The World in a Drop of Water

Have you ever noticed how a drop of water can create a miniature world inside it? - A scaled down version of the world outside. It's almost like looking into a miniature crystal ball. Water tends  to form into spheres when in free fall due to surface tension. Many of the following images were of water drops on the surface of plants and especially dandelion seeds. If water is on a surface which is water repellant as leaves and other biological surfaces often are it will try to contract into a sphere but gravity will tend to flatten it out. Such a surface is said to be hydrophobic. On less hydrophobic surfaces the water will spread out more.

I used a stereo microscope to try and capture this fascinating micro world. Magnification is between 10 and 30x. Each image was captured by an IPhone 5 camera. I used a vapourising sprayer  to coat dandelion seeds and leaf surfaces with small water drops.

 Droplets attached to the hairs of a dandelion seed form into almost spheres as they are hardly touching any plant surfaces.

 In this image the droplet is acting like a tiny lens enlarging the plant surface behind it.

 Multiple images of a small yellow flower placed in the background are formed in each droplet here.