Connect with us

The Fantastically Weird World of Photosynthetic Sea Slugs | Michael Middlebrooks | TED

Meet the fantastically colorful and astonishingly adaptable sea slugs that found a way to photosynthesize (or create energy from sunlight) like plants. Diving deep into these often overlooked creatures, invertebrate zoologist Michael Middlebrooks introduces the solar-powered slugs that lost their shells — but gained the ability to directly harness the power of the sun. If…

Published

on

Meet the fantastically colorful and astonishingly adaptable sea slugs that found a way to photosynthesize (or create energy from sunlight) like plants. Diving deep into these often overlooked creatures, invertebrate zoologist Michael Middlebrooks introduces the solar-powered slugs that lost their shells — but gained the ability to directly harness the power of the sun.

If you love watching TED Talks like this one, become a TED Member to support our mission of spreading ideas:

Follow TED!
Twitter:
Instagram:
Facebook:
LinkedIn:
TikTok:

The TED Talks channel features talks, performances and original series from the world’s leading thinkers and doers. Subscribe to our channel for videos on Technology, Entertainment and Design — plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. Visit to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.

Watch more:

TED’s videos may be used for non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons License, Attribution–Non Commercial–No Derivatives (or the CC BY – NC – ND 4.0 International) and in accordance with our TED Talks Usage Policy: . For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), please submit a Media Request at

#TED #TEDTalks #science

Continue Reading
Advertisement
43 Comments

43 Comments

  1. Thato Mofolo

    March 9, 2023 at 10:59 am

    ✌️✌️

  2. saurabh naniwadekar

    March 9, 2023 at 11:02 am

    Mindblowing animals, thank you for your research ????

  3. RV Sir

    March 9, 2023 at 11:03 am

    Great

    from Bharat

  4. Nidup Jamtsho

    March 9, 2023 at 11:10 am

    Amazing!!!

  5. djayjp

    March 9, 2023 at 11:17 am

    Believe it or not: research indicates that even humans photosynthesize following ingestion of chlorophyll by eating greens as the body is partly transparent to light, but the energy produced is negligible.

  6. Ava Meza

    March 9, 2023 at 11:17 am

    this is incredible, new creature to look into! I always knew slugs were amazing creatures

  7. Norma Lish

    March 9, 2023 at 11:22 am

    NERD! I love you. Never change.

  8. MSWC Productions

    March 9, 2023 at 11:53 am

    My pet duck chase me in kitchen fast!!!

  9. vasanth r

    March 9, 2023 at 12:03 pm

    Absolutely fascinating!

  10. Lars Larsen

    March 9, 2023 at 12:09 pm

    There is no evidence they’re photosynthetic. This guy is just lying to you for clout.

    • emmanuel boakye

      March 9, 2023 at 1:27 pm

      chloroplast = photosynthasis?

  11. TT Endjinn

    March 9, 2023 at 12:57 pm

    Fascinating and a great presentation. Always gives me a buzz seeing someone who is so obviously excited by their field.

  12. SwedenTomasSmile

    March 9, 2023 at 1:00 pm

    Interesting!

  13. Nesib Memmedrzayev

    March 9, 2023 at 1:11 pm

    I like this video

  14. onjoFilms

    March 9, 2023 at 1:17 pm

    Maybe they’re blue, because that is the majority of light that reaches them.

  15. emmanuel boakye

    March 9, 2023 at 1:23 pm

    I guess thier easy to study cause thier slow

  16. Rhett Steed

    March 9, 2023 at 1:28 pm

    that is So cool

  17. Максим Янсон

    March 9, 2023 at 2:58 pm

    Thanks for this video. Nice to know about such amazing animals. I hope in the future we can realize how they do it.

  18. Ligia Sommers

    March 9, 2023 at 3:02 pm

    ????????????????????????????????????????????????????✨????????

  19. lee morrison

    March 9, 2023 at 4:12 pm

    That means we can take the good parts of something, add it to our biological selfs to cure illnesses or protect from illnesses. Amazing, the elite will live forever one day. Using the words thieves is a bit strong, there adapting, surviving there surroundings, no wonder we got out of there ????❤

  20. Happy Home

    March 9, 2023 at 4:26 pm

    Odd question: is the human skin transparent enough such that green people could photosynthesize ? Fascinating topic.

