2 upvotes, 3 direct replies (showing 3)
View submission: Ask Anything Wednesday - Biology, Chemistry, Neuroscience, Medicine, Psychology
If microbes could somehow see, would they be able to see atoms? Or is the ratio of sizes still too large between microbes and atoms for visual sensors to detect? (a single cell might have trillions of atoms)
Maybe there's too few photons coming off each atom?
A physicist and a biologist might have to team up for this question..
Comment by Hard-To_Read at 17/01/2024 at 18:31 UTC
4 upvotes, 2 direct replies
To "see" like a human, you need a human sized eyeball and a relatively large optical processing center. Microbes can't fit these structures into a prokaryotic cell.
Comment by thenaterator at 18/01/2024 at 04:53 UTC*
2 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Sensory systems biologist here.
Microbes can see! At least, they can sense light and respond to it.
They almost certainly cannot distinguish single atoms, though, even if they had the means to distinguish objects in complex ways. The size of an atom is many times smaller than the wavelengths associated with visible light, so single adjacent atoms cant really scatter visible light in the way larger structures of them can.
Now, if you're asking "fine, but what would it *be like* to see like a microbe?" You may actually be asking a philosophical question[1].
1: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Is_It_Like_to_Be_a_Bat%3F
Comment by Mockingjay40 at 18/01/2024 at 21:26 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Atoms are too small. Even microbes are MUCH larger than them. Could they maybe see things like carbohydrates? Perhaps. Individual atoms I doubt though. This is technically impossible though, a small bacteria by definition doesn’t have organelles, there’s no way to allow for it to even come close to attaining anything close to sight as we think of it. Senses maybe but the classical idea of sight no