Just like a tailored suit, a pair of glasses should be properly fit to the wearer. A proper fitting frame is more flattering, more comfortable, and more effective at helping you see better or keeping the sun out of your eyes. Here’s quick guide to getting the right fit, which is unique for every person depending on your head size, face shape, feature distribution, etc.

Frame Sizing

A frame size is typically noted as: lens width – bridge width – temple width. For example: 51mm – 21mm – 145mm.

The key is finding a size that corresponds to the overall width of your face, while being mindful of the distribution of the physical size of your eyes (lens width) versus the space between them (bridge width).

As a rule, I think sizing should be treated on a case-by-case basis, as it depends largely on your proportions and the style being selected. But as a general guideline, here are some starting points for total width (lens width x2 + bridge width):

• Small/Narrow Face: 125mm – 129mm
• Medium Face: 130mm – 134mm
• Large Face: 135mm – 139mm
• Wide Face: 140mm – 145mm

The Keys to Proper Eyewear Fit

1. The width of the frame should match the width of your face. This means, when looking at you straight on, the glasses should not hang off the side of your face (this would mean the frame is too wide) and we should not be able to see the sides of the temples (this would mean the frame is too narrow).

2. We should be able to see your eyebrows above the frames. At least half of them, preferably a little more than half.

3. Each eyeball should be directly in the center of the lens, from left to right. The distance between the corner of the eye and the edge of lens should be the same on both sides of the eye.

4. Your eye should fill the top half of the lens. The bottom of the eye should roughly touch the vertical midpoint of the lens.

5. The temples should be adjusted to fit around your ears. If you have a problem with glasses sliding down your nose, you need to have the temples bent to keep them in place.

6. The overall frame should be located roughly in the middle of your face. It should provide a nice balance between the top of the face and the bottom of the face. In each of the examples below, notice there is roughly equal distance between the top of the frame and the top of the head, and the bottom of the from and the bottom of the chin.

Fitting Examples

Will has a chiseled jaw, which is complemented nicely by the angular shape of these square lenses. Notice the eyebrow showing above the lens (a little more than half the brow, which is ideal) and his eyes filling up roughly the top half of the lenses. The dark tortoise coloring is a great tone for his fair skin and blond hair.

Sansho is a big guy – 6’4 215 – which means he has a larger head/face and therefore needs a larger frame. He benefits from the larger round lenses. He also has a low nose bridge, which is ideal for keyhole frames like these clear acetates. Again, notice the relative position of the eyebrows, the spacing of the eyes, and the overall proportions of the frame versus his face. 

Alex has a round-ish face shape, but he looks awesome in round glasses. This is why I don’t really believe in the “only one shape of glasses will suit your face shape”. It’s more important that they are in proportion to your size and fit your face properly. Multiple shapes can fit on one face.

Pat is slim with a narrow face. Therefore, he needs a narrower lens width and bridge with. He also benefits from a slighter taller frame, because a narrower face can also be seen as a longer face.

I have a really large head and a oval shaped face. Therefore, I usually wear larger shades and I benefit from a slightly more square shape. I also have a very high nose bridge, which makes it difficult for me to wear frames that don’t have nose pads. I usually bend the nose pads all the way back (toward the lenses), to make room for my high bridge. This allows the glasses to sit lower on my face, exposing a little eyebrow and keeping my eyeballs in the top half of the lenses.

Color Considerations

In addition to finding the proper shape and size for your face, you should also look for a frame (and lens) that compliments your natural coloring – meaning your skin, hair, and the colors you wear most often.

Lens color, as well as lens opacity, also make a big difference. For example, being able to see your eyes through the lenses of a pair of shades is a decidedly different look. In general, I would advise keeping your lenses dark enough that the eyes are barely visible. The majority of my shades are dark grey or brown, with the occasional dark purple or green, and a couple with gradient lenses which are a little more “fashion-y”. I never really got into the colored or reflective lenses, they both always seemed a little cheesy.

Final Note

Lastly, if you’re in the market for a new pair of shades for the upcoming Spring season, I would advice you to shop local and try-on as many frames as possible before deciding on one. Bring a friend who’s opinion you trust. Don’t buy a style just because it looks cool on someone else; chances are their face shape is much different. The proper fit for your face is key.

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Persol’s new collection of vintage-inspired frames taps into the aesthetics of typewriters, with each design bearing details that recall the revolutionary machine.

Named the Persol Typewriter Edition, the new line from the Italian eyewear company consists of four styles: two pairs of opticals ($310 each) and two pairs of sunglasses ($360 each).

