Dr. Ben Larson

But not only does it have an eye, this cell also, this type of cell has a weapon.

So it's not entirely clear how they're using the eye, but people have hypothesized that it's actually using that eye to track down prey.

So it's light sensing, looking for the things that it feeds on.

And then it has a little harpoon gun.

So it's a structure, people call it a nematocyst.

So

That's also what people call the stinging cells of jellyfish.

But in this case, it's actually a subcellular structure.

So this pressurized harpoon gun in the cell that it uses to stab prey and get on a little tether and drag in and engulf.

So that's one of the craziest ones that I know of.

Absolutely.

And I think that's one of the things that's most fascinating to me about all these protists, these microbial eukaryotes, is there's an incredible amount of complex cell structure and cell behavior associated with things like predation and navigating environments.

So this gives me a great opportunity to jump in and talk about this cannibal that we mentioned here.

So

Okay.

I'll tell you about the supergiant cannibal.

So one of the cells that I study in the lab right now or that the lab studies is this single-celled organism, a ciliate, that can form these supergiant cannibal cells.

And they seem to do this under conditions where small prey items become scarce.

So what happens is they're in this growing population.

the small bacteria that most of the cells are feeding on start to become scarce.