Thesis-PDF - IAP/TU Wien

Figure 4.1: A group of Euglena organisms. The naked human eye can see
them only as tiny green dots or as a greenish coloring of the water. Scale
bar is 50 µm. Image adapted from [83].
(its protective hull, the pellicle, is inside the plasmalemma) and is a very active
swimmer using its whip-like flagellum, an ability rather associated with animals.
This lets guess the unusual cross-functionality regarding metabolism, organelles
and lifecycle exhibited by Euglena. All these things are marvels in their own right,
often based on functional materials produced with molecular precision and evolutionary
optimized throughout millions of years. That said, it seems like an open
invitation for nanotechnologists to explore and learn from this organisms versatile
materials and structures. Long before the term "nanotechnology" was born,
this intuitive understanding of how delicately crafted nature’s creatures are was
expressed by german philosopher Schopenhauer (1788-1860) with the following:
Every short-witted boy can tread down a beetle, but all professors in
the world cannot build one. 3
Maybe we can build beetles one day, but we should start out a little bit smaller,
by studying the components that make these beautiful creatures possible.
3 The german original citation reads: "Jeder dumme Junge kann einen Käfer zertreten. Aber
alle Professoren der Welt können keinen herstellen."
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