The bridge of each acetate frame is outfitted with metal rivets that replicate the edging on traditional typing keys.

Every frame’s interior stem is branded with the collection’s name in the iconic, boxy American Typewriter font, and delicate fanlike engravings on the feet of the frame stems emulate the machine’s thin, metal typing bars.

All of the frames have rounded profiles, with the PO3109V opticals and PO3110S sunglasses sporting a slightly bolder silhouette with squared-off edges. Each lightweight frame stem is made from Persol’s nylon Meflecto cylinders, first developed in the 1930s to create frames that have more flexibility. Each model is available in beige, grey, or brown.

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An optometrist from British Columbia believes he’s invented the holy grail of corrective lenses: A device that lets you see “three times better than 20/20 vision” without wearing any contacts or glasses at all — for an entire lifetime.

Dr. Garth Webb is the founder and CEO of Ocumetics Technology Corp, a company dedicated to eliminating glasses and contact lenses forever. Webb and his team of visual scientists have invented the “Ocumetics Bionic Lens,” which is the product of eight years of research and $3 million in funding, plus a load of internationally filed patents, according to the Canadian Press.

The Ocumetics Bionic Lens looks like a small button, but Webb believes it has the power to revolutionize eye care as we know it. 

“Perfect eyesight should be a human right,” Webb told CBC News.

According to Ocumetics’ website, the Bionic Lens is implanted in your eye during an eight-minute “painless procedure.” The operation is reportedly similar to cataract surgery, where the lens inside your eye is removed and replaced with an artificial lens. It’s an outpatient procedure that doesn’t require any anesthesia or an overnight stay.

The bionic lens is actually folded like a taco and placed in the eye using a syringe filled with a saline solution. Then, in about 10 seconds, the bionic lens unravels over your eye by itself and your sight is “immediately corrected.” 

“If you can just barely see the clock at 10 feet, when you get the Bionic Lens, you can see the clock at 30 feet away,” Webb said.

Webb says his bionic lenses give you vision that’s three times better than 20/20 vision, as measured by the Snellen chart for visual acuity. We’ve reached out to Webb to learn more about the visual improvements with regards to accuracy and range. 

It's still unclear how the technology actually works, but Webb says the Bionic Lens is perfectly safe, and it won’t cause any biophysical changes within the eye. 

This has other benefits, too. Anyone who gets this bionic lens surgically implanted would never get cataracts, since the eye’s natural lenses, which are prone to decay, would have been replaced with these artificial ones. And this is much safer than laser surgery, which involves burning away healthy corneal tissue and also results in other complications, like problems with glare and trouble driving at night. Webb’s solution has none of these issues; the quality of your vision will always be perfect, and it will not deteriorate over time.

Webb showed off his bionic lens to 14 top ophthalmologists in mid-April during an annual conference dedicated to cataracts and refractive surgery. He said the surgeons were impressed, and some will assist in future clinical trials.

The bionic lens will first be tested on animals and then blind human eyes before Webb seeks regulatory approval in Canada and other various countries. 

The first Ocumetics Bionic Lens could be available as soon as 2017, but it will only be an option for people over the age of 25 since eye structures aren’t fully formed until that age.

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Ever wonder what it's like to feel an entirely new sensation for the very first time? Those lucky enough to have all five senses have never experienced such a thing, but technology is slowly helping out others.

Take, for example, this YouTube video published last month, which shows a man named Ethan — who’s been colorblind for his entire life — seeing colors for the first time.

Of course, Colorblindness does not make everything black and white. Instead, it makes some colors duller and others impossible to see. For instance, as Ethan explains in the video, green sometimes looks like brown, and pink can look like silver.

But a company called EnChroma makes a pair of glasses that make it possible for colorblind people to see the colors they were unable to experience before. The glasses work by blocking out some of the light that’s being reflected into the glasses, which forces the eyes to respond to whatever is in front of them in a different way.

According to the video's narration, Ethan’s friend put the glasses on his face without explaining what they do. Ethan looked around, unsure what was happening.

Ethan starts to look around, trying to understand what’s going on. He takes them off and puts them back on.

Then it all starts to come together.

Ethan sees the real color of leaves for the very first time.

Most amazing to him is the purple top to a container of wet wipes. "Is that purple?" he asks. According to Ethan he "couldn’t comprehend" what he was seeing.

After going outside he proclaims "This is overwhelming."

The entire video is a trip to watch. It also shows how amazing some everyday experiences that we often take for granted truly are.

