optical and vision research in Spain in the XX century... Read more »
Marcos, Artal, Santamaría, Aguilar, Plaza. (2006) Research in Physiological Optics in Spain: A historical revision. Opt. Pura Apl. 39 (3) 189-197 . info:/
- November 7, 2011
- 05:30 AM
- 176 views
Evaluating dry eyes
by Pablo Artal in Optics confidential
Dry eye is a condition affecting millions of people. Surprisingly there is a lack of objective methods to evaluate tear film quality. A new optical method is described here, discussing implications and more...... Read more »
Benito, A., Pérez, G., Mirabet, S., Vilaseca, M., Pujol, J., Marín, J., & Artal, P. (2011) Objective optical assessment of tear-film quality dynamics in normal and mildly symptomatic dry eyes. Journal of Cataract , 37(8), 1481-1487. DOI: 10.1016/j.jcrs.2011.03.036
- October 10, 2011
- 08:30 AM
- 205 views
How your eye affects quality of vision?
by Pablo Artal in Optics confidential
Perhaps one of the most interesting topics today in the area of physiological optics is the relationship between the ocular optics and vision. This has been a subject of study for decades, if not centuries, but I elaborate more on my current views of this exciting problem... ... Read more »
Villegas, E., Alcon, E., & Artal, P. (2008) Optical Quality of the Eye in Subjects with Normal and Excellent Visual Acuity. Investigative Ophthalmology , 49(10), 4688-4696. DOI: 10.1167/iovs.08-2316
- August 31, 2011
- 01:34 AM
- 389 views
Advice to become a refined self-plagiarist. (Disclaimer: it is not ethical and will not help your career)
by Pablo Artal in Optics confidential
Some comments on self-plagiarism practices in science that will damage your career... sooner than later... Read more »
Yentis, S. (2010) Another kind of ethics: from corrections to retractions. Anaesthesia, 65(12), 1163-1166. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2044.2010.06557.x
- August 1, 2011
- 11:33 PM
- 372 views
Why to worry about the optics of the eye in the peripheral retina?
by Pablo Artal in Optics confidential
Why is important the optics of the eye in the peripheral retina? How this can be measured fast and with accuracy? Yes, this can be really quite important for the future of how to control myopia development... ... Read more »
Jaeken, B., Lundström, L., & Artal, P. (2011) Fast scanning peripheral wave-front sensor for the human eye. Optics Express, 19(8), 7903. DOI: 10.1364/OE.19.007903
- March 15, 2011
- 12:00 PM
- 529 views
The optics of the eye in older people is not as bad as you would think...
by Pablo Artal in Optics confidential
The eye is an optical instrument made of biological tissues and surprinsingly still working after many years... you may know some reasons.... Read more »
Berrio, E., Tabernero, J., & Artal, P. (2010) Optical aberrations and alignment of the eye with age. Journal of Vision, 10(14), 34-34. DOI: 10.1167/10.14.34
- February 7, 2011
- 01:30 PM
- 422 views
How can I know if I have cataracts and its severity?
by Pablo Artal in Optics confidential
Lear about a new optical method to detect and grade cataract... and more... Read more »
Artal, P., Benito, A., Pérez, G., Alcón, E., De Casas,, Pujol, J., & Marín, J. (2011) An Objective Scatter Index Based on Double-Pass Retinal Images of a Point Source to Classify Cataracts. PLoS ONE, 6(2). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0016823
- December 28, 2010
- 01:00 AM
- 400 views
How a change of gaze affects the eye optics?
by Pablo Artal in Optics confidential
Discover how your change in the direction of gaze can affect the optical properties of the eye... and more.... Read more »
Prado, P., Arines, J., Bará, S., Manzanera, S., Mira-Agudelo, A., & Artal, P. (2009) Changes of ocular aberrations with gaze. Ophthalmic and Physiological Optics, 29(3), 264-271. DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-1313.2009.00652.x
- December 12, 2010
- 02:00 PM
- 389 views
Optics & stereopsis: how 3D vision is affected by retinal image quality?
