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Showing posts from October 14, 2012

To see the world in a grain of sand, and to see heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hands, and eternity in an hour. - William Blake

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(Credit:  Malaia Orchids) Is there any better feeling than bare feet on a sandy beach? While relaxing on a beach chair it is almost an automatic reflex for one to start digging one's toes into the sand.  There is no special technique to this sensory experience that takes no thought or mental prowess but only to mindlessly zone in on the softness of the sand, the occasional sharp stab of a shell, and the coolness of hitting a deeper layer. As an avid shell collector I've always been puzzled by my friends that take a Ziploc baggie of beach sand home. I don't get it? Isn't sand is something to be shaken out of your towels and  washed off your feet at the showers before you leave the beach so you don't have to vacuum the stuff out of the car later on. Biologist Gary Greenberg has taken a closer look.  After years of observing living cancer and nerve cells through the lens of his microscope in his professional life, he took a closer look at some beach