Some EnChroma users are reportedly able to still see color once they take the glasses off. Just watching Ethan have such an intense reaction shows the importance of perception.

You can view the whole YouTube video below.

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What if you didn’t know the color of your daughter’s eyes? Or – on a less emotional note – that your pants clashed tragically with your shirt? Thousands of people have that problem every day – they’re color blind. Today, EnChroma announced a partnership with Frameri to bring color into people’s lives.

Imagine seeing color for the first time after living a life with dull or jumbled colors. The most common color blindness, or Color Vision Deficiency makes greens and reds look the same, and about one in 12 men are affected. With EnChroma lenses Christmas will never look monochrome again.

Color blindness is caused by an increased spectral overlap of the red and green photopigments (the light absorbing molecules in the retinal cone cells of the eye), and is usually genetic. One class of photopigments (or cones) handles mostly green light (M-cones), another mostly red (L-cones), and another mostly blue (S-cones). In a person with red-green color blindness, one class is out of sync with the others, absorbing too much of another class’s light. EnChroma’s lenses work by filtering class or cone signals with a multi-notch filter, separating the overlapping signals.

This works for the vast majority of color-blindness cases. Some people are 100 percent color-blind, in which case there’s no way to differentiate colors from one another by filtering them through an external lens. But for more than 80 percent of color-blind people — those who have otherwise healthy eyes and normally-wired brains for color processing – EnChroma lenses can correct the way light is received, which is the core of the problem. The lenses even enhance colors for people who aren’t color blind.

EnChroma is the child of Dr. Don McPherson, the company’s Chief Science Officer. While working on a lens for laser eye-surgery protection, he noticed certain changes in color appearance resulted from lens formulas he invented. After a NIH research study and clinical trials showed that these filters could help the color blind, Dr. McPherson teamed up with Andy Schmeder out of Berkeley. With Schmeder’s mathematics, perceptual-psychology, and computer-modeling expertise combined with McPherson’s glass-science experience, they set out to change how people see the world. About 10 years of research and development later, EnChroma came into its own.

There have been other corrective options for the color blind dating back to rudimentary lenses with different tints in the 1850s, but EnChroma is far more advanced. Still, at a glance, they look the same as any pair of dark sunglasses. There are three versions of EnChroma CX (color-correction) lenses: the standard sunglass (CX-14), the medium lens (CX-25), and the indoor, night-time, or computer lenses (CX-65). The CX-65 has a little bit of a bluish tint and doesn’t work as well with Protan sight deficiencies (difficulties seeing red), but the others are indistinguishable from regular lenses at a glance. It’s only when you put them on that you notice the difference.

That’s where Frameri comes in. Frameri, a young company that launched in 2014, makes beautiful boutique frames with interchangeable lenses. They’re constructed from a Mazzucchelli cellulose acetate (a natural plastic), made in Italy. This means they have way more give than standard plastic glasses and can hold their shape. Check out the video below to see them in action.

At the moment there are four collections: Aerial, Tidal, Terra, and the newly released Prose. Lenses are interchangeable within each frame collections. Even if you’re not color blind, Frameri’s ability to swap lenses is pretty darn cool. You can change from sunglasses to indoor glasses without the fade, and without mimicking Dwayne Wade’s hilarious nod to Dwayne Wayne.

A pair of Frameri glasses with one set of non-prescription EnChroma lenses starts at $425; it’s $625 and $725 for two or three lens sets respectively, plus $100 for a set of Frameri frames. That’s a small price to pay for quite literally seeing the world in a whole new light.

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Today, more than half the US population wears glasses. 

But just about everyone, including psychologists, agrees that four-eyed dweebs look smarter and more qualified for jobs than people who don't wear glasses. 

There's a historical explanation for the stereotype: Glasses signaled that you needed your eyesight more than other people.

For several hundred years after they were invented in 1296, glasses were reviled because they revealed a key weakness in the wearer's biology, says Neil Handley,curator of the British Optical Association Museum at the College of Optometrists.

Back in the day, if you had glasses it was because you were counted among a select few whose jobs required the ability to see fine details.

If you worked in a field or a factory, glasses did nothing for you. But if you were a doctor, banker, teacher, or worker in one of those new-fangled offices that came on the scene in the 1700s, those fine details likely made up the bulk of your work.

You can see glasses being equated with smarts all the way back in the 17th century.

One piece in particular — a portrait of a Venetian man completed sometime around 1610-1620 — is believed to be one of the earliest commissioned portraits to feature spectacles, Handley explained in a 2012 lecture.

