Optical metrology for immersed diffractive multifocal ophthalmic intracorneal lenses

This paper deals with the optical characterization of diffractive multifocal Intra-Corneal Lenses (ICLs) that we have developed in order to correct presbyopia. These diffractive multifocal lenses are made of a very soft material (permeable to oxygen and nutrients), with a thickness smaller than 100 µm and require liquid immersion. As a consequence, most of the conventional metrology methods are unsuited for their characterization. We developed specific setups to measure diffractive efficiencies and Modulation Transfer Function (MTF) adapted to such components. Experimental results are in good agreement with Zemax® simulations. For the best of our knowledge, it is the first time that optical characterization is devoted to the ICLs. Furthermore, most of the IOL’s optical characterizations are focused on far vision MTF and don’t assess the near vision MTF, which we study in this paper

Emergence of light-driven protometabolism on recruitment of a photocatalytic cofactor by a self-replicator

Establishing how life can emerge from inanimate matter is among the grand challenges of contemporary science. Chemical systems that capture life’s essential characteristics—replication, metabolism and compartmentalization—offer a route to understanding this momentous process. The synthesis of life, whether based on canonical biomolecules or fully synthetic molecules, requires the functional integration of these three characteristics. Here we show how a system of fully synthetic self-replicating molecules, on recruiting a cofactor, acquires the ability to transform thiols in its environment into disulfide precursors from which the molecules can replicate. The binding of replicator and cofactor enhances the activity of the latter in oxidizing thiols into disulfides through photoredox catalysis and thereby accelerates replication by increasing the availability of the disulfide precursors. This positive feedback marks the emergence of light-driven protometabolism in a system that bears no resemblance to canonical biochemistry and constitutes a major step towards the highly challenging aim of creating a new and completely synthetic form of life. [Figure not available: see fulltext.]