Blind as a Bat

This article from People Magazine is over a year old, but a blog I frequent just posted a link to it, so I read it for the first time tonight. It’s a truly amazing story of a boy who uses echolocation, the same technique that bats and dolphins use, to “see”:

Completely blind since the age of 3, after retinal cancer claimed both his eyes (he now wears two prostheses), Ben has learned to perceive and locate objects by making a steady stream of sounds with his tongue, then listening for the echoes as they bounce off the surfaces around him. About as loud as the snapping of fingers, Ben’s clicks tell him what’s ahead: the echoes they produce can be soft (indicating metals), dense (wood) or sharp (glass). Judging by how loud or faint they are, Ben has learned to gauge distances.

On a side note, if I didn’t see his mother’s name printed in such a highly respected journal, I’d think it was just another urban legend: Aquanetta. If I recall correctly, my mom used to spray that stuff in her hair.

This entry was posted in miscellany. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.

3 Responses to Blind as a Bat

  1. Natasha says:

    I have known a girl named Aquanette since she was 8 (in 1990). She’s unforgettable. And, when I met her, she found the name “Heidi” hilarious.

  2. Judy says:

    hey this is really cool
    wonder how he would get by in school though…

  3. Anyone read the DareDevil comic? Same sort of thing…

Leave a Reply to Natasha Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes:
<a href="" title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <s> <strike> <strong> <div align="" class="" dir="" id="" lang="" style="" xml:lang=""> <param name="" value=""> <pre style="" name="" class="" lang="" width="">