We don't know who he is, but he "would have been known at the time," and thus could have decided not to pose with his glasses.

"Gone is the fear of what the eyewear might negatively imply," Handley says. "His only fear seems to be that the glasses might fall off and his hands are outstretched as if to catch them. To this man the spectacles might perhaps signify intelligence, literacy, and social standing." 

That significance stuck around for the next couple hundred years.

But then things changed.

As Kerry Segrave explains in "Vision Aids in America: A Social History of Eyewear and Sight Correction Since 1900," eyesight became formally important in 1908, when the first legislation emerged requiring states to offer optometry services. By the mid-1950s, eyeglasses advertisements were no longer selling to "customers," but "patients." 

Glasses had become a way for the masses to correct their eyesight, rather than a tool to make high-minded work easier.

Not that social norms, moving at the glacial pace they do, ever caught on. People still think glasses make you look smarter because an old truth gradually shed its accuracy and left only the husk — in the form of a favorable stereotype — behind. 

Since then, research has found even the kind of glasses matters: Thick, blocky frames make you look smarter than thin ones. 

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For the 2 to 3 percent of children with amblyopia, or lazy eye, treatment options aren’t great.

Since the characteristic poor vision is usually a result of weakened signals from the eye to the brain, kids have to wear patches for several hours per day or take drops to strengthen the weaker eye.

That can stress kids out or alienate them from their peers—as one organization’s web site notes, “Patching during school hours gives the class an opportunity to learn valuable lessons about accepting differences between children.”

The children wearing the patches would probably disagree; many of them refuse treatment.

That’s why researchers have developed high-tech glasses, called Amblyz, which can be programmed to treat lazy eye. The results of the first clinical trial assessing their efficacy were presented this week at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

Amblyz works because its lenses contain programmable LCDs.

If a doctor suggested that a child wear a patch for two hours per day, for example, the lens over the lazy eye would go dark for a few seconds out of every 30 seconds during that time, effectively working as a patch.

And since children with amblyopia often have other vision problems such as astigmatism or nearsightedness, Amblyz corrects their vision when not occluding it.

In the study, researchers compared the efficacy of Amblyz versus traditional patching on 33 children ages three to eight with moderate amblyopia.

Over the course of three months, one group wore the patch for two hours per day, while the other wore Amblyz for four hours per day. At the end of the trial, both groups showed similar improvement—no matter which treatment they received, the children were able to see an average of two more lines on a reading chart.

Amblyz isn’t the only project seeking creative solutions to treating lazy eye—in recent years several teams of researchers have createdvideo games that claim to strengthen the lazy eye.

Amblyz is different, however, because the Food and Drug Administration has approved it as a medical device. At $450 per pair, however, Amblyz may not be a financial possibility for most families. Those children might have to make do with a traditional patch until something more affordable comes along.

This article was written by Alexandra Ossola from Popular Science and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.

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Some people are indeed born smarter than others — it's genetics. 

But that doesn't mean you can't appear to look more intelligent.

In fact, there are plenty of science-backed ways to convince others that you're a modern-day Einstein.

We rounded up 12 of them, so you can impress everyone from your beau to your boss with your seeming brainpower.

SEE ALSO: 9 everyday behaviors that make you look dumber than you really are

Don't hold a beer.

People often do idiotic things after they've had too many drinks. 

No wonder that even holding a beer can make you look less intelligent, according to a joint study by the University of Michigan and University of Pennsylvania.

"People who hold an alcoholic beverage are perceived to be less intelligent than those who do not, a mistake we term the imbibing idiot bias," write authors Scott Rick and Maurice Schweitzer. 

In one of five experiments the researchers conducted, 300 managers saw photographs and read transcripts from a hypothetical dinner interview. Results showed that the managers perceived the candidates who ordered wine instead of soda as significantly less intelligent and less hirable. 

Walk at the same speed as everybody else.

A study led by Boston University marketing professor Carey Morewedge found that if you walk faster — or slower — than the people around you, they might think you're stupid.

For the study, 49 undergrads watched films of three different people walking at either slower-than-average, average, or faster-than-average speed. Then they indicated how competent and intelligent that person appeared.

Results showed that people were perceived as smarter and more competent when they moved at the same speed as everyone else.

Put on thick glasses.

Research suggests that if you're wearing glasses, you'll appear less attractive but more intelligent. 

