What are the specks you see floating in the eye?
Floaters are the shadows cast by tiny clumps of a protein called collagen, which forms in the vitreous humour, a jelly-like substance inside the eyes.
The vitreous is mostly made of water and transmits light from the lens near the front of the eye to the retina at the back.
Strands of collagen distort the light’s path, appearing as specks or cobweb like strings in your field of vision. This can occur in young people but becomes increasingly common as we get older and the vitreous humour shrinks and thickens, making it stringier in texture.
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