Teensy Weensy

I love tiny things! I spend a lot of time out in nature, looking at things, and I always pay attention to the details, and the little things. I am sharing a little bit of my collection with you. I have a VAST collection. How about that! A huge collection of tiny things! :) If you don't pay attention to the tiny things, you miss half the fun!

I hope that by the time you finish reading this Lens, you will have a greater appreciation for little things, and will deliberately notice them.

The photo on the left is the flower of the Thread Plant. This tiny flower is somewhere in the neighborhood of 1/4" long. But it has everything. Petals, a speck of nectar, pollen, and so forth. Although Arizona has bees, and some of them are pretty small, I doubt if they pollinate this plant. They're still too big. That's just my opinion, anyway. Although I found this flower in my yard, I never saw anyone visit it. My guess is that it is pollinated by ants.

Unless otherwise noted, all photos in this Lens are mine. The photo of the unborn baby is used with permission.

We get a lot of moths in the house. One of my favorite things to do is to take pictures of them. Most of them are pretty small. I have seen quite a few different kinds of moths in the computer room. Here are a few samples. And some other things I have found elsewhere.

Some tropical, some Sonoran Desert

And parts of flowers. These are all tiny flowers, not included in my Bellyflower Lens. I don't know what some of these are.

If you haven't paid attention before now, did this Lens inspire you to start to notice teeny things?

Do you pay attention to tiny things?

Things that don't really fit in with other collections. A little of this and a bit of that. And as they say in an early reader, And some bread. But we're not making sandwiches here, so I won't worry about it.

Insects, arachnids. All found in the Sonoran Desert.

This little baby is only about the size of the man's thumb. He has been growing for about four weeks. The mother had a tubal pregnancy, and they had to take the baby to save her life. At the time they took this picture, the baby was still very much alive. Notice that he or she has eyes and fingers. The baby also has brain waves and a heartbeat. The heart started beating at about 21 days, a full week earlier than this picture. The large dark area is the liver.

We know that by the time the heart starts to beat, there are already brain waves. We know this even though we cannot detect them, because without brain impulses that co-ordinate the beating of each cell of the heart, it would fibrillate. The impulse that synchronizes the heart cells travels from the brain down the Vagus nerve to the heart.

When a baby starts to grow, at the time that she starts to take shape, the first organ formed is called the Primitive Streak. This is the early spinal cord, and the brain grows in the future head at the same time. Then the neural network forms. This is the network of nerves that will be throughout the body. The network takes the shape of various organs, and the cells growing in the area become that type of cells because the nerves cause the cells to differentiate into different kinds of tissue. By the time the baby has such well defined organs as in this photo, the neural network and the new organs are already forming or formed. As one authority said, organs are pressed into service as soon as they exist.

This baby will move around, as one doctor described it, inside the amniotic sac with a natural swimmer's stroke. If you prick him, he will try to withdraw from the pain of the prick.

The photo is one of the most authenticated photos in medical science, winning first place in a competition of medical photographs. I don't remember who took it, although the credit is on the photo. I have permission to use it.

I can't let you go without showing you a hummingbird. They are the smallest of birds. However, they are among the largest objects I show you in this Lens. However, just to make sure I keep it small, I chose the smallest species I have photographed. These little guys tend to be quiet, and if you can catch them sitting, you can usually get a good picture, because they will pose for you for a long time.