Scientists have discovered strands² of genetic³ code linked to short sight, the most common eye disorder⁴ in the world.

科学家最近发现了一组与近视有关的遗传密码，近视是目前世界上最常见的眼部疾患。

The findings shed light on what goes awry⁵（失败，出错） to make distant objects look blurred⁶, and raises the prospect⁷ of developing drugs to prevent the condition.

Understanding the biological glitches（小故障，小毛病） behind short-sightedness could help researchers develop eye drops or tablets that could be given to children to stop their vision from failing as they get older.

Short-sightedness, or myopia（近视，目光短浅） , usually starts to manifest（证明，显示） early on in life.

The extent to which genes⁸ are to blame varies, but for those with the worst vision, around 80% of the condition is caused by genetic factors.

Two separate studies, published in Nature Genetics journal, found variations in DNA⁹ that were more common in people with short sight. Chris Hammond, at King's College, London, found one section of DNA on chromosome¹⁰（染色体） 15 was more common in people with myopia. Caroline Klaver, at Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, found another strand¹, also on chromosome 15, linked to short sight.

The variations in DNA amount to misspellings in the genetic code. These alter the activity of three genes that control the growth of the eyeball and ensure light entering the eye is converted into electrical pulses in the retina（视网膜） .

The discovery helps scientists piece together how a healthy eye becomes short-sighted and points the way to medicines to prevent it in children.

"My hope is that we can identify a pathway that we can block with eyedrops or tablets that will stop the eye growing too much and without interfering¹¹ with normal brain development or other processes in the body," Hammond told the Guardian¹².