"...the chemistry of the weeper"

June 18, 2019 3:47 PM

As human teardrops dry, salt and other substances in the teardrop bunch together and crystalize in intricate, snowflake-like shapes (Discover Magazine). Do the tears caused by onions look the same as those provoked by sadness? Photographers Rose-Lynn Fisher (Smithsonian) and Maurice Mikkers (Medium) have both explored the composition of the three types of tears: basal (ever-present fluid that protects the eye), reflex (triggered by an irritant), and psychic (triggered by emotions). The verdict: they all look different but not because of the type of tears. “There are many factors that determine the look of each tear image," says Fisher (New Yorker), "including the viscosity of the tear, the chemistry of the weeper, the settings of the microscope, and the way I process the images afterwards,”
posted by not_the_water (8 comments total)

Wetly eponysterical
posted by cynical pinnacle at 3:57 PM on June 18, 2019 [3 favorites]

     A Valediction: of Weeping
        John Donne

        Let me pour forth
My tears before thy face, whilst I stay here,
For thy face coins them, and thy stamp they bear,
And by this mintage they are something worth,
         For thus they be
         Pregnant of thee;
Fruits of much grief they are, emblems of more,
When a tear falls, that thou falls which it bore,
So thou and I are nothing then, when on a diverse shore.

         On a round ball
A workman that hath copies by, can lay
An Europe, Afric, and an Asia,
And quickly make that, which was nothing, all;
         So doth each tear
         Which thee doth wear,
A globe, yea world, by that impression grow,
Till thy tears mix'd with mine do overflow
This world; by waters sent from thee, my heaven dissolved so.

         O more than moon,
Draw not up seas to drown me in thy sphere,
Weep me not dead in thine arms, but forbear
To teach the sea what it may do too soon;
         Let not the wind
         Example find
To do me more harm than it purposeth;
Since thou and I sigh one another's breath,
Whoe'er sighs most is cruellest, and hastes the other's death.

posted by Pallas Athena at 4:18 PM on June 18, 2019 [6 favorites]

But which tears are most delicious?
posted by BrotherCaine at 4:21 PM on June 18, 2019 [1 favorite]

oh hey when I was in grad school, due to someone bringing up an article about this, a group of us got super fucking high (and/or drunk) and spent an entire evening experimenting with tears and comparing the xstal structures to salts from around the world

what I most remember about that evening was a) someone printing out and quite militantly quoting the thin section microscopy guide for minerals from the Mineralogical Society of America; b) the only way one of my fellow students could cry was if we told him he wasn't getting his PhD; c) that one of the tear structures from somebody was quite similar to a particular salt from Nova Scotia and our minds were blown for what seemed like hours but what was probably only minutes; and d) we were so high and/or drunk that we couldn't remember anything of what we discovered the next day and also that someone glued a cover slip to their cheek and spent a really long time trying to position the UV light to dry said adhesive in the completely focused way only someone high can do and next day had the weirdest sunburn I've ever seen

now when I think of that moment I think of how expensive the microscopes were that we were just nonchalantly fucking around with

also every time I mess with salts in Nova Scotia i wonder Is This The One, is the Nova Scotian salt that is similar to one human's tears

golly i miss grad school
posted by barchan at 5:49 PM on June 18, 2019 [17 favorites]

But which tears are most delicious?

Here for this adaptation of Perfume
posted by Going To Maine at 8:00 PM on June 18, 2019

oh hey when I was in grad school, due to someone bringing up an article about this, a group of us got super fucking high (and/or drunk) and spent an entire evening experimenting with tears and comparing the xstal structures to salts from around the world

For what it's worth, your comment is a perfect example of why I decided to sign up on Metafilter in the first place. Thank you, barchan. :)
posted by mordax at 8:30 PM on June 18, 2019 [1 favorite]

(Post is awesome too, thanks for sharing!)
posted by mordax at 8:30 PM on June 18, 2019 [1 favorite]

I wonder if the researchers contacted Paul Castorzano for weeping how-tos?
posted by Enkidude at 10:49 PM on June 18, 2019