Chameleon vision from the head, giving the lizard panoramic sight. An eyelid fused to the pupil protects the eyes, leaving only a small part exposed. With a negative (nearsighted or concave) lens and a positive (farsighted or convex) cornea, chameleons use a method of monocular focusing to judge distance called corneal accommodation. Each eye focuses independently, which is achieved by the chameleon eye’s unique anatomy of separated nodal and center points of the eye. Finally, “striated rather than smooth ciliary muscle in sauropsids” allows for rapid focusing. Chameleon eyes feature a negative lens, meaning that the lens is concave. This increases retinal
Compound refractive lens the order of meters, by using many lenses in series. To minimize the absorption the lens must be made from a material such as aluminium, beryllium, or lithium. CRLs were first demonstrated in the mid-1990s by a group of scientists at the ESRF. They drilled holes in an aluminium block, and achieved focusing in two dimensions. For X-rays a concave lens focuses the X-rays because the index of refraction is slightly below unity. In a CRL of this type the walls between the cylindrical holes act as concave lenses for X-rays traveling perpendicular to the axis of the drilled cylinders.