In one small study, researchers at the University of Vienna had 76 participants look at 78 images of faces — some without glasses, some with full-rim glasses, and some with rimless glasses — and rate them on a number of traits, including intelligence and attractiveness.

According to the researchers' findings, people wearing glasses (rimless or with rims) were rated as more intelligent than people without glasses. Yet those without glasses were seen as more attractive than those with full-rim spectacles.

Go hipster, look smart.

Some people are smarter than others — intelligence, scientists believe, is the result of a combination of complex factors, including everything from our genetics to the environments in which we grow up.

But that doesn't mean anyone can't appear to look more intelligent than they actually may be.

In fact, there are plenty of science-backed ways to convince others that you're a modern-day Einstein as soon as you meet them.

We rounded up 15 of them so you can impress your boss and buddies with your seeming brainpower.

SEE ALSO: 9 everyday behaviors that make you look dumber than you really are

Walk at the same speed as everybody else.

A study led by Boston University marketing professor Carey Morewedge found that if you walk faster — or slower — than the people around you, they might think you're stupid.

For the study, 49 undergrads watched films of three different people walking at either slower-than-average, average, or faster-than-average speed. Then they indicated how competent and intelligent that person appeared.

Results showed that people were perceived as smarter and more competent when they moved at the same speed as everyone else.

Put on thick glasses.

Research suggests that if you're wearing glasses, you'll appear less attractive but more intelligent.

In one small study, researchers at the University of Vienna had 76 participants look at 78 images of faces — some without glasses, some with full-rim glasses, and some with rimless glasses — and rate them on a number of traits, including intelligence and attractiveness.

According to the researchers' findings, people wearing glasses — rimless or with rims — were rated as more intelligent than people without glasses. Yet those without glasses were seen as more attractive than those with full-rim spectacles.

Go hipster, look smart.

If you're going to hold something, make it something other than a beer.

People often do idiotic things after they've had too many drinks.

No wonder that even holding a beer can make you look less intelligent, according to a joint study by the Universities of Michigan and Pennsylvania.

"People who hold an alcoholic beverage are perceived to be less intelligent than those who do not, a mistake we term the imbibing idiot bias," write authors Scott Rick and Maurice Schweitzer.

In one of five experiments the researchers conducted, 300 managers saw photographs and read transcripts from a hypothetical dinner interview. Results showed that the managers perceived the candidates who ordered wine instead of soda as significantly less intelligent and less hirable.

A family near Seattle, Washington, filmed the priceless reaction of a baby seeing his mother for the first time. Baby Leopold, who has a type of albinism that impairs his vision, got outfitted with a pair of glasses and smiled when he saw his mom's face.

Story and editing by A.C. Fowler

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The Insider Picks team writes about stuff we think you'll like. Business Insider has affiliate partnerships so we may get a share of the revenue from your purchase.

Human beings are now spending more time than ever before staring into the abyss of bright screens. Many of us (myself included) work 8-9 hour days, looking at a computer screen for about 90% of that time. We are a far cry away from our mothers telling us not to sit too close to the television, because it’s bad for our eyes; we now put almost no thought into sitting inches from a screen for hours on end.

But here’s the thing: Mom was right. Spending too much time looking at your computer can be damaging to your eyes, both in the longterm and the short. Blue light at the far end of the color spectrum is harmful to our retinas when exposed over long periods of time. Additionally, it can lead to poor sleep by disrupting with the circadian rhythm of your sleep cycle.

Felix Gray is a company that aims to ease the eyestrain of computer users everywhere. They’ve developed a line of fashionable glasses with lenses that increase magnification, reduce glare, and filter out blue light to keep your eyes comfortable, even when you have to spend an extended amount of time staring at your screen.

According to their data, 43% of American jobs require prolonged computer use. The entirety of the Insider Picks team falls into that category, so we all decided to try them out and pass along our thoughts. Personally, I really enjoy my pair of Felix Gray’s (I got the Nash frames in Whiskey Tortoise). The magnification and glare reduction are substantial enough to be immediately noticeable, and as an avid user of f.lux, I appreciated the fact that they reduced strain without destroying the color of what was onscreen.

One of the benefits I hadn’t planned on was that they really helped with my focus. I spend a lot of leisure time on the Internet in addition to the time I put in at work. Sometimes, it’s easy for my mind to wander to more entertaining things than the work I should be doing. As I do not wear glasses in my day-to-day life, putting on my pair set me into “work mode” in a sense; I was more consistently engaged with the work that needed to get done.

