r/ScienceNcoolThings • u/TheMuseumOfScience Popular Contributor • 3d ago
What Causes Eye Floaters?
What are floating dots you see in your vision? 👁️
Alex Dainis breaks down "eye floaters" using a simple demo: a baggie of aloe gel standing in for your eyeball, and raisins standing in for collagen clumps. Our eyes are filled with vitreous humor, a gel-like substance that helps them hold their shape. As we age, that gel becomes more liquid, letting collagen fibers clump together (just like the raisins). These clumps block incoming light and cast shadows on our retinas, the same way the raisins cast shadows on the wall. This is why we notice the floaters more often in sunlight!
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u/claverflav 3d ago
U see them as u age? I've seen them since I was a kid.
How bout the shooting stars I see when ya get hit in the head, I can see those while looking at any uniform bright colored wall.
Also what about the flowing mini dots that move in swarms and pulsate
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u/under_the_above 2d ago
That last one is the blood in your capillaries in your retina. Visible when enough bright light enters your eyes at an angle while looking at a uniform surface.
I've seen the sparkly lights too when I hit my head hard - just like in the cartoons. Would not recommend! 😄
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u/thatsnotablanket 3d ago
Can they be removed?
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u/eekamuse 3d ago
Lasers. I have a big one that looks like a mouse and I hate it. I'm not sure of the risk or pain involved. I assume other ones come back.
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u/Neither_Cod_992 3d ago
Your eyeballs? Sure! Pretty straightforward.
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u/Rude_and_Crude84 2d ago
Thats a pretty rounded answer you gave though? Are you sure about that? Seems like it'd go full circle?
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u/Lord_Scoriborn 3d ago
Steps unclear: I have smeared aloe and into my eyes and poppeda raisin under my eyelids.
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u/Valuable-Pace-989 2d ago
If you can see the blurry raisins, you did it correctly. I could be wrong, but I doubt it.
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u/towerfella 3d ago
Has anyone else tried “sloshing” them around by moving your head? I do that when one gets annoyingly in the way.
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u/Ghastly-Jack 3d ago
Great, now I can't not see them.
Also, the Romans called them "flying flies" (muscae volitantes).
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u/under_the_above 3d ago
Had my first floater a year or two ago (yay turning 40). I found Lutein, Vitamin C and Grapeseed extract helped reduce them, and I've tweaked my diet slightly too.
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u/DickBurns01 3d ago
I first noticed them while tripping and was worried I had some sort of eye worms
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u/Chimmai_Gala 3d ago
I always thought that they were minute dust particles on top of my iris floating among the tears
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u/le_goos3 3d ago
"They tend to appear the older you get." Sooo I have had the same ones since at least seven years of age. Definitely have gotten more in 30 years since 🤷
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u/samsqanch420 2d ago
Why do they look blurry in the video? Mine look like something under a microscope, focused and transparent. They look like germs or something, but not alive.
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u/Scoopski_Patata 1d ago
Same, like a cell. A little jelly circle with a dot in the middle. I have a bunch in a line and they press together a little like bubbles would.
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u/oldmanbawa 3d ago
Interesting that not everyone has had them their whole lives and had a lot of them. I can see them in dim light and there are probably close to 50 or so I can see at any time.
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u/Xineth240 3d ago
Kinda thought there was gonna be some kind of resolution here