Structures Maximize Light Absorption

Biological Strategy

Plants

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Capture, Absorb, or Filter Energy

Energy is naturally available in many forms, including kinetic, potential, thermal, elastic, radiant, chemical, and more. All living systems require energy to carry out their many activities, and have developed strategies appropriate to one or more of those forms. For example, some plants maximize their surface area available for capturing radiant energy from the sun while others have strategies to focus scattered light onto photosynthesizing areas.

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Optimize Shape/Materials

Resources are limited and the simple act of retaining them requires resources, especially energy. Living systems must constantly balance the value of resources obtained with the costs of resources expended; failure to do so can result in death or prevent reproduction. Living systems therefore optimize, rather than maximize, resource use. Optimizing shape ultimately optimizes materials and energy. An example of such optimization can be seen in the dolphin’s body shape. It’s streamlined to reduce drag in the water due to an optimal ratio of length to diameter, as well as features on its surface that lie flat, reducing turbulence.

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Plants

Phylum Plantae (“plants”): Angiosperms, gymnosperms, green algae, and more

Plants have evolved by using special structures within their cells to harness energy directly from sunlight. There are currently over 350,000 known species of plants which include angiosperms (flowering trees and plants), gymnosperms (conifers, Gingkos, and others), ferns, hornworts, liverworts, mosses, and green algae. While most get energy through the process of photosynthesis, some are partially carnivores, feeding on the bodies of insects, and others are plant parasites, feeding entirely off of other plants. Plants reproduce through fruits, seeds, spores, and even asexually. They evolved around 500 million years ago and can now be found on every continent worldwide.

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Thylakoid structures of plants and cyanobacteria maximize exposure to light by being stacked and cross-linked.

Image: Ivona Sandru /

Image: Bela Hausmann /

“Since life needs light, air, and a protective shield, it is in theory subject to conditions similar to those that prevail for a photochemical surface reaction. Such a reaction is the process of in green leaves, by which light is transformed into chemical energy. Perhaps, then, nature would build cities similar to the submicroscopic structures–the power stations of plants, which consist of self-contained flat membrane sacs, often stacked like rolls of coins and linked to each other by many cross-connections. The units are arranged so as to make maximal use of light and to form as large a contact surface as possible with the environment–architectonic criteria our cities still fail to meet adequately. A bird’s-eye view of a natural metropolis would show nothing but green. No roofs, parking lots, or highways would be visible. All flat surfaces would be covered with woods, parks, and gardens. The vertical structures would be the facades of offices, residential buildings, cafes, and boutiques, all with access to nature. Inside the ‘thylakoid structures’ would be sufficient space for transportation, parking lots, shopping malls, and factories, which could manage with artificial light.” (Tributsch 1984:7-8)

Last Updated October 17, 2016

References

“Since life needs light, air, and a protective shield, it is in theory subject to conditions similar to those that prevail for a photochemical surface reaction. Such a reaction is the process of photosynthesis in green leaves, by which light is transformed into chemical energy. Perhaps, then, nature would build cities similar to the submicroscopic thylakoid structures–the power stations of plants, which consist of self-contained flat membrane sacs, often stacked like rolls of coins and linked to each other by many cross-connections. The units are arranged so as to make maximal use of light and to form as large a contact surface as possible with the environment–architectonic criteria our cities still fail to meet adequately. A bird’s-eye view of a natural metropolis would show nothing but green. No roofs, parking lots, or highways would be visible. All flat surfaces would be covered with woods, parks, and gardens. The vertical structures would be the facades of offices, residential buildings, cafes, and boutiques, all with access to nature. Inside the ‘thylakoid structures’ would be sufficient space for transportation, parking lots, shopping malls, and factories, which could manage with artificial light.” (Tributsch 1984:7-8)

Book

How Life Learned to Live: Adaptation in Nature

The MIT Press | 01/01/1983 | Helmut Tributsch

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