Pretend You're a Leaf
Living Beings
•
31m
Swirling green energy factories capture the energy of sunlight, thus enabling life on earth. Cytoplasmic streaming inside plant cells is very efficient -- the slow turning of each round chloroplast means every square micron gets a chance to create energy and oxygen from sunlight. Here, we're able to see through the exceedingly thin leaf of a popular aquatic plant, Elodea, and observe microscopic cellular activities. Photosynthesis is similar in other primary producers like cyanobacteria and algae. Thanks to UCLA for the use of their beautiful microscope and motorized stage. Music by KRON.
Up Next in Living Beings
-
Founding an Ant Colony | Narrated
Only a few will be Queen. Discover what it takes to start a new ant colony in this rare visit inside a founding queen's underground brood chamber.
-
Millipede Walk | narrated
Millipedes have the most legs of any animal. The distinctive traveling wave in its walk is a kind of auto-pilot. Using innovative slow-motion macro video, we observe the traveling wave motion of the legs move from the back to the front of the animal's long body. The workings of the walk involve a...
-
Ants on Flowers
Harvester ants search a lovely variety of flowers for nectar and water. Ants are attracted to sweet foods (as well as fatty), and these are on the lookout for flower nectar, along with hydration from giant water droplets. This program was made with assistance from Les Greenberg and the University...