Why Jules Gonin Achieved His "Audacious Goal Initiative"—and Why He Is a Model for the Present Day.

The journal Science gained national attention in March 2015 with a news feature on the winner of the National Eye Institute’s Audacious Goal Initiative competition. The National Eye Institute’s winning choice was “to regenerate neurons and neural connections in the eye and visual system.” The article, entitled “Second Sight: Eye Transplants Are Science Fiction. A Team of Researchers Wants to Change That,” implies this goal is within reach in the foreseeable future. Rolling back the calendar 100 years, we find in ophthalmology the achievement of another audacious goal. In the early 20th century, the foundations for the modern techniques of cataract surgery, corneal transplant surgery, and treatment of glaucoma and strabismus were in place already, but the idea that a detached retina could be reattached, made to stay in place, and resume its normal function was an audacious notion on a par with any Jules Verne