What Happens When You Look At Tears Under A Microscope

Tears are a natural way for the human body to lubricate and keep your eyes moist. Did you know that the teardrops that flow out when you cut onions, when you are very sad and depressed, and when you laugh hard till your eyes water are all different? The basal tears (lubricating tears), reflex tears, and emotional tears are quite different, though they are all oil, enzymes, and antibodies in salt water.

Tears from Onion

This is not any set floral pattern but a microscopic view of tears produced by chopped onions. Tears are, perhaps, the last item to be checked under the lens. Rose-Lynn Fisher, through her project, “The Topography of Tears”, discovered that different types of tears (though all are crystallized salt) looked different, depending on variables like setting of the microscope, evaporation rate, chemistry, viscosity, etc.

Each tear has distinct molecules. For instance, the emotional tear contains a natural painkiller called leucine enkephalin – the body’s self-mechanism to de-stress, which is not found in the basal tear. Basal tears keep the cornea wet and continuously lubricate it to keep away dust. Reflex tears, on the other hand, attempt to rid the eye of any irritant, be it onions, tear gas, or pepper spray. Psychic tears flow down due to heavy emotional stress like extreme happiness, mourning, etc. These contain more protein-based hormones like prolactin, adrenocorticotropic hormones, etc.

The powerful scanning electron microscopes have produced a surfeit of wide shapes and designs ranging from impressive floral shapes and isolated clusters of varying patterns to a confusion of asymmetrical lines. We all know that no two fingerprints match, now we also know that no two tear drops’ microscopic images match either!

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