Eye protection is protective gear for the eyes, sometimes face, designed to reduce the risk of injury. Examples of risks requiring eye protection can include: impact from particles or debris, light or radiation, wind blast, sea spray or impact from some type of ball or puck used in sports. Eye protection are separated into categories based on the style of eye wear and the hazard they are designed to reduce. There categories include: Spectacles with side protection. Safety glasses or spectacles, although used as a catch-all term for all types of eye protection revers to protective equipment that resembles common eye wear. To meet most national standards, spectacles must include side shields to reduce the ability of debris to get behind the lenses from the side. Safety glasses can mount insert frames to mount prescription corrective lenses for users with suboptimal vision; such insert frames are mounted behind the protective lens. In some applications, regular eye wear, if manufactured from high-impact materials, can be worn with removable side shields.

Oversized spectacles are manufactured, designed to sit over the users normal eye wear. Goggles are forms of protective eyewear that enclose the eye area in order to prevent particulates, infectious fluids, or chemicals from striking the eyes. Goggles come in two styles, eyecup goggles, cover goggles. Eyecup goggles cover the eye socket to give all-round protection, they have adjustable or elasticized headbands and are equipped with ventilation ports to allow air in and prevent fogging. For example, swimming goggles to protect the eyes from chlorine. Cover goggles are designed to be worn over eye wear. Like eyecup goggles, they have adjustable or elasticized headbands and are equipped with direct or indirect ventilation ports to allow air in and prevent fogging. While both models keep out large particles, indirect-vented goggles are better at keeping out liquids and dusts. A welding helmet is a type of headgear used when performing certain types of welding to protect the eyes and neck from flash burn, ultraviolet light, infrared light, heat.

A welding hand shield is a metal plate containing the same protective lens as a welding helmet with a handle on the bottom, intended to be held up in front of the face while working. Hoods come with impact-resistant windows made of plastic or similar material. An air-supply system may be incorporated. Hoods are made of non-rigid material for use in confined spaces and of collapsible construction for convenience in carrying and storing A face shield is a device used to protect wearer's entire face from hazards such as impact, heat, or glare. With face shields, as with welding helmets and hand shields, the user is continually lifting and lowering the visor. To protect the eyes when the visor is lifted, spectacles should be worn underneath. A respirator is a device designed to protect the wearer from inhaling particulate matter, including airborne microorganisms, fumes and gases; the human eye is sensitive to intense light because it damages the retina and can blind the individual. There are many different types of eye protection against light suited for different applications.

The most common forms of eye protection against light are sunglasses. These protect against UV light from the sun and help increase visibility in bright conditions, they tend to be fashionable as well as practical. Laser protection eyewear will filter out a particular wavelength, customized to the laser being viewed. Laser protection eye wear is important because of the high intensity of laser light. Welding glass protects against flying sparks, it is a more extreme implementation of the same idea as sunglasses, suited to the more intense light generated during welding. Arc welding goggles must be much darker than blowtorch goggles. Shades 12, 13, 14 welding glass must be used to stare directly at the sun or a solar eclipse; these higher index shades therefore are suitable for solar viewing. Sunglasses will not provide sufficient protection. Eye protectors used in sports like orienteering and cycling to protect eyes from insects and wind blast. Infection control glasses Eye shields used in External beam radiotherapy to shield sensitive parts of the eye from ionizing radiation Some helmets and visors protect the eyes: Armor visors were used in conjunction with some Medieval war helmets to protect the eyes from impact.

