Modern researchers move at amazing speed between myth and reality

BARCELONA — Ioannis Pallikaris, MD, gave the 2009 Binkhorst Medal Lecture, "Super Vision: Myth and Reality," at the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons meeting here.

Ioannis Pallikaris

"I hold the view that only those who have the ability to 'perceive' myths are granted the possibility to discover a new reality - in other words, to become inventors. On the other hand, inventors very often realize that many of their conceived discoveries are a myth. Such seems to be the fate of the modern researcher: to move at an amazing speed between myth and reality," he said.

Looking back at the beginning of his career, Dr. Pallikaris recalled the first timid steps of what was going to become the advanced technology of today. Innovations that are milestones in modern ophthalmology slowly developed from ideas that seemed, in those days, utopian dreams.

On the other hand, quite a few of the objectives and inventions that appeared at some point to be realistic and promising revealed, over time, their transitory nature.

This was the case of what appeared to be the dream of "eagle vision," or 20/10 aberration-free "super vision."

Quoting Heraclitus, Dr. Pallikaris said that "everything flows," nothing stays the same, and what seems real today will no longer be real tomorrow.

The axiom of the scientist should always be Socrates' "I know that I know nothing," he concluded.