Health & biology · October 2025

PRIMA retinal implant

A 2 mm solar chip under the retina brings back reading vision.

In a 38-patient NEJM trial for macular degeneration, the PRIMA photovoltaic subretinal implant gave 80% of patients a meaningful gain in acuity, averaging 25.5 more letters on the eye chart.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia Source

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 2

Integrated circuit 1958
Silicon solar cell 1954

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

Life expectancy at birth Latest: 73.2 years (2023) Source: Our World in Data