The Island of the Colorblind was written by Oliver Sacks to share his experiences during his travels to Pingelap, Pohnpei, Guam, and Rota. Oliver Sacks traveled to Pingelap and Pohnpei with his colleague Robert Wasserman, an ophthalmologist, and Knut Nordby, a color-blind Norwegian scientist. He goes there to study and discover an island where congenital achromatopsia, a severe color blindness that is normally very rare, affects 10% of the population. They were welcomed by the inhabitants of Pingelap, especially those suffering from color blindness. They toured the island and were introduced to many of the people who lived there. Then they traveled to Pohnpei, where they met other achromatopes. Earlier, in 1993, Oliver Sacks had been invited to go to Guam by John Steele, a neurologist who lived and studied in Guam, to study an endemic disease, lytico-bodig. Lytico-bodig is a disease that affects people living on Guam and has been studied for 40 years, but the cause has not yet been discovered. The disease is either considered “lytico,” which resembles ALS, or “bodig,” which resembles Parkinsonism. After Guam, Sacks traveled to Rota, a neighboring island, to see the island's native cycads. Sacks had been fascinated by cycads since he was young and wanted to see them in the wild. He learned a lot from his visits to the islands. In Pingelap and Pohnpei, Oliver Sacks found communities where color blindness is much more prevalent than in most communities around the world. Congenital achromatopsia, the severe color blindness seen in Pingelap and Pohnpei, causes affected individuals to lack cones in their eyes. Cones allow people to see small details and colors. People without cones must use the rods in their eyes instead...... middle of paper ...... ized, it produces large seeds which are used by the indigenous people of Rota as food. I would definitely recommend this book. I really liked Color Blind Island by Oliver Sacks. The book is well written and explains many of the topics covered in depth. Sacks also includes the history of the islands and many details about life on the islands he visited. I also liked how he included his interactions with people affected by lytico-bodig or congenital achromatopsia on the islands he visited. I would recommend this book to people who love plants, as it describes cycads in great detail. I would also recommend this book to people who are interested in diseases, as it discusses lytico-bodig and color blindness in depth, and to people interested in the culture of Micronesia as Sacks recounts his experiences on the islands..