by Pablo Artal in Optics confidential
Stereo (3D) vision is affected by the quality of the images in the retina. An adaptive optics instrument allows the testing of 3D vision and more...... Read more »
Fernández, E., Prieto, P., & Artal, P. (2010) Adaptive optics binocular visual simulator to study stereopsis in the presence of aberrations. Journal of the Optical Society of America A, 27(11). DOI: 10.1364/JOSAA.27.000A48
- October 8, 2010
- 01:52 PM
- 451 views
Virtual cataract surgery: advanced optics helping surgeons and... patients
by Pablo Artal in Optics confidential
Virtual cataract surgery is a customized optical modeling helping the design of intraocular lenses and improving vision of cataract patients... learn more... Read more »
Tabernero, J. et al. (2006) Predicting the Optical Performance of Eyes Implanted with IOLs to Correct Spherical Aberration. Investigative Ophthalmology , 47(10), 4651-4658. DOI: 10.1167/iovs.06-0444
- August 31, 2010
- 01:51 PM
- 484 views
Seeing double: perhaps is simply optical diplopia
by Pablo Artal in Optics confidential
Changes in the optics of the eye can produce double or even multiple images... a real case is explained as an example and more... ... Read more »
Pérez, G., Abenza, S., De Casas, A., Marín, J., & Artal, P. (2010) Cause of Monocular Diplopia Diagnosed by Combining Double-pass Retinal Image Assessment and Hartmann-Shack Aberrometry. Journal of Refractive Surgery, 26(4), 301-304. DOI: 10.3928/1081597X-20100218-05
- June 30, 2010
- 10:13 AM
- 576 views
The exploration of the eye as an optical instrument: the last 400 years
by Pablo Artal in Optics confidential
A brief summary of how the optics of the eye was explored since Galileo's time. An exciting journey...... Read more »
Artal, P., & Tabernero, J. (2010) Optics of human eye: 400 years of exploration from Galileo’s time. Applied Optics, 49(16). DOI: 10.1364/AO.49.00D123
- April 30, 2010
- 02:00 PM
- 608 views
Why I should pay taxes to fund (basic) science?
by Pablo Artal in Optics confidential
A practical example from ophthalmic optics research to convince readers on the importance of expending money in basic research... and more ... Read more »
Tabernero, J., Benito, A., Alcón, E., & Artal, P. (2007) Mechanism of compensation of aberrations in the human eye. Journal of the Optical Society of America A, 24(10), 3274. DOI: 10.1364/JOSAA.24.003274
- March 12, 2010
- 12:00 PM
- 756 views
The (empirical) rule of 8%
by Pablo Artal in Optics confidential
Some advice on how to deal with students and postdocs...... Read more »
Perez, G., Archer, S., & Artal, P. (2009) Optical Characterization of Bangerter Foils. Investigative Ophthalmology , 51(1), 609-613. DOI: 10.1167/iovs.09-3726
- February 18, 2010
- 07:00 AM
- 713 views
Chromatic aberration of the eye: to correct or not to correct?
by Pablo Artal in Optics confidential
The human eye suffers of a very large chromatic aberration. This means that when a red object is in focus, a blue one at the same distance will be clearly out of focus. Why we are not yet routinely correcting this defect to improve vision? You will find here some new experiments, results and explanations...... Read more »
Artal, P., Manzanera, S., Piers, P., & Weeber, H. (2010) Visual effect of the combined correction of spherical and longitudinal chromatic aberrations. Optics Express, 18(2), 1637. DOI: 10.1364/OE.18.001637
- December 30, 2009
- 06:45 AM
- 726 views
2010, the year when 20/10 vision was promised
by Pablo Artal in Optics confidential
The promise of perfect "20/10" vision for everybody appeared to be a real possibility in the early 2000's. 2010 is already here and your doctor cannot offer you yet supervision...... Read more »
Santamaria, Artal, Bescos. (1987) Determination of the point spread function of human eyes using a hybrid optical-digital method. J.Opt.Soc.Am.A., 1109. info:/
- December 13, 2009
- 04:00 PM
- 645 views
Science and politics... and scientists turned politicians
by Pablo Artal in Optics confidential
Some examples and some advice on scientists becoming politicians...... Read more »
Binocular adaptive optics visual simulator. (2009) Binocular adaptive optics visual simulator. Optics Letters. info:/
- October 31, 2009
- 01:24 PM
- 725 views
My research paper was rejected to be published. What can I do?
