The tears observed under the microscope are all different, due to their chemical composition and the reason that triggered the crying
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves himEach tear is different from the othera, by chemical composition and form. It can be verified observing the tears under the microscope as did Maurice Mikkers, a former laboratory technician and a fan of microscopic photography.
Mikkers has developed a photographic project titled "Imaginarium of Tears", analyzing hundreds of samples obtained from friends and relatives: to obtain the Tears asks to focus on an intense emotion. In extreme cases, have the subject cut an onion, or pull a hair from the nose.
Le tears observed by him under the microscope and photographed, they have shown that they have one always different structure, a bit like snowflakes.
The episode that led the artist to start this project is quite curious: Mikkers was working on the study of the crystallization of the active ingredients of some drugs when he hit the table with his foot. The pain was such that it did to cry and the idea came to him to collect one of his tears to look at it under a microscope.
He thus noticed the presence of crystals inside the tear and decided to observe other tears to see if they were different: in his experiments he actually found substantial differences between the tears.
These differences appear to be due to cchemical omposition of every single tear, which varies from person to person but also within the same individual based on various factors, including the mood and the reason that triggered the crying.
Tears mainly contain water, mucus and a small percentage of lipids, but they also contain small amounts of proteins, free amino acids, glucose, salts, epithelial cells and hormones.
Le substances that make up tears they are not always present in the same quantities, therefore each tear would have some sort of its own fingerprint.
Mikkers immortalized the tears for his art project but is very interested in understand the scientific reasons behind the differences which he found by observing the tears.
The variables that affect the chemical composition of tears they can be many and, according to Mikkers, mood could also influence the presence of the various substances. The artist has indeed noticed substantial differences between the tears of the same person produced as a result of an irritative stimulus or after a desperate cry resulting from an emotion.
Il photographic project of the Dutch artist it will soon become a book and, those who wish, can send their tears thanks to a kit that allows them to be collected: Mikkers will observe and photograph them.
Read also:
- The wonderful images of the grains of sand seen under the microscope (PHOTO)
Tatiana Maselli
Photo credit Immaginarium of Tears
