Bahraini photographer Abdullah Hassan captures splendour of pearly dews on a foggy morning
TDT | Manama
The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com
Bright pearl-like water drops are seen hanging on to a thin network of spider silk after fogging in this mesmerising picture captured by Bahraini photographer Abdullah Hassan at dawn yesterday.
According to Hassan, the frame is the result of the dense fog experienced by Bahrain at dawn on Thursday, in open areas and farms.
He used a macro lens to capture the beauty of the string of dewy pearls left by fog.
He used the macro lens as it could capture the smallest of details.
But, it’s not just Hassan.
The morning dew shimmering on spider web has captured the imagination of many.
Not surprisingly, there are millions of interpretations as to what it depicts.
One amongst them is that of Alan Wilson Watts, a British writer and speaker.
For him, the multidimensional spider web is the Buddhist conception of the universe in an image.
He sees in each dew drops a reflection of all the other dew drops.
“And, in each reflected dewdrop, the reflections of all the other dew drops in that reflection. And so, ad infinitum. That is the Buddhist conception of the universe in an image. But why? On the other hand, researchers, however, are puzzled by another question. How spider silk can catch the morning dew.”
Lei Jiang from the Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences led a study on the subject, published by the International weekly journal of science, nature.
They found that as water condenses on the web, droplets move towards the nearest spindle-knot, where they coalesce to form larger drops.
The spindle-knots have a rough surface because the fibrils within them are randomly interwoven.
“But the joints between the knots have a smooth texture because their constituent fibrils run parallel to each other. It is this difference in roughness that helps water drops to slide towards the spindle-knots, sticking when they arrive,” the report points out.
Researchers also point out that the cone shape of the spindle-knots also drives droplets towards their centre.
Thus goes the scientific explanation.
However, as the author of the study Lei Jiang points out, the phenomenon is “unexpected and interesting”. Human hair can’t do that.”
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