[Dr Vishniac's Microscopic World, 1950s]

[music] [music] This is a world within a world. A world we cannot see. A world of plants and animals living by the millions in a single drop of water. [music] For 40 years, Dr. Roman Vishnak has been exploring through photography the mystery and wonder of this microscopic world. Dr. Vishnak's laboratory cluttered with cameras, [music] microscopes, and specimens is a 10 by 12 ft room in his New York City apartment. The 58-year-old scientist and philosopher who holds doctorates in zoologology and medicine is [music] recognized as the world's foremost photographer of microscopic life. Now, the news magazine [music] in an exclusive film report focuses its cameras on Dr. Vishnak and the inhabitants of what he calls the tiny landscape. The microscope's magic will make visible an amazing variety of animal and plant life wholly unlike anything that has ever been seen by the naked eye. Here, the doctor adjusts [music] his own intricate lighting system. The microscope, one of 13 [music] used by Dr. Vishnak in his work, is integrated with a motion picture camera especially adapted for filming the infinitely tiny subjects. Magnified up to 6,000 times, all specimens are alive. The doctor believes that only living creatures can be photographed truthfully, making possible an accurate report on their behavior in a natural free swimming environment. There in center screen is a flagagillate. Tiny even under the microscope. Flagillates are believed to be the ancestors of all animal life on Earth originating more than 2 billion years ago. Dr. Vishnak's carefully controlled lighting system enables him to make remarkable photographs of the interiors of his subjects. Thus we are able to see here in fascinating and hitherto undreamed of detail the inner organs of the parramium bosaria. Here is a parramium codatum the most common species of prozzoa. A form of animal it cannot like a plant does produce its own food. Following the minute animals as they search for their food Dr. The Vishnyak must keep them under [music] constant scrutiny, making certain that they do not disappear out of the camera's range. [music] This is a flat worm, one of the doctor's bigger specimens. It measures about 1/30th of an inch and can actually be seen with the naked eye. [music] Still another form of protozoa is this colony of bell-shaped species. Around the opening of each bell are celia or hairs whose feverish activity produces a strong current. Plants and animals floating by are swept into the mouth opening by this current [music] and swallowed up. Thus, through the endless beating of their celia, these bell-shaped animals cause their food to flow to them. [music] Among Dr. Vishnak's most unusual specimens are these 32 microorganisms, which hang together, folding and unfolding, much like an accordion. The doctor films his subjects with an amazing third-dimensional [music] effect. The results are masterpieces of beautiful simplicity, all in marked contrast to the flat ordinary views of specimens immobilized on glass slides. In the words of Dr. Vishniaak. In nature, every bit of life is lovely. And the more magnification we use, the more details are brought out, perfectly formed, like endless sets of boxes within boxes in intricate splendor. This is the [music] desid, jewel of the pond. The moss animals weaving tentacles set up water currents that draw in all life around it. The creature takes [music] into its mouth the animals and plants it needs to exist. Other matter is quickly rejected. Like every one of Dr. Vishnak's subjects, the moss animal will be returned alive to the exact [music] spot where the doctor found it. [music] Seizing a speck-sized plant, this aquatic animal gnaws away bacteria as a dog would gnaw away at a bone. Finishing one [music] tasty morsel, it immediately tracks down another. Here is a hydra, member of the same family as the Portuguese man of war. Growing halfway down the hydra side is a bud. For although the hydra is an animal, it reproduces by budding like the plants we know. The growth on the stock will eventually break off to form another hydra. The tentacles not only gather the hydra's food, [music] but contain thousands of minute organs that have the power to poison and paralyze any prey. In this unusual closeup, we can see the detailed structure of one of the hydra tentacles. The shrimp, magnified by the microscope's wondrous lens, is revealed to have blood vessels that carry oxygen and nourishment to every part of the body, including the eyes. The circulation of the blood [music] is exactly like that in the highest form of animal life. Watch for the movement of a shrimp's eye. Photographing the laral stage of a [music] crab, Dr. Vishnak introduces an infinite decimal spotlight into this microscopic world as he follows the long thin projectile that [music] extends far out from the body. We can see the beating of the heart and the pulsating of the blood as it circulates through another of the crab's projectiles. The circulatory [music] system closely resembles the one found in the human body. The compound eye, which is actually many little eyes, enables the crab [music] to see in many directions at once. This is a water plant, microscopic in size, but gigantic in comparison to the millions of bacteria that swarm around it. The bacteria feed on the oxygen and other materials given off by the plant. In the economy of God's universe, nothing is wasted. And so Dr. Vishnak explores