  21. Matthijs Meester

    March 9, 2023 at 4:41 pm

    So interesting

  22. HenryManson

    March 9, 2023 at 5:44 pm

    Fascinating!
    And the Fact that they figured out how to make Chlorophyll is astonishing!

  23. yixuan_yx

    March 9, 2023 at 8:58 pm

    Interesting!

  24. Travis Ross

    March 9, 2023 at 11:04 pm

    Go you slug guy!

  25. Patrick McPheron

    March 9, 2023 at 11:26 pm

    I need a part 2 and part 3 and 4 ASAP!

  26. Luciana Munhoz

    March 10, 2023 at 1:39 am

    Really amazing !

  27. AI Joe: Artificial Intelligence for everyone.

    March 10, 2023 at 3:36 am

    I did not know that was possible. A new twist on life’s adaptability.

  28. Alice Walker

    March 10, 2023 at 9:35 am

    I had no idea that there were any animals that could photosynthesise. This is a very cool topic!

  29. SebEyes

    March 10, 2023 at 9:37 am

    Very interesting ! I won’t see Sea slugs the same now…

  30. Michelle Veronica

    March 10, 2023 at 10:12 am

    I’m always fascinated with marine invertebrates but didn’t even think why some have blue color when it’s so rare for land vertibrates.

  31. Cera Robert

    March 10, 2023 at 11:52 am

    Wonderful explanation.

  32. Ty Gibson

    March 10, 2023 at 5:21 pm

    That Emerald Sea Slug

  33. Kamlesh Gasva

    March 10, 2023 at 9:47 pm

    Now I also want to photosynthesize ????

  34. Miriam Rosemary

    March 11, 2023 at 4:14 am

    This was awesome!!! I’ve always liked watching garden snails and slugs, but this is on a whole other level. Absolutely gorgeous, and it really blurs the line between what separates plants from animals. Fascinating.

  35. Leila Luginbill

    March 11, 2023 at 11:06 am

    Has anyone tried injecting chloroplasts into a vertebrate animal cell? Inquiring minds need to know…I could increase my sun time and reduce the need for ingesting food.????

  36. Invox

    March 11, 2023 at 7:16 pm

    A Ted with more questions than answers… Loved it.

  37. Sager Binsal

    March 12, 2023 at 6:57 am

    7:39 Slugterra ????

  38. Agui Moroni

    March 12, 2023 at 6:28 pm

    The best tedTalk I have heard so far. Very interesting!!

  39. Eytan Voss

    March 13, 2023 at 10:19 am

    Thank you, such an interesting angle! Does anybody know of any biomimicry application for human or general to capture CO2?

  40. Superkoopatrooper

    March 13, 2023 at 9:22 pm

    I thought aphids were the only animals capable of photosynthesis, this is really cool.

  41. Guff

    March 14, 2023 at 2:28 am

    “You are what you eat” ????

  42. Avi Richar

    March 14, 2023 at 12:37 pm

    i mean while the scifi implications are perhaps sciency fantasy more than anything with the rigorous potential to be questioned into actual problem-solvable reality, this does raise the interesting possibility for a really practical reason behind the idea that any ETs might most often be in the category of “little green men” …if you can cut out most (to all) of the food chain entirely and go straight to living off of starlight, space travel itself becomes an entirely different animal

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Bloomberg Technology

Exploring AI Investment Opportunities Beyond Mega-Cap Tech Giants

Lori Keith, Parnassus Investments portfolio manager and senior analyst, says megacaps are not the only way to play the AI boom. She shares where she sees opportunities in mid-caps — from the companies powering the buildout to those using AI to boost productivity. She joins Ed Ludlow on “Bloomberg Tech.” ——– Like this video? Subscribe…

Published

on

Lori Keith, Parnassus Investments portfolio manager and senior analyst, says megacaps are not the only way to play the AI boom. She shares where she sees opportunities in mid-caps — from the companies powering the buildout to those using AI to boost productivity. She joins Ed Ludlow on “Bloomberg Tech.”
——–
Like this video? Subscribe to Bloomberg Technology on YouTube:

 
Watch the latest full episodes of “Bloomberg Technology” with Caroline Hyde and Ed Ludlow here:

 
Get the latest in tech from Silicon Valley and around the world here:

