presbyopia #2
年齢と共に手元の細かいものが見えづらくなるという現象は、チンパンジーにも起こるということが分かりました。
Old age sees bonobo's eyes get in poor shape like humans
KYOTO--Bonobos might not read newspapers, but when our closest cousins become elderly their eyes suffer the same fate as ours, meaning they could be in need of some spectacles.
Scientists have discovered that the bonobo, like us, develop presbyopia, the inability to focus clearly on close-up objects as the eye deteriorates through age.
Bonobos start to succumb to farsightedness at around 40 years old, a group of researchers, including those from the Primate Research Institute at Kyoto University, revealed in a paper published in the American academic journal Current Biology on Nov. 8.
“(The research) shows there’s not much difference in the aging symptoms of the eyes of the human and bonobo,” said team leader Heungjin Ryu, a student taking a doctor’s course at the research institute. “It demonstrates that presbyopia is a natural course of aging and is unrelated to activities such as reading and writing close to the eyes.”
http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201611080053.html
今回取り上げるのはpresbyopiaです。
Oxford dictionaries.com.では“Long-sightedness caused by loss of elasticity of the lens of the eye, occurring typically in middle and old age.”と定義されているように、「老人性の遠視、老眼」であることがわかりました。
接頭語の“presby-“はギリシャ語で「老人」の“presbus”となります。
また、関連語として「遠視」は“hyperopia”、「近視」は“myopia”となります。
これらの単語に共通して語尾にある“opia”のもとである“ops”はギリシャ語で「目、視力」を指すそうです。(flyingbird)
