Can someone please explain the crystal tears in this video scientifically to me?

After viewing this video, I have come to the conclusion that is not real. Why? If this occured back in 1996, how come the world has not jumped on “the strange occurence”?

I only wish someone on Fluther can prove me wrong.

I’m a believer here. It’s easy to believe once you’ve experienced kidney stones.

@john65pennington Well to answer your first question I would say because of lack of internet? I mean anything well planned can go viral these days. I am skeptical a bit, but yes as @filmfann mentions the body is capable of creating large mineral deposits.

It looks real to me. I hate to be gullible though. It just seems too incredible to be true. But the human body contains siliica and silica can form crystals under the right conditions. Still seems far fetched. I would love to hear from any biochemists out there on Fluther!

There’s a trick you can do where you snort popcorn seeds and they come out of your eyes. Lots of fun. I strongly suspect they’ve just used some little plastic beads and done this.

Who the hell is sticking crap in that child’s eyes? (Haven’t you ever seen a contact lens wearer have them slide out of position and then use manual manipulation and eye movements to get them back out? Looks just like that.)

I suspect this is a hoax. The crystal seems to be in the eyelid at the beginning of the film. It is deforming the shape of her eye. Perhaps they used an anesthetic eye drop to let her do this without severe pain.

I don’t know of any naturally occurring crystals other than salt (not this large or this shape, and not hard enough to scratch metal) which might form from secretions in the eye, and there is no way they would grow that large in less than a day. @Earthgirl Here’s a write-up on how to grow silica (quarts) crystals. Hardly like the conditions in the human eye, and still it took many days to grow a crystal the size shown in that video.

I say it is fake.
First of all, crystals do not form that fast, especially not salt crystals, which is the only thing that can from from tears, and second, those crystals in the video would rip her eyes to shreds.

OK, here’s the definitive answer.

ETPro That article has details but still no info how the supposed hoax was carried out.

Chemistry

Quartz can scratch metal
Fused quartz

Fused quartz is a noncrystalline form of silicon dioxide (SiO2), which is also called silica. (The crystalline form of this material is quartz).
Quartz on the hardness scale.
I am not saying I believe it as far as the tears.

Here’s how it is done.

If only it were real. I would love to wear jewelry made from the tears of young girls. It’s also the perfect gift for those hard-to-buy-for billionaires who seem to have everything they want. Nothing like human sorrow captured into such a beautiful form.

Fake

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/comments/girl_cries_crystal_tears

@Rarebear Ha! That’s what I linked to above.

Oh, sorry. You’re right. I should have clicked all the links. But it does explain how they faked it.

@Rarebear Yep. They even replicated the trick. And the girl involved later confessed to the deception.

ETPro Museum of Hoaxes!!! Oh my, isn’t the internet great? You get such crazy videos on youtube and then you get the myth debunkers and hoax busters. It really is a circus. Thanks for the link.

@Earthgirl It is a never-ending source of amazement to this old man. Why if I had been jacked into a database like this back in the 60s, well… this.

I was gonna say photoshop but on second thought it looks legit to me.. weird but legit. Can I explain it? Hell, I can’t even explain my own existence.