May 14, 2012

Living Photography

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This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American

Image of the Week #42, May 14th, 2012:

From:Living Photography by Christina Agapakis at Oscillator.

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Source:Roger P. Hangarter and Howard Gest, Pictorial demonstrations of photosynthesis. Photosynthesis Research, Volume 80, Numbers 1-3 (2004), 421-425, DOI: 10.1023/B:PRES.0000030426.98007.6a (PDF)

In Greek, calling someone a plant (vlito) is like calling them an imbecile, the implication being that not much is going on upstairs. But images such as this one created by manipulating starch production in a living leaf make it clear that plants are in fact quite capable of responding to their environment. The image on this leaf was produced by occluding parts of the leaf so that the starch in its cells would be produced unevenly – in abundance where light hits the leaf and sparsely where it is shaded. For more surprising imagery created with plants and even some bacteria read Christina Agapakis’ post on Living Photography.

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