by Pablo Artal in Optics confidential
Prof. Artal. I am postdoctoral researcher working in Physics in an east-European country. I published several articles in high impact journals during my PhD thesis. However, the first article I submitted from my new research was rejected by the editor of the journal. I am quite disappointed since I believe the research was good (in fact the best I ever did) and moreover, the reasons for the rejection were not convincing. I feel very depressed and even thinking quiting my research career. If anything I can do? Alexander, Kiev, Ukraine. Research papers, together with conference presentations, are the major outputs in the research activities. After a lot of work, efforts and dedication a paper is typically submitted to a journal to be published. No research is actually completed until is not published and is accessible to the whole scientific community. In addition, careers, grants, reputation and promotions severely depends in the number and quality of the publications… so if a paper is rejected, this is typically a bad thing! and everybody, as Alexander, can feel really miserable. Perhaps Alexander could be relieved to know that every scientist had some rejected paper in his career… so, first of all, this is not the end, but actually something quite normal. You can be even more relieved to know that there are quite well-known and important discoverings that were initially rejected!So, concerning your question, my first advice and recommendation: please RELAX! This will not be the end of your career and this is a normal situation. I think I am in a good position to address Alexander’s question. First, I am a scientist with a long experience dealing with editors and reviewers with my own work. On the other hand, I serve as editor for two international journals, so I have to deal with other scientists and yes... in some occasions I have to reject their papers!You need to recognize honestly the importance of your research, if everything is correct, the degree of novelty, etc… This is something you need to learn from your mentors and do not be shy to ask your colleagues. In many cases reviewers and editors are correct and perhaps you overestimated your own research. If this is the case ask for advice and recognize the situation. Plan more experiments, rewrite the paper or add a new model to complete the paper.In most high quality journals, you will receive at least to reviews and most likely you will be asked to revise the manuscript. It is also common in some journals to have a direct rejection based in the large number of manuscript they receive. This argument is quite subjective and difficult to change, so if this is the case of your rejected paper, perhaps the best option is simply to resubmit it to another journal.Other situation (probably what happened to you) is to have reviews criticizing the manuscript in a way you believe is biased and non correct. If a rejection is made based in these reviews, you should write the editor an appeal letter demonstrating point by point every detail you think was not correct. If you are right, the editor should reconsider the decision and eventually your paper perhaps is sent to different reviewers.It is true, however that in some cases the communication with journals may be quite frustrating for the authors. I can share with you a recent (and bad!!) experience I had. We prepared a manuscript in a topic I believe was quite novel and providing interesting results with potential applications. The paper was sent to a journal. We were asked to revise the manuscript in three occasions with very detailed description of every minor change and long arguments. We also reduced the length of the paper and several figures were modified. In the revision number four and after a year and a half… I received a letter from the editor telling me that the paper was rejected because the priority was low for the journal! You can imagine my reaction… I feel as bad as you now. If that was the case, why they asked to revise the paper three consecutive times… This is in my opinion a bad editorial behavior. A rejection should be done if based in subjective criteria as soon as possible.Of course, it may happen that a paper is rejected after a revision if the authors are not able to answer the reviewer’s comments. One typical mistake from some authors is to perform very minor revisions ignoring some important comments from the reviewers. You always should take very seriously any revision (at the