The average age of a NASA astronaut is 48. At that age, a lot of people don’t see as well as they used to thanks to presbyopia, a condition in which the eye’s lenses become less flexible (making focusing on close objects difficult). Rather than give each presbyopic astronaut two pairs of glasses to take into space, NASA got creative and designed these Superfocus glasses. They act like a regular pair of glasses, the outer layer contains the wearer’s regular prescription – what makes them different is that they have an inner lens containing clear optical fluid – which makes it adjustable. Moving the slider on top of the nose bridge adjusts the focus, from close to infinity.

If you are young and don’t think that these apply to you – remember, old astronauts were young once too.

[Ubergizmo]