Cellular lenslike facets let Schistostega focus scarce light onto one chloroplast

Evidence

Each filament is a strand of individual cells strung together like beads shimmering on a string. The walls of each cell are angled, forming interior facets like a cut diamond. It is these facets which cause Schistostega to sparkle like the tiny lights of a far-away city. These beautifully angled walls capture traces of light and focus it inward, where a single large chloroplast awaits the gathering beam of light. Packed with chlorophyll ad membranes of exquisite complexity, the chloroplast converts the light energy into a stream of flowing electrons. This is the electricity of photosynthesis, turning sun into sugar, spinning straw into gold. Here on the shadowy edge of where green life seems barely possible, Schistostega has all it needs. Rain on the outside, fire on the inside. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss, 632

Categorization

• XREF: The lens-facet mechanism is a fine-scale physics-of-life example matching the book’s and polyad’s listening/observation-as-method thread — seeing how a barely-visible being engineers its own light. — connects to: Some mosses thrive on a tiny fraction of the sunlight others require — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural…, 628; Light scarcity forces Schistostega to abandon leaves and shoots entirely — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural…, 630; Leaf arrangement in layers sets which light regime favors a tree species — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 1318

Broader Connections

• Leaf arrangement in layers sets which light regime favors a tree species #corroborates (0.72) — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 1318