USNews.com
Contact lenses have come a long way since 1887, when German physiologist Adolf Eugen Fick fashioned two 20-millimeter thick slabs from brown glass, doused them with a sugary solution, and plopped them onto his eyes. While Fick's unwieldy lenses hurt so much he could only bear them for a few hours, today's contact lenses are more comfortable and safer than even 10 years ago and offer new options for people with conditions like presbyopia, the loss of near vision that happens in middle age.