Zicam nasal swabs

Pre-cold medicine

Sep 28, 2023

In my continued examination of OtC pharmaceuticals, I came across an interesting product that's been on the market for many years; a nasal swab intended to be used when cold symptoms first appear.

I rolled the applicator, which was saturated in the goopy, mucus-like medicine across the slide and covered one half of the sample with a cover slip. I immediately placed it under the microscope and the FIRST thing I saw was this gorgeous blue.

Which raises a question: was it packaged within the applicator? My suspicions say yes, but I'll have to examine a few more applicators to feel confident about that.

The sample began drying rather quickly for such a viscous substance. It's hard not to imagine these grid-like patches as some quaint countryside map, complete with streets and farmlands and thickets. I'm beginning to ask myself if there's any product I’ll examine that WONT exhibit a crystallization process. I don't know enough about the various ingredients, chemicals and manufacturing that goes into these products to offer explanations as to WHY this happens so frequently. I’m content to observe and share. I doubt many take the time to look closely at these sorts of things and its more interesting than I would have imagined. Speaking for myself, the more closely I examine these medications, the less comfortable I am with the thought of using them. That's just me. Do these uniform, geometric patterns indicate anything nefarious? After all, I was always reminded in my early education that nature doesn’t deal in straight lines. But they may have overlooked this one aspect, because anything capable of crystallization seems to exhibit such designs routinely. Still, every time I witness a new product or chemical behavior displaying such intricate patterns, its difficult not to imagine the presence of unseen forces guiding the process.