Besides me, our whole team had varying thoughts on their pairs of Felix Gray glasses. They come in three frame styles — Nash, Turing, and Faraday — and there are three color options for each frame. If you want to splurge for the lenses that filter out blue light — which I highly recommend — each pair retail for $95.

The rest of the Insider Picks crew had their own thoughts on their time trying out the glasses, which you can read below.

Tester #1: Breton Fischetti, senior director, commerce:

I already wear glasses, so I had to put in contacts to test these glasses. I'm used to the feeling of glasses on my face, so no adjustments for me there. I really enjoyed the slight zoom on the lenses, it made reading the computer just that little bit easier to read. I've never enjoyed messing around with the font size on my monitor because it A. makes me feel old and B. decreases the number of windows I can have open. This was a nice balance.

As for how my eyes felt, I often leave work and notice that my vision is blurrier in the evening than it is in the morning. I don't get that when using these glasses for most of the day. I still need to take breaks from my screen, but overall felt less eye strain on days where I used them and have an easier time reading the signs at night when leaving work.

Tester #2: Jeff Dunn, commerce reporter, tech:

Not too much I can complain about here. They function similarly to the "gamer glasses" you might throw on after a long day of League of Legends, just with less "gamer." They're better looking, and they let in less glare, which made my eyes hurt less, particularly toward the end of a 9-hour workday. It wasn't super dramatic, but there's a tangible difference, as expected. I agree with Breton that the slight text boost was great. I didn't want to wear them for 9 hours straight, but I think that's more a function of me not wearing glasses normally than the FGs being uncomfortable.

The $75 ($95 if you go with the stronger blue light filter) isn't what I'd call cheap, so you're kind of paying for the look here. Whether or not you need something like this in the first place is dependent on your work habits — they're very useful for someone who has to stare at a monitor for 50 hours a week like I do, but if you aren't as dependent, you should still see if taking extra breaks, following the 20-20-20 rule, etc. is enough. If it's not, though, and you want something that still looks accessible, these seem like a good bet.

Tester #3: Ellen Hoffman, commerce editor:

I wear contacts every day; I only wear my glasses around the house. So, to be honest, I wasn't all that interested in wearing computer glasses at work. 

That said, staring at a computer screen for 40-plus hours a week does take a big toll on my eyes. So I figured it couldn't hurt to try them out and see what I was maybe missing. After wearing them on and off for the past few weeks — I'm still not used to wearing glasses for extended periods of time — I'm happy to report that my eyes don't feel nearly as stressed. The glasses let in much less screen glare, and the slight zoom was helpful, as Jeff and Breton already noted.

For the fashion-conscious shopper, they look like something you'd find at Warby Parker. All of their optical benefits aside, this might be reason enough for some of you to take the plunge on them. It definitely made me more open to the idea of wearing computer glasses around the office. 

Felix Gray's computer glasses retail for $75-$95. Have a further look at the company's website, if you're interested in purchasing a pair for yourself.

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Join the conversation about this story »

Some people are indeed born smarter than others — it's genetics. 

But that doesn't mean you can't appear to look more intelligent.

In fact, there are plenty of science-backed ways to convince others that you're a modern-day Einstein.

We rounded up 12 of them, so you can impress everyone from your beau to your boss with your seeming brainpower.

SEE ALSO: 9 everyday behaviors that make you look dumber than you really are

Don't hold a beer.

People often do idiotic things after they've had too many drinks. 

No wonder that even holding a beer can make you look less intelligent, according to a joint study by the University of Michigan and University of Pennsylvania.

"People who hold an alcoholic beverage are perceived to be less intelligent than those who do not, a mistake we term the imbibing idiot bias," write authors Scott Rick and Maurice Schweitzer. 

In one of five experiments the researchers conducted, 300 managers saw photographs and read transcripts from a hypothetical dinner interview. Results showed that the managers perceived the candidates who ordered wine instead of soda as significantly less intelligent and less hirable. 

Walk at the same speed as everybody else.

A study led by Boston University marketing professor Carey Morewedge found that if you walk faster — or slower — than the people around you, they might think you're stupid.

For the study, 49 undergrads watched films of three different people walking at either slower-than-average, average, or faster-than-average speed. Then they indicated how competent and intelligent that person appeared.

Results showed that people were perceived as smarter and more competent when they moved at the same speed as everyone else.

Put on thick glasses.

Research suggests that if you're wearing glasses, you'll appear less attractive but more intelligent. 

