• Perfect Mirror is used to simplify and expand use of minimally invasive laser surgery
• Some surgeons say new tool is easier to use than a scalpel and safer for patients
• Senior neurosurgeon saw patient with brain tumor recover in three days
• Company plans to market fiber optic tool beyond the U.S. to Europe and Asia

A generation ago, restoring hearing in people who were profoundly deaf seemed unrealistic, if not impossible. Today, a growing fraction of the half-million Americans who suffer severe hearing loss are using cochlear implants, a sophisticated and controversial technology that many think is nothing short of a miracle.

Will cochlear implants change deaf culture? Deaf culture - the shared language, art and history of deaf people - has moved in a matter of decades from a period of isolation and repression to a time when the wider society has come to appreciate its beauty, richness and strength.