Infinity in the Palm of Your Hand

A drop of ocean water magnified 25 times. (Photo: David Liittschwager)

I just love the cartoon-like character of this photograph from David Liittschwager.  (Check out his book, A World In One Cubic Meter.)

It’s the world in a single drop of ocean water, alive with crab larva, diatoms, bacteria, fish eggs, zooplankton, and worms.

It reminds me of the lines in William Blake’s “Auguries of Innocence”:

To see a World in a Grain of Sand

And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand

And Eternity in an hour.

And it also looks a bit like a Saul Steinberg drawing:

(Illustration: Saul Steinberg)