same level of decdication or evenmore than in the initial preparation of the paper). Prepare a letter where every change and every argument is clearly listed. You do not need to do any suggested changes, but you need to address every comment, in that case stating the reason you are not acting on a particular suggestion.What can be even most frustrating is when clearly non-scientific reason seems to be the reason for a rejection. Several years ago, in a study performed in one of my former students PhD thesis (Antonio Guirao), we measured for the first time the change with age of the aberrations of the cornea. We showed that corneal aberrations increase slighly with with age, quite differently as the whole eye and the lens (See picture where blue symbols are amount of corneal aberrations). At the time this was important result to understand the optics of the aging human eye and we presented the results first in a conference. Other group followed our idea very quickly and submitted a paper that was under review at the same time as our own paper. And guess, yes our paper was rejected because the journal already had a similar paper on the topic. We had the idea first; we did the experiment first, but we also had problems to get this published. This happens sometime, and you can feel bad (especially students will feel very, very bad).In any case, our study was finally published in other excellent journal and is widely used and cited since them!http://lo.um.es/publications/PDFs_main/josa_cornea_age_oct00.pdfSo, you never should be too nervous or too anxious concerning papers. In particular, try to be calm when addressing reviewers and editors. Be firm, but not too aggressive. The research will be finally published, but if not I can tell you that every scientist have some pieces of research unpublished... … and an affordable, typical and good Murcian tavern.I received several comments on a previous post where I reported on a couple of good, but expensive, restaurants... My correspondents asked about more affordable and also good options. And here you have one. It is a “classic” tavern in the center of Murcia city. It is usually rather busy but the service is efficient and the tapas selection quite good and inexpensive. It was refurbished recently so the flavor is not as good as in the past, but if you are in Murcia you should visit! Many of the visitors of my lab were there sometime. The name of the place is “Los Toneles” and you can find it in near the hotel "Rincon de Pepe" (Calle Canovas del Castillo, 7, Murcia). Dan Green, now a retired professor from the University of Michigan (a great vision scientist and a good friend) use to be there nearly every day during his visits to my lab in mid 90’s. In the picture below you can see Dan with some of my former students (Ignacio Iglesias, Juanma Bueno, Fernando Vargas) and me at Los Toneles tavern around 1995. A. Guirao, M. Redondo, P. Artal (2000). Optical aberrations of the human cornea as a function of age J. Opt. Soc. Am. A, (17)... Read more »
A. Guirao, M. Redondo, P. Artal. (2000) Optical aberrations of the human cornea as a function of age. J. Opt. Soc. Am. A,, 1697. info:/
- September 29, 2009
- 06:02 AM
- 781 views
How we see? How they see? Simulation of vision in myopia, catract, supervision...
by Pablo Artal in Optics confidential
Short lecture of Pablo Artal, professor of Optics at the University of Murcia in Spain on how different persons see the world. Based in the use of a unique research tool: the adaptive optics visual simulator. Learn how a myopic person sees, or a person with cataract or how a lucky individual with "supervision" can read letters at great distance!... Read more »
E. J. Fernández, S. Manzanera, P. Piers, P. Artal. (2002) Adaptive optics visual simulator. J. Refract. Surg. info:/
topics
join us!
Do you write about peer-reviewed research in your blog? Use ResearchBlogging.org to make it easy for your readers — and others from around the world — to find your serious posts about academic research.
If you don't have a blog, you can still use our site to learn about fascinating developments in cutting-edge research from around the world.
News
Editor's Selections: Programmed cell death in unicellular parasites, a novel gene transfer agent from Baronella, and full-contact herpes gladiatorum
Editor's Selections: Family medical histories, a grave in the Bahamas, medieval malaria, and macaques
Editor's Selections: Blood Tests for Depression, the Axolotl, Dopamine, and The Bachelor
