1. Tears from Onions 2. Basal Tears 3. Tears of Grief 4. Tears of Possibility and Hope 5. Tears of Rememberance 6. Tears of Release 7. Tears of Elation at a Liminal Moment 8. Tears of Laughing 9. Tears of Momentum Redirected 10. Tears of Ending and Beginning The Topography of Tears Rose-Lynn Fisher, a fine-art photographer, photographed and explored different types tears under the microscope. She studied and compared a 100 different sample of tears collected from herself and volunteers (even included a newborn baby). After examining the tears, which are dried before being put under the microscope, she found that tears shed under different circumstances varied drastically. After closely studying tears for so long, it has made Fisher think of them as far more than a salty liquid we discharge during difficult moments. “Tears are the medium of our most primal language in moments as unrelenting as death, as basic as hunger and as complex as a rite of passage,” she says. “It’s as though each one of our tears carries a microcosm of the collective human experience, like one drop of an ocean.” According to Joseph Stromberg of the Smithsonian Collage of Arts and Sciences, there are 3 major types of tears: basal (body produces to lubricate our eyes), reflex ( protect from irritants such as gas, onions and dust) and psychic (triggered by emotions). In addition to salt water, our tears contain organic substances including oils, antibodies and enzymes. Depending on the trigger for our tears, our tears can have different chemical compositions. For example, emotional tears have protein-based hormones such as the neurotransmitter leucine enkephalin, which is a natural painkiller that is released when we are stressed. Although the composition of tears can be similar, other variables such as chemistry, viscosity, setting, evaporation rate and the setting of the microscope all contribute to how each tear looks like under a microscope.