Oliver Sacks wrote in "The Island of the Colorblind" that he met someone with achromatopsia who could see constellations of stars better than normal? Is that experience confirmed by others?

Sacks explained his theory to explain this phenomenon in an endnote. He noted that people can sometimes see dim stars better if they look slightly away from the star, because then they are using their rods, rather than their foveal cones. Because people with achromatopsia don't have functioning foveal cones, they don't have these foveal cones competing with the rods. In other words, they always fixate with their rods.

I am wondering if Sacks' observation is shared by others, because I don't see it in the literature (other than his book).

The Intellectual and Engineering Journey of Charles Kelman and Anton Banko to Develop Phacoemulsification: Insights Based on Newly Identified Documents.

Topic

The development of phacoemulsification by ophthalmologist Charles Kelman and engineer Anton Banko in the 1960s.

Clinical Relevance

Phacoemulsification is now the dominant technique for cataract surgery. Re-examining its development provides insight into how surgical innovations emerge from interactions between clinicians, engineers, and pre-existing technologies.

Methods

We reviewed primary source materials discovered from 2023 to 2025, including the John A. Hartford Foundation files on Kelman, and a newly discovered Jan. 13, 1966 memorandum from Banko, never previously described in the scholarly literature. We interviewed people who knew Kelman, including coworkers.

Results

Kelman wanted to reduce hospitalization after cataract surgery when he was a resident at Wills Eye Hospital in 1960. At that time, hospitalization was necessary because of the relatively large incisions required. Kelman worked on cryoextraction in 1962, and believed freezing could shrink the lens. Kelman’s research program made use of several ideas for small-incision cataract surgery published by other New Yorkers before his 1967 phacoemulsification report: irrigation and aspiration (IA) with a “two-way syringe”, enzymatic or chemical digestion, and disruption with a wire. The pathway which ultimately became successful was: 1) Kelman first proposed extraction by IA with a “two-way syringe”. 2) During the first half of 1965, Kelman had a dentist working in his lab, and investigated a dental-inspired rotary cutting tool with concentric IA elements for cataract surgery. 3) On July 13, 1965, Kelman met with Banko, and they began a program to add ultrasonic energy, as found in dental scalers, to the cutting tool with IA, using longitudinal vibration to reduce iris disinsertion and a titanium tip to reduce flaking. On Aug. 27, 1965, Kelman first tested an ophthalmic phacoemulsifier.

Conclusion

Kelman was focused on small-incision cataract surgery from early in his career. He pursued multiple approaches in parallel, modified pre-existing technologies (cryoextraction, disruption against a wire mesh, irrigation-aspiration devices, rotary cutting instruments, dental ultrasonic devices), and was successful by 1967.