In one small study, researchers at the University of Vienna had 76 participants look at 78 images of faces — some without glasses, some with full-rim glasses, and some with rimless glasses — and rate them on a number of traits, including intelligence and attractiveness.

According to the researchers' findings, people wearing glasses (rimless or with rims) were rated as more intelligent than people without glasses. Yet those without glasses were seen as more attractive than those with full-rim spectacles.

Go hipster, look smart.

If you've never worn glasses before, then it's tough to know if you should be wearing them. Symptoms can include blurriness, a veil over your vision, or spots in your eyes.

But there are hidden dangers that have no symptoms that you should definitely be concerned about.

Produced by Rob Ludacer. Camera by Darren Weaver.

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Are carrots really helpful for your eyesight? Will reading in the dark seriously damage your eyes, or was that just a lie your parents told you to go to bed? These mysteries and more, including how the 'medicine' gets into your glasses, will be promptly confirmed or busted by our favorite ophthalmologist Mythbuster, NYU's Dr. Joel Schuman.

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Everyone wants to look cool in sunglasses, but not everyone knows exactly how.

There's lots of confusing information out there about face shapes and sunglasses, so we've distilled it down to the 6 most common face shapes you'll see on men. Almost every guy fits one of these shapes, so figuring out which one is most like yours should be easy with the help of this graphic.

You'll be well on your way to getting a pair of shades that fit your face and that you won't be embarrassed to wear. We recommend doing it before summer escapes.

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Some people are smarter than others — intelligence, scientists believe, is the result of a combination of complex factors, including everything from our genetics to the environments in which we grow up.

But that doesn't mean anyone can't appear to look more intelligent than they actually may be.

In fact, there are plenty of science-backed ways to convince others that you're a modern-day Einstein as soon as you meet them.

We rounded up 15 of them so you can impress your boss and buddies with your seeming brainpower.

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Walk at the same speed as everybody else.

A study led by Boston University marketing professor Carey Morewedge found that if you walk faster — or slower — than the people around you, they might think you're stupid.

For the study, 49 undergrads watched films of three different people walking at either slower-than-average, average, or faster-than-average speed. Then they indicated how competent and intelligent that person appeared.

Results showed that people were perceived as smarter and more competent when they moved at the same speed as everyone else.

Put on thick glasses.

Research suggests that if you're wearing glasses, you'll appear less attractive but more intelligent.

In one small study, researchers at the University of Vienna had 76 participants look at 78 images of faces — some without glasses, some with full-rim glasses, and some with rimless glasses — and rate them on a number of traits, including intelligence and attractiveness.

According to the researchers' findings, people wearing glasses — rimless or with rims — were rated as more intelligent than people without glasses. Yet those without glasses were seen as more attractive than those with full-rim spectacles.

Go hipster, look smart.

If you're going to hold something, make it something other than a beer.

People often do idiotic things after they've had too many drinks.

No wonder that even holding a beer can make you look less intelligent, according to a joint study by the Universities of Michigan and Pennsylvania.

"People who hold an alcoholic beverage are perceived to be less intelligent than those who do not, a mistake we term the imbibing idiot bias," write authors Scott Rick and Maurice Schweitzer.

In one of five experiments the researchers conducted, 300 managers saw photographs and read transcripts from a hypothetical dinner interview. Results showed that the managers perceived the candidates who ordered wine instead of soda as significantly less intelligent and less hirable.

A major Chinese health research center recently published a white paper on the country's visual health.

The findings weren't great.

According to a recent Nomura research report, the main two takeaways from the paper, from Peking University's China Center for Health Development, were that the prevalence of visual problems in China is far above the global average and that the problem is quickly getting worse.

In 2012, about 500 million people in China had an uncorrected visual defect. Of those, 450 million had myopia, or nearsightedness. That's about a third of the country's population. And the report forecasts that barring policy interventions, about 700 million people, or roughly half of the population, will have myopia by 2020.

In Taiwan, the situation is even worse. More than half the country's population, about 11.5 million people, are nearsighted.

Nearsightedness is especially prevalent among teenagers. Forty-seven percent of China's population ages 6 to 15, and 55% of those ages 16 to 25, are suffering from myopia.

According to the Nomura report, an academic study from the Australian National University estimated that the prevalence of myopia in 20-year-olds had reached 80% in developed Asia, including Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and South Korea. In the US and Europe the rate is closer to 50%, which is still twice what it was 50 years ago.

Nomura suggests that some factors contributing to this crisis are the urbanization, sedentary lifestyle, and prevalence of smartphones that have taken over China in recent years. The white paper cited the "intensity of near-range work and the decreasing intensity of outdoor activities, due to aggravating academic pressures and extensive use of electronic devices" as the main causes.

