have you ever raised Chlorella? As a quiet and healing pet (let's say), farmed Chlorella is loved by many people. In the process of raising Chlorella, it is sometimes observed that the algae balls originally sunk at the bottom of the water float near the surface of the water. Why?

recently, a paper devoted to this problem has been published in the journal Current Biology (unexpectedly, it can be published in Current Biology_ (: posts) ∠). The answer is actually the same as many people think: oxygen bubbles produced by photosynthesis. Under light, Chlorella carries out photosynthesis, resulting in oxygen bubbles attached to the surface of the algae ball, which increases buoyancy.

of course, the author of this paper has carried out some experimental verification after all. They put Chlorella into a measuring cylinder and added DCMU, a photosynthesis inhibitor, to the water. This time, Chlorella, which is inhibited by photosynthesis, will not float.

(energetic control group and unlovable experimental group)

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the experiment also found that the floating rate of Chlorella was affected by internal circadian rhythm. To put it more specifically, if Chlorella is moved from the dark to the light at dawn, it will photosynthesize faster and surface faster, while if the light begins at noon, it will float more slowly. In the natural environment, floating in the morning should help Chlorella aeruginosa better receive light and carry out photosynthesis, the authors say.

what do you say in this paper? it's probably how scientists feel about keeping pets. ∠) _

pictures from: Dora Cano-Ramirez and Antony Dodd, University of Bristol

related report: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/24/science/marimo-floating-algae-balls.html

original paper: https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(18)30926-6

anyway, Chlorella is really cute You can learn more about it through the article on the species calendar → "do you raise wool?" "I'll raise a ball!"