Connect with us on…
X:
Facebook:
Instagram:
 
Follow Ed Ludlow on X here:
Follow Caroline Hyde on X here:
 
Listen to the daily Bloomberg Technology podcast here:

 
More from Bloomberg Business
Connect with us on…
X:
Facebook:
Instagram:
LinkedIn:
TikTok:

Continue Reading

People & Blogs

Your watch might be your new doctor’s assistant #TEDTalks

Genome researcher Michael Snyder believes health wearables, such as smart watches and glucose monitors, can transform medicine, shifting from reactive to predictive. (In fact, he’s such a big fan of these devices that he wears eight of them every single day.) From spotting an illness days before symptoms appear to helping prevent the onset of…

Published

on

Genome researcher Michael Snyder believes health wearables, such as smart watches and glucose monitors, can transform medicine, shifting from reactive to predictive. (In fact, he’s such a big fan of these devices that he wears eight of them every single day.) From spotting an illness days before symptoms appear to helping prevent the onset of diabetes, learn why the future of health care may be on your wrist.

Continue Reading

Science & Technology

The VC Backing the American Dream with Manan Mehta, Unshackled Ventures

Immigrant founders have built some of the world’s most valuable companies, but many still face barriers that make it harder to get a startup off the ground. Visa restrictions, limited access to friends-and-family capital, shallow networks, and a venture industry built around pattern matching can keep promising founders from getting funded before they have a…

Published

on

Immigrant founders have built some of the world’s most valuable companies, but many still face barriers that make it harder to get a startup off the ground. Visa restrictions, limited access to friends-and-family capital, shallow networks, and a venture industry built around pattern matching can keep promising founders from getting funded before they have a chance to prove themselves.

In this episode of Build Mode () , host Isabelle Johannesen sits down with Manan Mehta, co-founder and managing partner of Unshackled Ventures, () to talk about why he believes immigrant founders represent one of venture capital’s biggest overlooked opportunities. Manan breaks down how Unshackled built an investment model designed to help founders navigate immigration barriers, why traditional VC pattern matching causes investors to miss potential outliers, and how his team evaluates founders at day zero—often before they have a product, customers, or traction. He also explains why the structural gaps that make some founders harder to fund may be exactly where investors should be looking for outsized returns.

They get into:

The four structural barriers immigrant founders face when starting companies in the U.S.

How Unshackled Ventures helps founders navigate visas while building their startups

Why VC’s reliance on pattern matching can cause investors to miss outlier founders

How Manan evaluates founders before they have a product, customers, or traction

The IQ, AQ, EQ, and SQ framework Unshackled uses to evaluate founder potential

Why resilience, lived experience, and a founder’s relationship to the problem can matter more than a polished pitch

Why structural gaps can create some of the biggest opportunities for investors

How founders without traditional networks can find alternative paths to early capital

Why founders should understand their personal “why” instead of trying to fit the traditional VC mold

Subscribe to Build Mode on Apple Podcasts () , Spotify () , or wherever you like to listen () . And watch the full videos on YouTube () . New episodes of Build Mode () drop every Thursday.

Chapters:

00:00 – Why VCs Miss Outlier Founders

01:45 – Why Manan Mehta Founded Unshackled Ventures

04:15 – The Problem With VC Pattern Matching

06:15 – The Friends-and-Family Gap for Immigrant Founders

08:18 – How Unshackled Helps Founders Navigate Visas

10:40 – Building a Startup in Today’s Immigration Environment

12:19 – Solving One of Unshackled’s Hardest Immigration Cases

14:39 – What the U.S. Stands to Lose16:59 – Raising Unshackled’s First Venture Funds

19:40 – Can You Start a Company on an H-1B Visa?

22:13 – How to Evaluate a Founder at Day Zero

28:30 – Measuring IQ, AQ, EQ, and SQ

30:26 – How Fear Drives VC Pattern Matching

33:01 – Why Structural Gaps Create Outlier Opportunities

35:14 – Finding Startup Capital Outside Traditional VC

38:09 – Why Founders Need to Understand Their “Why”

Hosted by Isabelle Johannesen. Produced and edited by Maggie Nye. Audience development led by Morgan Little. Special thanks to the Foundry and Cheddar video teams.

Continue Reading

Trending