Batting helmet with full face coverage is used by the catcher in baseball and softball games to protect the eyes and face from impact. Eyeshield is a piece of football equipment which attaches to a player's helmet to protect the eyes from impact. Fighter pilot helmet includes a visor for protection from the sun and from wind blast in case of an ejection from the aircraft; some firefighter's helmets have visors which protect the eyes from infrared rays and the radiant heat of fire as well as from impact. Hockey helmets have visors, shields and masks to protect the eyes and face from impact. Hurling helmets protect the eyes from near contact with other players. Lacrosse helmets used in men's lacrosse have a cage to protect the face and eyes from impact. Lifeboatman's helmet has a transparent visor to keep sea spray out of the eyes. Motorcycle helmets and Bicycle helmets have face shields that protects the eyes against wind blast, dust and impact in the event of a crash. Racing helmets have face shields to protect against fire and impact

Real Goods Trading Corporation is a retail store and mail order / e-commerce business located in Hopland, California that sells renewable energy systems, homesteading supplies, other environmentally friendly goods and resources for people interested in living off the grid or with a low environmental impact. In 1977, Real Goods President and founder John Schaeffer was 29 years old and living in an off-grid community in Mendocino County, California; as one of the few members of the community with a vehicle and a commute, he became the designated person to pick up supplies for the community. In 1978, Schaeffer took $3,000 in savings and a $5,000 loan from his father and opened his own general store with a partner in Willits, California that sold all the "real goods" for off-grid living at fair prices. During the store's first year, Schaeffer bought 100 9-Watt solar panels for $600 each and sold them for $900 each to people interested in getting their electricity from a source other than an electric utility.

These sales made Real Goods the first company to sell a solar panel commercially in the United States. By 1982, Real Goods had opened two additional stores in Ukiah and Santa Rosa and published the first edition of the Solar Living Sourcebook, written by Schaeffer as a comprehensive source for sustainable living principles and practices. By 1985, the three Real Goods stores had closed and Schaeffer invested his last $3,000 in a 16-page catalog reinventing the company as a mail order business operating out of his garage. In 1991, Real Goods held its first direct public stock offering, selling stock directly to its customers, raised $1 million; the following year, Real Goods declared a National Off-The-Grid Day - which became the National Tour of Solar Homes - during which the public could see solar-powered living firsthand. Real Goods held its second stock offering in 1993. In 1994, the company used those funds to break ground on the Solar Living Center in Hopland, home to the Real Goods retail store today, as well as the Solar Living Institute.

The same year, Real Goods launched its e-commerce business. In 2001, Real Goods merged with the sustainable lifestyle company Gaiam in a stock swap worth $8.7 million. Per the merger agreement, Real Goods shareholders received one share of Gaiam's Class A common stock for each 10 shares of Real Goods stock owned, Real Goods' headquarters moved to Broomfield, Colorado. With the influx of additional capital from the Gaiam merger behind it, Real Goods opened a residential solar panel installation division in 2002 called Real Goods Solar. Real Goods Solar began installing home solar panel systems in Colorado, where Real Goods was now headquartered, in California, where it maintained the Solar Living Center. Real Goods Solar’s success led Real Goods to launch a commercial solar panel installation division in 2004. In 2008, Real Goods - with Gaiam as its majority shareholder - moved into new corporate headquarters in Louisville and began using solar power itself with a 100 kW solar photovoltaic system installed by Real Goods Solar.

The Louisville headquarters featured a number of other environmentally-friendly features including low-VOC paint, bamboo flooring and cabinetry, environmentally-friendly carpet and glue, recycled office cubicles, an office recycling program that included compost collection. Many Real Goods company parties were zero-waste events. On May 8, 2008, Real Goods completed an initial public offering as Real Goods Solar and raised $55 million. Real Goods Solar began trading on the Nasdaq under the symbol RSOL. Through holding 100% of Real Goods Solar's Class B shares, Gaiam maintained control of the company. Between 2007 and 2008, Real Goods Solar, led by Schaeffer as its CEO, acquired four solar panel installation companies in California and became one of the nation's largest solar installers. In November 2007, Real Goods Solar acquired San Rafael, California-based Marin Solar for $3.2 million in cash and stock. In January 2008, Real Goods Solar purchased Hemet, California-based Carlson Solar for $3.2 million in cash and stock.

