Slime can see: Scientists discover that slime-forming bacteria act as optical objects

[Guest Gee]

After more than 300 years of looking, scientists have figured out how bacteria "see" their world. And they do it in a remarkably similar way to us.
 

A team of British and German researchers reveal in the journal eLife how bacterial cells act as the equivalent of a microscopic eyeball or the world's oldest and smallest camera eye.

 

"The idea that bacteria can see their world in basically the same way that we do is pretty exciting," says lead researcher Conrad Mullineaux, Professor of Microbiology from QMUL's School of Biological and Chemical Sciences from Queen Mary University of London (QMUL).

 

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-02-slime-scientists-slime-forming-bacteria-optical.html#jCp

 

Pretty cool eh? And to quote the first commenter of the article....

 

The erroneous 'complex eye' slogan is now officially dead: a single celled, image forming eye looking at all directions, with no need for brain or special tissue. 

 

[JanneW]

Interesting! And found out by a professor named Mullineaux, to boot. 

[AccuTron]

Cold water thrown.

 

One thing I noticed....."Cyanobacteria evolved around 2.7 billion years ago and the fact that they are able to produce oxygen and fix carbon dioxide using energy from the sun - photosynthesis - is thought to have caused mass extinctions and the oldest known ice age."

 

This sounds suspiciously like some AGW crept in someplace, perhaps one or two steps removed.  Anyone have links about that?  Questions come to mind like, what about the other ice ages?  Extinction of what?  Anaerobic life forms?  

 

 

Back on topic:  it's hardly a replacement for an eye and brain.  They just move towards light, already knew that.  Image forming doesn't mean image interpretation.  A simple drop of water may do the same thing.  Calling it "remarkably similar way to us" is quite a stretch.   "see their world in basically the same way that we do" is nonsense.  We SEE because we have receptors that organize and a brain to interpret the info.  The bacteria simply get an itch.

[Guest Gee]

Cold water thrown.

 

One thing I noticed....."Cyanobacteria evolved around 2.7 billion years ago and the fact that they are able to produce oxygen and fix carbon dioxide using energy from the sun - photosynthesis - is thought to have caused mass extinctions and the oldest known ice age."

 

This sounds suspiciously like some AGW crept in someplace, perhaps one or two steps removed.  Anyone have links about that?  Questions come to mind like, what about the other ice ages?  Extinction of what?  Anaerobic life forms?  

 

 

Back on topic:  it's hardly a replacement for an eye and brain.  They just move towards light, already knew that.  Image forming doesn't mean image interpretation.  A simple drop of water may do the same thing.  Calling it "remarkably similar way to us" is quite a stretch.   "see their world in basically the same way that we do" is nonsense.  We SEE because we have receptors that organize and a brain to interpret the info.  The bacteria simply get an itch.

 

Presumably you read the article and noticed...........

 

The findings are most likely an example of convergent evolution between bacteria and more complex multi-cellular organisms including animals and humans.

"The physical principles for the sensing of light by bacteria and the far more complex vision in animals are similar, but the biological structures are different," says co-author Annegret Wilde from the University of Freiburg.

A Synechocystis cell is about half a billion times smaller than the human eye. As with the retina in the human eye, the image on the rear of the cell will be upside down. But its resolution will be much lower, so only a blurred outline of any object can be perceived. The ability of optical objects to distinguish fine detail is determined by "angular resolution". In the human eye this is an impressive 0.02 degrees. The team estimate that in Synechocystis it is about 21 degrees.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-02-slime-scientists-slime-forming-bacteria-optical.html#jCp