<
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/most-efficient-solar-panels-ever-have-been-found-in-giant-sparkly-clams/>
"In the shallow tropical reefs off Palau lie what at first glimpse look like
unremarkable, albeit huge, clams in the genus
Tridacna. But a peek at the
undulous innards tucked between their four-foot-long shells reveals sparkly
blue flesh—that hosts what new research shows to be the most efficient solar
panels that scientists have ever found.
“The fact that nobody could explain why a clam was iridescent really just stuck
with me,” says Alison Sweeney, a Yale University biophysicist and co-author of
the new research.
In previous work to investigate the startling sparkle, Sweeney and her
colleagues determined that despite impressive iridescence, the animals’ fleshy
mantles reflect as little as about 5 percent of the bright sunlight hitting
them.
The rest of the incoming light is absorbed, and much of it is channeled to
photosynthetic algae that the clams cultivate within their body as a food
source. And absorbing around 95 percent of incoming light is a remarkably
strong basis for photosynthesis; in comparison, terrestrial forests such as the
Amazon reflect far more light, reducing their photosynthetic efficiency from
the outset. Sweeney and her colleagues also determined that specialized cells
called iridocytes, which line the mantle’s surface, contain neatly aligned
stacks of transparent, protein-rich platelets that diffuse light while pushing
it deeper inside the clam.
In new research published in
PRX Energy, Sweeney and her team studied the
arrangement of the clams’ symbiotic algae, which settle in tiny modified tubes
extending up from the digestive system. Whereas a leaf’s photosynthetic
machinery is distributed randomly, the clam’s algae form a strikingly orderly
pattern, arranged in thin columns that stretch from the iridocyte down into the
flesh. “The clam basically plants them as if it were an agricultural field,”
Sweeney says. (The algae also travel between clams in pellets of poop.)"
Via Diane A.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
