Edoardo De Tommasi, Ilaria Rea, Maria Antonietta Ferrara, Luca De Stefano, Mario De Stefano, Adil Y Al-Handal, Marija Stamenković, Angela Wulff
Ordered, quasi-ordered, and even disordered nanostructures can be identified as constituent components of several protists, plants and animals, making possible an efficient manipulation of light for intra- and inter- species communication, camouflage, or for the enhancement of primary production. Diatoms are ubiquitous unicellular microalgae inhabiting all the aquatic environments on Earth. They developed, through tens of millions of years of evolution, ultrastructured silica cell walls, the frustules, able to handle optical radiation through multiple diffractive, refractive, and wave-guiding processes, possibly at the basis of their high photosynthetic efficiency...
March 18, 2024: Scientific Reports