In August 2008, Real Goods Solar acquired Santa Cruz, California-based Independent Energy Systems for $3.6 million. In October 2008, Real Goods Solar acquired Campbell, California-based Regrid Power for $3.8 million in cash and stock. On December 20, 2011, Real Goods Solar completed a merger agreement with Connecticut-based renewable energy installer Earth Friendly Energy Group Holdings, LLC, d/b/a Alteris Renewables; the combined company retained the Real Goods Solar name, Nasdaq ticker RSOL, Louisville, Colorado headquarters. Alteris equity holders were issued 8.7 million shares of Real Goods Solar Class A common stock in exchange for 100% of Alteris' outstanding equity. In January 2014, Real Goods Solar announced a combining of its residential and commercial solar installation divisions, a company-wide rebranding as RGS Energy, a switch from the Nasdaq ticker RSOL to RGSE. In December 2014, John Schaeffer purchased 100% of the Real Goods retail, e-commerce business from RGS Energy for $1 million.

Schaeffer, along with his wife Nantzy Hensley, is now once again the sole owner of Real Goods, as he was before the merger with Gaiam. On September 4, 2019, The Alternative Energy Store Inc. acquired the Real Goods Trading Corporation assets from John Schaeffer. All sales and customer support personnel from Real Goods were retained by altE and continue to promote, inventory and support solar energy solutions out of Northern California. Real Goods continues to operate under the Real Goods name; the Solar Living Center is a 12-acre living demonstration of permaculture and renewable energy in Hopland, California

Nanofountain probe is a device for'drawing' micropatterns of liquid chemicals at small resolution. An NFP contains a cantilevered micro-fluidic device terminated in a nanofountain; the embedded microfluidics facilitates rapid and continuous delivery of molecules from the on-chip reservoirs to the fountain tip. When the tip is brought into contact with the substrate, a liquid meniscus forms, providing a path for molecular transport to the substrate. By controlling the geometry of the meniscus through hold time and deposition speed, various inks and biomolecules could be patterned on a surface, with sub 100 nm resolution; the advent of dip-pen nanolithography in recent years represented a revolution in nanoscale patterning technology. With sub-100-nanometer resolution and an architecture conducive to massive parallelization, DPN is capable of producing large arrays of nanoscale features; as such, conventional DPN and other probe-based techniques are limited in their rate of deposition and by the need for repeated re-inking during extended patterning.

To address these challenges, nanofountain probe was developed by Espinosa et al. where microchannels were embedded in AFM probes to transport ink or bio-molecules from reservoirs to substrates, realizing continuous writing at the nanoscale. Integration of continuous liquid ink feeding within the NFP facilitates more rapid deposition and eliminates the need for repeated dipping, all while preserving the sub-100-nanometer resolution of DPN. Nano fountain probes are fabricated on the wafer-scale using microfabrication techniques allowing for batch fabrication of numerous chips. Through the different generations of devices and experimentation improved the device yielding to a robust fabrication process; the enhanced feature dimension and shapes is expected to improve the performance in writing and imaging. NFP is used in the development of a to scale, direct-write nanomanufacturing platform; the platform is capable of constructing complex, highly-functional nanoscale devices from a diverse suite of materials.

Demonstrated nanopatterning capabilities include: • Biomolecules for biodetection assays or cell adhesion studies • Functional nanoparticles for drug delivery studies and nanosystems making • Catalysts for carbon nanotube growth in nanodevice fabrication • Thiols for directed self-assembly of nanostructures. Taking advantage of the unique tip geometry of the NFP nanomaterials are directly injected into live cells with minimal invasiveness; this enables unique studies of nanoparticle-mediated delivery, as well as cellular pathways and toxicity. Whereas typical in vitro studies are limited to cell populations, these broadly-applicable tools enable multifaceted interrogation at a single cell level. Nanolithography