The Challenge of Siphonous Green Algae

By Celia Smith, Peter Vroom

One imagines that an organism composed of one big cell would prove quite fragile. Yet these single-celled marine plants are surprisingly robust

Biology

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November-December 2001

Volume 89, Number 6
Page 524

DOI: 10.1511/2001.40.524

Imagine for a moment that an alien organism is after you. And suppose further that your otherworldly adversary defies being killed: You slash at it with a knife only to find that its severed limbs stop oozing blood and quickly regenerate. You chop it into pieces, but each tiny sliver regrows into a complete organism.

Photographs courtesy of Teena Michael.

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