Bacteria Eyes

Biologists have found that a tiny bacterium senses light and moves towards its; the entire organism acts like an eyeball.

21:04 10 February 2016

Biologists have discovered that a tiny bacterium sees like tiny eyeballs.

 

The researchers had the idea when they looked down a microscope and noticed that bacteria move towards the side that was lit. Despite their size (they are about 0.003mm), it seemed that they use the same physical principles as the eye of a camera or a human. Researchers said that this makes them “probably the world’s smallest and oldest example” of such lens.

 

The bacteria that were involved in the study are called cyanobacteria, which are an ancient and abundant life form. They live in water and get their energy from photosynthesis, which explains why they are drawn to bright lights.

 

The co-author of the study, Conrad Mullineaux, from Queen Mary University of London, said: "It has a way of detecting where the light is; we know that because of the direction that it moves. But we were puzzled about this because the cells are very, very small.”

 

He added: "We noticed it accidentally, because we had cells on a surface and we were shining light from one side, in order to watch the movement towards the light.

 

"We suddenly saw these focused bright spots and we thought, 'bloody hell!'. Immediately, it was pretty obvious what was going on."