Two final-year Physics students at the National University of Lesotho (NUL), ‘Makarabo Mokhethi and Nickiwe Raletšela, have built a special pair of goggles. The goggles help tell if a newborn baby might be sick with a condition called jaundice, just by looking at their eyes. The idea is simple but could make a big difference. The students are supervised by Professor Jonathan Enock.
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Brought to you by NUL Innovation Hub: Where Academia Meets Industry!

Let’s be honest! When most people hear the word “Physics,” they think of difficult numbers, scary equations, and falling apples (if you know a thing or two about Newton). But these two NUL students are using Physics in a way that could literally save babies’ lives in Lesotho. And what they did was actually simple, smart, and practical.

Here’s the deal.

Babies sometimes get jaundice when they’re born. This is when something called bilirubin builds up in their blood. That stuff makes their skin and the white parts of their eyes turn yellow. In light-skinned babies, it’s easy to spot the yellow on their skin. But in Basotho babies, who generally have dark skin, the yellow doesn’t show up on the skin at all.

So how do you tell if a baby has jaundice?

You look at their eyes, specifically, the white part of the eye, called the sclera. If that white part starts looking yellow, it’s a big warning sign. But the problem is, how yellow is too yellow? That’s where things get tricky.

Nickiwe and Mokhethi came up with a clever idea to solve that problem. They created an eye goggle icterometer, a pair of goggles with different yellow colour strips around the edges. The idea is this: you put on the goggles and look at the baby’s eye through a little hole in the middle. Then you compare the colour of the baby’s eye to the yellow strips on the goggles. If the white part of the eye looks close to any of the yellow shades on the goggles, the baby might have jaundice, and they should be taken to a clinic fast.

It sounds simple, right? That’s the beauty of it.

Even cooler, they didn’t just guess the yellow colours. They used actual computer colour codes to make sure the shades of yellow matched the different stages of jaundice. So their goggles aren’t just for fun. They’re based on science.

And it doesn’t end there.

Once someone looks through the goggles and thinks, “Hmm… that eye looks a bit yellow,” they can take a photo of the eye and send it to a computer. Then they use a free software called ImageJ to check the exact colour of the eye in more detail. The computer breaks the image into tiny little parts called pixels and checks how yellow the colour really is, using cool-sounding stuff like RGB and XYZ color spaces (don’t worry, no test on that).

Basically, it gives a second opinion, like a digital friend saying, “Yes, I agree, that eye looks a bit off.”

The students tested their goggles in two main ways. First, they created fake jaundiced eyes using coloured paper to practice. Then they tried the goggles on a real person (with their permission). In both tests, the goggles helped them compare eye colours clearly and confidently.

They also made sure the goggles blocked outside light so the colours wouldn’t get mixed up. That’s why the frame around the eye hole is painted black, to stop reflections from messing up the view. Smart move!

Now, why does this matter?

Well, in places like rural Lesotho, getting to a hospital or clinic isn’t always easy. And checking babies for jaundice usually involves expensive blood tests or equipment that many clinics just don’t have. But with these goggles, even a village health worker—or a trained parent—can check a baby’s eyes on the spot.

If the eyes look yellow, they can take the baby to the clinic right away before the sickness gets worse. That can stop serious problems like brain damage (yes, jaundice can get that bad if not treated).

And the treatment for early jaundice? Sometimes it’s as simple as putting the baby in sunlight or using a special lamp. But if the sickness isn’t caught early, the treatment gets harder, and riskier.

Nickiwe and Mokhethi’s project answers a big need. It helps with UN Sustainable Development Goal 3, which is all about making sure people everywhere, rich or poor, can live healthy lives. That’s especially important in a country like Lesotho, where most people live far from big hospitals.
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Brought to you by NUL Innovation Hub: Where Academia Meets Industry!