Dry- eye syndrome affects millions of people around the world. Caused by a decrease in the quantity and quality of tears, it leads to discomfort, dryness, a burning sensation in the eyes and even a loss of sight.
‘Tears of Happiness’ is the brainchild of Dr Vladimir Zubkov, researcher in the Oxford Centre for Collaborative Applied Mathematics (OCCAM), part of Oxford Mathematics. Vlad’s idea was to combine mathematics and art to focus on sufferers of the syndrome. Vlad has spent the last two years working in the field, modelling the syndrome and its potential solutions.
His inspiration was a fine art competition based on the themes of dry-eye syndrome. Over 800 artworks from around the world including Russia, Finland, USA, Argentina, and India have been submitted.
Vlad says: “My collaborator, Professor. Anthony Bron from Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology in Oxford, told me a lot of interesting facts about human tears. For example a child does not produce tears during the first few months of its life. And during childhood we blink several times less that when we are adults. But the fact that amazed me the most is that crying is good for us! Tears are incredibly good for our eyes, something we should be happy about. Above all I hope that my research work will enable us to understand better how to treat dry-eye syndrome and that in particular this competition will shine a light on the issue”.
Details of the competition and some of the entries can be found at http://www.haptears.com/en/idea.html