Why do we have eyelashes? The answer might seem simple: Those thick hairs on the end of our eyelids simply exist to block intruding particles from landing on our eyeballs.
And, in fact, that’s what many scientists have hypothesized. It explains why camels evolved to have long lashes for wandering the dusty desert — and why our house pets, in comparison, have stumpy ones.
But it turns out our eyelashes might also be helpful for something else: keeping the surface of our eyes from drying out. It could lead to a better understanding of why some people suffer from chronically dry eyes and could even help us create better fake lashes.
A study published Wednesday in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface used realistic models of the human eye to understand how lash length makes a difference. A team of chemical engineers from Soochow University in China analyzed evaporation ...
