[PHOTOS] The Inner Beauty Of Tears As They Appear Under A Microscope

They look like gorgeous frozen ice-crystals, but in fact, these are what tears look like under a microscope.

Dutch scientist and photographer Maurice Mikkers came up with the idea to photograph tears while imaging crystals of pharmaceutical drugs.

He was keen to find out if tears had a different structure depending on how they were made.
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To find out if there was a difference in the composition of the three he collected the tears of friends when they were involved in tasks like chopping onions, then studied them under a microscope.

Although there turned out to be no apparent pattern for each category, it revealed a spectacular hidden world of salt crystals.

Mr Mikkers said:”All tears contain a variety of biological materials including oils, antibodies and enzymes suspended in salt water.

“The options they could voluntarily choose from where: cutting onions, eat hot peppers, look in to a fan or cry because of sadness or happiness. To see if there was a resemblance or difference in the structure of forming tears, I took images of every tear drop under the microscope.”

The tears were captured using a micropipette, and then placed on to amicroscope slide. It takes some time to crystalize and settle but then it is possible to take images and start comparing.

“The structures seen under the microscope and in the images are largely crystallized salt, the circumstances under which the tear dries can lead to radically dissimilar shapes and formations, so two psychic tears with the exact same chemical makeup can look very different up close,” added Mr Mikkers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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