Smartphone penetration has been increasing in recent years, and when you combine the increased screen time with decreasing time spent outside, the eye strain and damage has serious consequences.

China's eyesight problem is also having economic effects. The Peking University report estimated that the total economic burden caused by visual defects was 682 billion to 691 billion yuan — 1.3% of the country's gross domestic product — in large part because of reduced labor participation.

The market for glasses and contact lenses has been booming. According to the Nomura report, Euromonitor estimates that global sales of eyewear will reach $121 billion this year and $136 billion by 2021.

The global contact lens market has also grown from $6.1 billion in 2010 to $7.4 billion in 2015, and it could reach $9.3 billion by 2019, according to figures from Contact Lens Spectrum cited by Nomura.

The US is the largest market, accounting for 43% of total sales value. Mainland China's market for contacts is a little less than 10% of that, but it has been growing at a pace that is outpacing global growth, with contact lens import growth growing 34% over the past year.

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If you find yourself following spots in your vision, there's no reason to worry. Here's the real reason we get them, when it happens and what to look out for.

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When people ask me why I don't wear contacts, I typically come up with some excuse to avoid admitting the truth: Sticking a plastic device directly on the fragile mucous membrane surrounding my cornea terrifies me.

But it does, and it's the reason I've always felt A-OK just wearing glasses.

A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention makes me feel a little justified in my fear of contacts, despite the fact that they're largely safe and effective — at least when worn correctly.

The report builds on previous findings from 2014, when the CDC found that more than 99% of the contact lens wearers they surveyed reported at least one behavior that put them at risk for an eye infection. Forty-one million Americans don't share my fear, opting to use contacts on the regular.

According to the new study, which looked at 1,075 reported infections related to wearing contacts, many of these infections can lead to long-lasting damage. On the bright side, they're typically preventable.

Here are the main findings:

About 1 in 5 reports included someone who'd had a scarred cornea, needed a corneal transplant, or had reduced vision.

Roughly 20% of the reported infections included someone who'd had severe problems with their cornea, the eye's clear front dome. The cornea plays a key role in clear vision and has a remarkable capacity to recover from most minor nicks. But an infection — like the ones described in the CDC's report — can damage the cornea's deeper layers, making it tough to completely heal.

In some cases, corneal damage can also cause scarring, which can distort your vision. When the scarring is severe, you may need a corneal transplant, which involves swapping part of your cornea with tissue from a donor.

More than 1 in 4 reports mentioned contact lens habits that are known to increase the chance of getting an infection.

While these problems sound severe, most of them are potentially preventable. For example, the report found that many users reported sleeping in their contact lenses when not prescribed and wearing lenses for longer than the prescribed period.

"Contact lens wearers can reduce their risk for contact lens-related infections by improving their hygiene behaviors, such as not sleeping in contact lenses unless prescribed and replacing their contact lenses as prescribed," the report says.

So next time you get up to put on your contacts, remember — you're putting in a medical device, and you should handle it with care.

Here are some simple tips for good contact lens hygiene:

1. Wash your hands before handling your lenses.

2. Completely replace yesterday's contact solution.

3. Wear your contacts for only as long as they're prescribed.

4. Rinse your lens case with contact solution and wipe it out with a clean towel after every use.

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Austrian-based luxury eyewear Silhouette recently unveiled their Silhouette Atelier Collection, where one pair of bespoke eyewear — made of gold and often beset with precious stones — can set you back up to £10,000.

“We are inspired by a time when fine objects were held in the highest regard, and enhance the clear basic forms of our design language with exquisite decorative elements,” adds Silhouette designer Martin Preuer-Lackner, who sourced inspiration from contemporary and Austrian art nouveau styles for this high-end line.

Each of Silhouette Atelier Collection’s rimless pairs is custom-made based on client specifications, where customers can swap rubies on a pair’s temples with pink sapphires...or switch ebony material for diamonds.

All models in the Silhouette Atelier Collection feature 18 carat yellow, white and rose gold, and clients can choose between hand-polished or brushed finish surfaces.

Eyewear can be accented according to the buyer’s preferences with diamonds, rubies, blue or pink sapphires, or ebony.

“We treat glasses like the gems they are,” says Silhouette’s chief designer, Roland Keplinger. Out of almost 280 production steps, 250 are done by hand, lending credence to the brand’s focus on craftsmanship.