a world [music] separated only by a set of lenses from man's everyday existence. What a variety of animals I can see, says the [music] doctor, in the contents of a single jar of pond water. One could take a trip around the world and not see as many kinds of animals or as many thrilling adventures as I see in my laboratory. Dr. Roman Vishnak has devoted a lifetime to the discovery of nature through photography, observing and recording the teeming life of a microscopic world that exists unseen around us. [music] >> [music] >> With a pale and a net, Dr. Roman Vishnak is going exploring. His search is to take [music] him no farther than the nearby seashore. For there is in the oceans which cover 3/4 of the earth a teeming water world whose tiny inhabitants are counted by the quadrillions. Dr. Vishnak is the world's leading photographer of microscopic life. He is a scientist and a philosopher with doctorates in zoologology and medicine. And he speaks [music] eight languages. But his first love is discovering nature through photography, bringing to view infinite decimal ocean organisms like these mollisk embryos. At magnifications ranging from 100 to 6,000 times, Dr. Vishnak explores mysteries of life far beyond human vision. Notice the heartbeat of this single mollusk embryo. As like a baby chick, it waits to hatch from its egg. [music] The opportunities for exploration are as limitless as the sea. And so offsole on the Massachusetts coast, the 59-year-old doctor sprry carries his search for saltwater specimens out into the bay. This time he uses a net within a net to strain only the tiniest water dwellers into his jar. Although virtually invisible, they are looked upon by Dr. Vishnak as friends deserving of civilized consideration. Some people think microscopic animals are all alike, he says. But oh no, they have individualities that make them different from one another, just like human beings. and photographing the milky living dust collected in his jar, he shows what he means. Elder Skelter inhabitants called [music] Cyclops are among the busiest of Dr. Vishniak's neighbors in the water world. Tentacles flare out from their bodies like horns from a steer, and like the giant cyclops in Greek mythology, they have but a single eye. When a crab moves into the picture, the cyclops are in deadly peril, for they are a favorite food of larger animals. Quicker than the eye can see, the crab snatches and swallows the helpless cyclops. Here before our eyes, is a life and death struggle seen through the microscope recorded by the motion picture camera. But the cyclops multiply [music] faster than they are destroyed to continue the cycle of life in the sea. What Dr. Vishnak. Sea life is where you find it. It can be clinging to the shell of a horseshoe crab. The crab, strange as it [music] seems, chews its food with its feet and when released, always seemingly by instinct, scurries toward the open sea. The oceanographic [music] institution on the New England coast is a workshop for students of marine life. Dr. Vishnak comes here often with specimens he has collected from the sea. One is a smaller horseshoe crab. With the utmost of care, he scrapes off a tiny flatworm before photographing it in undreamed of detail. Looking like a floating pancake, the flatworm is actually demonstrating the rhythmic motion it uses to travel. When it wants free transportation, the flatworm conveniently attaches itself to the horseshoe crab. Watch the hermit crab take cover. The crab is snug in its shell as the doctor removes other living specimens with the skill of a surgeon. Only living creatures, he insists, can be photographed truthfully, thus making possible an accurate report of their appearance and behavior. For Dr. Vishnak, who was seven when he took his first microo, the task requires intricate equipment and incredible patience. The bristle worm, for example, is constantly twisting and turning, ducking and dodging, and yet somehow the doctor manages to keep it in focus. Dr. Vishnak says, "No creature is simple. Here is proof." The bristle worm. Unbelievably complex under the microscope, yet tinier than a pin head. All the time, the bristles move in and out, barely visible even under magnification. Dr. Vishnak's amazing technique [music] takes us inside the worm just like an X-ray. This is a barnacle hunting food. Sweeping in and out of its shell, six pairs of feathery legs form a casting net to capture tiny creatures swimming past. Dr. Vishnak achieves an almost third-dimensional realism in photographing another underwater worm. There is a growing fascination in watching the frantic convolutions of the minute organism as it takes the shape of an unending pretzel. Although separated from our everyday world only by a set of lenses, here is a form of animal life whose complex and unending movements are unlike anything that has ever been seen by the unaded human eye. Next, an amphetite bursts into view. Its plumage as bright as holiday streamers. Dr. Vishniaak's own intricate lighting system helps capture the full beauty of one of the loveliest creatures of the sea. Body and streamers shine with iridescent splendor. Photographing a world most of us didn't know existed. Dr. Vishnak presents its inhabitants in brilliant glory. He returns his specimens alive to their homes. Just because they are small, he says, doesn't mean they have no rights. Water. What wonders it holds for Dr. Roman Vishnak, explorer of the world within the sea. [music]