Cataract Lens Protein Aggregation & Light Scattering

This simulator visualizes the biophysical mechanism behind cataract formation: crystallin proteins that normally pack the eye lens as small, closely-spaced oligomers coarsen over time into much larger aggregates. Because those aggregates lose the short-range order that lets a healthy lens cancel scattered light through destructive interference, the lens becomes progressively more turbid. Drag the aggregation slider to grow the mean aggregate radius, change the wavelength to see the strong λ⁻⁴ dependence of Rayleigh scattering (and why cataracts often yellow vision), or press Animate to watch the process unfold, while live readouts track aggregate size, transmission and turbidity computed from a Beer–Lambert scattering model.